xterm changed layout

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

Not sure this is te correct forum but…

A couple of days ago when i booted my Lenovo X270 Thinkpad I noticed many of the keys had changed (#now sift-3 rater than the laelled key extree right). Also my attemt to disable capslock no longer worked.

using yast2 I said I had an English UK keyboard and some stuff returned to @normal@ but it did not survive a rebot.

I am sure i never fiddled with that area; I have been regulatly running zypper up

I do not run gnome or kde, but fvwm with xterm and emacs mainly. No desktop in the common meaning.

Any suggestions as how to recover a keyboard that corresponds to the labels on the keys?

#2

Running just a WM and not a full Desktop,
I’d expect that your system settings would be the only place to set language and locale.

Not knowing exactly what you did in YaST,
Here is the specific documentation that should apply to your situation

https://doc.opensuse.org/documentation/leap/archive/42.2/startup/html/book.opensuse.startup/cha.y2.lang.html#sec.y2.lang.primsec

Just out of curiosity, just doublechecking that you know that you are supposed to use the Alternatives sub-system (command update-alternatives) to set your WM as well as selecting fvwm2 if necessary from the logon screen?

HTH,
TSU

#3

I cannot see how any of this relates. I have been running this scheme for decades and it suddenly changed the keyboard to US (I think). The two questions are why did it happen and how to restore what was the case.
The logon screen is standard xdm and all I need are my user name and my password.

#4

I don’t know the answer.

I use “xterm” a lot, but I have not noticed any problems. But maybe I wouldn’t notice because I use a US keyboard anyway.

Have you check the Yast settings:

Yast → System → Language

#5

Yes I checked and it was EnglishUK. I think the culprit might be iceWM which seems to have been installed/updated recently and changed alternatives/default-xsession.desktop but we may see when I reboot tomorrow

#6

Just booted this computer and the provem persists.

owever There is a little more information;

1: I used yast to configure the keyboard as UK. The first artempt changed nothing. – still got \ for # key. Tried again with yast2 but this time it changed it.

2: Now when Ido things I get messages ****
svn: warning: cannot set LC_CTYPE locale
svn: warning: environment variable LC_CTYPE is en_US.UTF-8,LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
svn: warning: please check that your locale name is correct
Updating ‘.’:

I have not knowing changed anything to do with locales. Where should I find the configuration and what should it say?

#7

You can check your “.bashrc” and “.profile”.

If you are not setting those variables there, then it is probably being done in “/etc/bash.bashrc” and related files.

If you can find a good setting, you can put that in your own “.bashrc”.

#8

Just booted this computer and the provem persists.

owever There is a little more information;

1: I used yast to configure the keyboard as UK. The first artempt changed nothing. – still got \ for # key. Tried again with yast2 but this time it changed it.

2: Now when Ido things I get messages ****
svn: warning: cannot set LC_CTYPE locale
svn: warning: environment variable LC_CTYPE is en_US.UTF-8,LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
svn: warning: please check that your locale name is correct
Updating ‘.’:

I have not knowing changed anything to do with locales. Where should I find the configuration and what should it say?

#9

I do not use bash normally, always csh but I looked at those files and did not see any reference to locales.
Not sure what a good setting is – I just want the keys on the keyboard to correspond to the character on the screen.

#10

I actually use “csh”, but most people use bash.

For “csh”, the files are “.cshrc” and “.login” in your home directory. And the system-wide files are “/etc/csh.cshrc” and “/etc/csh.login”. The system-wide shell startup files also source some files from “/etc/profile.d”. Possibly “/etc/profile.d/lang.csh” is the one causing problems for you.

#11
  • Check the contents of “/etc/locale.conf” – it should be something like this, with the correct value for your location on this planet:

 > cat /etc/locale.conf 
LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
 >
  • At a CLI prompt, type “locale” – the following is what I need for my location on this planet:

 > locale
LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="de_DE.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=
 >
  • Check that, “/etc/sysconfig/language” doesn’t contain anything which ain’t needed, necessary or, wanted …

 > grep -iE 'RC_|LC_' /etc/sysconfig/language 
# Local users will get RC_LANG as their default language, i.e. the
# environment variable $LANG . $LANG is the default of all $LC_*-variables,
# as long as $LC_ALL is not set, which overrides all $LC_-variables.
RC_LANG=""
RC_LC_ALL=""
RC_LC_MESSAGES=""
RC_LC_CTYPE=""
RC_LC_COLLATE=""
RC_LC_TIME=""
RC_LC_NUMERIC=""
RC_LC_MONETARY=""
RC_LC_PAPER=""
# Value "ctype" means that root uses just LC_CTYPE. 
 >
  • You can check that YaST is using a language appropriate for your location – “/etc/sysconfig/yast2”:

