I installed Debian 13.2 on a modest Packard Bell desktop using the default
locale en_US and a QWERTY keyboard. All went well. However the final user
needs a "french" machine, so I ran dpkg-reconfigure locale and specified fr_FR
.
All the applications changed to french, and I can now use a french AZERTY
keyboard, including with ssh. I can type an ssh password using the AZERTY
keyboard.
But lightdm does not change. The initial login to the greeter still requires a
QWERTY, and command localectl status reports:
root@carros ~ localectl status
System Locale: LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8
VC Keymap: (unset)
X11 Layout: us
X11 Model: pc105
This looks like a bug in dpkg-reconfigure. My attempt to get locatectl to
repair the damage failed:
root@carros ~ localectl set-x11-keymap fr
Failed to set keymap: Access denied
I found a fix. Following advice from 2014 at
https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/130858/change-the-keyboard-layout-in-lightdm
I defined file /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-keyboard.conf :
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "keyboard"
MatchIsKeyboard "yes"
Option "XkbLayout" "fr"
Option "XkbVariant" "nodeadkeys"
EndSection
I then logged out and in again and now the greeter works correctly with the
AZERTY keyboard, but localectl status still shows "X11 layout: us".
Although I have a fix, I still think this looks like a bug in dpkg-reconfigure.
Roger
