On Sat 20 Dec 2025 at 19:31:19 (+0100), Roger Price wrote: > On Sat, 20 Dec 2025, didier gaumet wrote: > > > it would probably be more useful to consult the adequate paragraph of the > > Debian Reference Manual on the subject :-) > > https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-reference/ch08.en.html#_the_keyboard_input_for_linux_console_and_x_window > > Interesting and useful, but doesn't mention the lightdm greeter. Roger
So I'm guessing that you searched for terms like: keyboard layout lightdm and came across the stackexchange page mentioned in your OP. The problem is that you've now configured your keyboard and locale using the Archlinux model and not Debian's (or as well as Debian's). It makes me wonder what your relationship with "the final user" is, and whether you, or they, are expected to support this "french" machine in the future. The reference given above by didier doesn't mention lightdm because it doesn't need to. ยง8.2.1 explains how to configure Debian's keyboard for the VCs and X across the whole system, not just for any particular application. In Debian, dpkg-reconfigure sets the keyboard, console, and locale with files (sometimes symlinks) in /etc/default/, and note that dpkg-reconfigure locales doesn't set the keyboard layout because there's no necessity for the locale and keyboard layout to correspond to each other. Your "fix" uses /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/, which is typically empty on Debian. You've now got keyboard settings in two locations that contradict each other, which could lead to potential problems in the future. AIUI, I think your "Access denied" error is Debian policy, allowing localectl only to read the keyboard layout, not set it, avoiding just this sort of contradiction. Cheers, David.
