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Debian Lenny cf.kmap keyboard bug

I know. It is a bug, and probably a bad one. However, as I like working with TTYx, I would like to know if somebody can describe the problem, and if it will be corrected in the next Debian release.

I tried to place a bug report, but was dismissed. (probably because I have no idea of the meaning of the questions when I run it)

Canadian-French keyboard not installed in TTY at first post-install boot. Please read details.

Brand new Computer:

Brand new SATA II hard drive:
Motherboard Asrock P45XE
Bios AMI 1.50
Intel core 2 duo E8400
4 GB DDR2 800
Asus GeForce 9600 GT
Lenny 501 amd64 net-install

The first install attempt was made with the i386 version, and aborted for the reasons below:

1.- First netinstall i386 flavour of Lenny 5.01
Keyboard settings (canadian-french) correct during install, but settings lost at first reboot.
US qwerty keyboard only (no accents) in TTYx and in graphics.
French files displayed in TTY with graphic characters instead of accents.
<ctrl><alt><Fx> do not work at all.

Second install with Lenny 501 amd64 net-install was by far better. I kept it and use it now, but there is still a bug:

2.- Second netinstall with amd64 net-install:
This time, everything is ok with Gnome
<ctrl><alt><Fx> are working ok
The only problem is again the Canadian-french keyboard with TTY.
Although the kmap was perfect before the first reboot, it was gone afterwards.

To try and correct this I did:

# dpkg-reconfigure console-setup

It works, but if I switch to graphics <ctrl><alt><F7> and then back to text <ctrl><alt><Fx>
my new keyboard settings are lost...

Other attempt:

# loadkeys cf.kmap
Loadkeys can read the file cf.kmap.gz, but if I trace the command:
(# strace -o /tmp/log loadkeys cf.kmap)
It is giving a lot of 0 instead of the keycode:

For Example:
ioctl(4, KDSKBSENT, 0x60d120) = 0

So impossible to have cf.kmap...

I tried to get rid of console-setup, but it make no difference.

So, if somebody can explain me the reason of the bug, I will be grateful.

Regards
JP

Have you tried "install-keymap cf.kmap.gz" instead of loadkeys.
From "man install-keymap":

Code:

install-keymap usually takes a keymap-name as argument.  The file is passed to loadkeys for loading, so that valid values

for this argument are the same than that of arguments to loadkeys.  install-keymap expands include-like statements in that

file,  and  puts the result in /etc/console/boottime.kmap.gz, which will be loaded into the kernel at boot-time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by makuyl (Post 3554569)

Have you tried "install-keymap cf.kmap.gz" instead of loadkeys.
From "man install-keymap":

Code:

install-keymap usually takes a keymap-name as argument.  The file is passed to loadkeys for loading, so that valid values

for this argument are the same than that of arguments to loadkeys.  install-keymap expands include-like statements in that

file,  and  puts the result in /etc/console/boottime.kmap.gz, which will be loaded into the kernel at boot-time.

It makes no difference. I did try it.
See attached the log from strace -o /home/jpre/loadkeys.log.txt loadkeys cf.kmap

Apart from the curious way of research (IMO, but I am not a programmer) of the cf.kmap file, see the way the command is executed, and the result ( 0 attributed for ea. key)

Of course, I am unable to find out why...

Thank you
JP

I assume you left out the .gz from the end of previous loadkeys command.
How about "dpkg-reconfigure console-common" then?
Wish I could remember what I did to make the finnish keyboard stick, but it was a couple of years ago. Probably just copied /usr/share/keymaps/i386/qwerty/fi.kmap.gz to /etc/console/boottime.kmap.gz

Quote:

Originally Posted by makuyl (Post 3554674)

Of course I left out the .gz :)

I also analyzed the bootime.kmap file, and did a lot of things, including dpkg-reconfigure ...
But from what I was said, it is kind of a nasty bug.

I am just waiting for some of the very busy people working for us on Debian, to drop some explanation...And maybe giving hope for the next Debian release.

Regards
JP