## Type:        string
## Default:     ""
#
# List of installed language supports, use by YaST2
#
INSTALLED_LANGUAGES="de_DE"
#12

@jpff:

Not really relevant but, have you checked the contents of “/etc/vconsole.conf”?For this part of the planet and, because of a 140 dpi monitor – the font used isn’t the standard openSUSE one – it looks like this:

 > cat /etc/vconsole.conf 
KEYMAP=de-latin1-nodeadkeys
FONT=suse12x22.psfu
FONT_MAP=
FONT_UNIMAP=
 >
#13

If you suspect a csh setting is the culprit,
Instead of inspecting all the files, you can simply do a “force re-install” to re-install default files (is different than a regular install which doesn’t over-write existing configuration files).
Or, maybe this is actually what caused your problem… Perhaps an update or system recovery installed default files which might contain US keyboard settings.

In any case,
If you’re installed on BTRFS, you can simply roll back to before you noticed problems, and that should fix your problem if the problem is in your root partition (It’s likely you will then have to do a system update to re-install patches and other updates). If the problem is in a User file, ie in /home a rollback won’t change anything.

TSU

#14

The current state is no complaints about locale but after every reboot the keyboard changes to what looks like US ormn. If I run (as root) “yast2 keyboard” and clibk on the already selete English(IUK) thenthe test give # for key on extreme right up 3 lines up sp I accept and then it is OK until the next boot.

I suppose I csn live with this but it is irritating.

#15

Then, the problem you’re experiencing is the “KEYMAP=” parameter of ‘/etc/vconsole.conf’ …

  • “KEYMAP= defaults to “us” if not set.
    ” – the man page …

If the parameter “KEYMAP=” is set to the value “gb” – this issue should be resolved …
[HR][/HR]Using the command “localectl list-keymaps”, the following keymaps are listed for keyboards as used by the population of the West European Islands:


gb
gb-colemak
gb-dvorak
gb-dvorakukp
gb-extd
gb-intl
gb-mac
gb-mac_intl

The “gb-extd” keymap, is the one to choose if you have a “UK Extended” keyboard …

#16

[QUOTE=dcurtisfra;2974498]Then, the problem you’re experiencing is the “KEYMAP=” parameter of ‘/etc/vconsole.conf’ …

  • “KEYMAP= defaults to “us” if not set.
    ” – the man page …

If the parameter “KEYMAP=” is set to the value “gb” – this issue should be resolved …
[HR][/HR]Using the command “localectl list-keymaps”, the following keymaps are listed for keyboards as used by the population of the West European Islands:/QUOTE
Well /etc/vcondole.con says


KEYMAP=uk
FONT=eurlatgr.psfu
FONT_MAP=
FONT_UNIMAP=

Are you saying this should be gb rather than uk?

Still begs the question as who changed it

#17

PS The /etc/vconsole file is identical to that on one of the other Leap15.2 computers which works correctly so I doubt this the issue.

#18

Yes.

  • Take a look in /usr/share/kbd/keymaps/xkb/ and
  • Examine “localectl list-keymaps” …

There is a “uk” keymap mentioned by “localectl list-keymaps” but, no matching file in /usr/share/kbd/keymaps/xkb/ …

  • Meaning, within localectl “uk” is an alias for “gb” …

I took a look on the Leap 15.1 and Leap 15.0 DVDs – there ain’t no “uk” keymap file in /usr/share/kbd/keymaps/xkb/ …
[HR][/HR]You may care to take a look at this ArchLinux thread: <https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=130360>.

  • “uk” is possibly OK for the VTs …
  • “gb” is what X11 needs …
#19

Still no solution. What does “yast2 keyboard” modify? If I knew that I might be able to force it without all the excess clicking.

I tried a diff on /etc on two Leap15.2 computers (one working OK and the other with this oddity) but could not see any thing like enlightenment.

#20

The settings are written to /etc/sysconfig/keyboard.

<https://doc.opensuse.org/documentation/leap/startup/html/book-opensuse-startup/cha-yast-hw.html#sec-yast-hw-keym>.

  • But, I suspect that, it also writes to ‘/etc/vconsole.conf’ …