Bug 5012

I'm using X v6.8.2 from CVS with KDE on SuSE 10.0. I have added the Greek
keyboard with the KDE Keyboard Tool. When changing to Greek, it gives an error.

This is the console output:

edwin@pc:~>setxkbmap -v -v -v -model pc104 -layout gr -variant basic
Setting verbose level to 8
locale is C
Warning! Multiple definitions of keyboard model
         Using command line, ignoring X server
Warning! Multiple definitions of keyboard layout
         Using command line, ignoring X server
Warning! Multiple definitions of layout variant
         Using command line, ignoring X server
Applied rules from xfree86:
model:      pc104
layout:     gr
variant:    basic
options:    grp:alt_shift_toggle
Trying to build keymap using the following components:
keycodes:   xfree86+aliases(qwerty)
types:      complete
compat:     complete
symbols:   
pc/pc(pc104)+pc/gr(basic)+group(alt_shift_toggle)+group(alt_shift_toggle)
geometry:   pc(pc104)
Error loading new keyboard description

The greek layout file is present in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb/symbols/pc. These are
the first lines:
// $XdotOrg$
// $XKeyboardConfig: xkbdesc/symbols/gr,v 1.6 2005/01/21 23:16:05 svu Exp $
// $XFree86: xc/programs/xkbcomp/symbols/pc/el,v 1.2 2002/11/15 02:26:41 dawes Exp $

Could try setxkbmap <your params> -print | xkbcomp -w 10 - -xkb gr.xkb and
attach gr.xkb? 

Created attachment 3782 [details]
Output of setxkbmap

Output of setxkbmap -model pc104 -layout gr -variant basic   -print | xkbcomp
-w 10 - -xkb > gr.xkb 2>&1

  I had the same problem with the latest version of xorg (xorg 7.0.0rc2). Well
there seems to be a problem with the name of the correct file in symbol/pc.
There is a symbol/pc/gr but no symbol/pc/el in the /usr/share/X11/xkb folder. A
simple symbolic link of el to gr solves the problem. I think it's about time all
files that refer to greek keyboard/language to be renamed to *el* and not *gr*.
I hope that helps!

xorg original XKB DB is not actively supported these days (it is really
deprecated). People tend to use xkeyboard-config which does not have directory
symbols/pc at all - everything is in symbols.

(In reply to comment #4)
>   I had the same problem with the latest version of xorg (xorg 7.0.0rc2). Well
> there seems to be a problem with the name of the correct file in symbol/pc.
> There is a symbol/pc/gr but no symbol/pc/el in the /usr/share/X11/xkb folder. A
> simple symbolic link of el to gr solves the problem. I think it's about time all
> files that refer to greek keyboard/language to be renamed to *el* and not *gr*.
> I hope that helps!

Indeed the issue here is that for Greek, we use the unconventional way to name
the keyboard layout, "el" instead of the country code, "gr".
Therefore, Edwin, try "el".

Just for the record, the change from "gr" to "el" took place in 2001 after a
discussion at a local greek mailing list. Recently there have been some bugs
related to this, where "gr" was used.

Edwin, please report if "el" works for you.

Well, it works now, but I'm not sure how I fixed it :-)

First, I symlinked el to gr in /usr/src/xc/programs/xkbcomp/symbols/pc and
restarted X, but that did not have any result. Then I maked it again (I got X
from CVS), also without result.
Then I symlinked el to gr in /opt/Xorg-6.8.2/lib/X11/xkb/symbols/pc, the
compiled version. At first, it didn't work. I removed the symlink and suddenly
it worked. Now it works without any symlinks....

But I also found a file 'el' in ..../symbols, both in the source as in the
compiled version.

And what happens if I update the CVS and make it again?

Unlike I reported earlier, that it worked without ANY symlink (which it did), it
suddenly didn't work again.

I symlinked el to gr in /opt/Xorg-6.8.2/lib/X11/xkb/symbols/pc and have it
working again.

ok, I think it is reasonable to consider it fixed, since it is working for you
now? ;)

Sergey, in what weird thought, you closed this bug? the guy clearly states that
he had to SYMLINK to get it work, whereas before he didn't have to.

Simo, I don't know if the correct is "gr" and not "us" I know that "gr" also
doesn't work, and that "el" is being known to everyone as the greek for the last
5 years and more for sure.

so "gr" doesn't work, and "el" doesn't work either without that SYMLINK

I think what happend here is that some thought write to break "el" and move to
GR but they forgot some parts and now nothing works without the symlink

this is super big (as the advice, go fix el to gr doesn't work), I can reproduce
this xorg7

> Sergey, in what weird thought, you closed this bug? the guy clearly states that
> he had to SYMLINK to get it work, whereas before he didn't have to.
OK, sorry, I did not express myself clear. The solution is NOT creating symlink.
The solutions is using --enable-compat-rules. In this case, the compatibility
rule mapping 'el' to 'gr' is created. THIS is a real fix for the problem (and if
THIS way does not work - it would be a real bug).

At least that's in xkeyboard-config, where there is no symbols/pc subdirectory.

About xorg itself - its XKB configuration database is not actively maintained
and this bug is against xkeyboard-config anyway.

Does it make sense to you?

Sergey, one of initial messages shows clearly that the bug reason is not a 
lack in compat-rules.  Even with '-layout gr' XKB can't load the needed map.
The reason is that inside 'gr' file there are includes that mistakenly refers 
to 'el' map.
Probably it's my fault because the map in xkeyboard-config is correct.
I apologise for the making this bug and for the late noticing this bug-report.
But the right solution is the fix of these unfortunate errors in pc/gr file 
(in the xorg tree, of course).

> Sergey, one of initial messages shows clearly that the bug reason is not a 
> lack in compat-rules.  Even with '-layout gr' XKB can't load the needed map.
> The reason is that inside 'gr' file there are includes that mistakenly refers 
> to 'el' map.
> Probably it's my fault because the map in xkeyboard-config is correct.
That's why I closed the bug - I checked all this stuff in xkeyboard-config.

> I apologise for the making this bug and for the late noticing this bug-report.
> But the right solution is the fix of these unfortunate errors in pc/gr file 
> (in the xorg tree, of course).
Well, then should this bug be reassigned to xorg keyboard component, not
xkeyboard-config? Or should we close it and recommend upgrading to xkeyboard-config?

> Well, then should this bug be reassigned to xorg keyboard component, not
xkeyboard-config?

Certainly, yes.

> Or should we close it and recommend upgrading to xkeyboard-config?

It is a bug and it would not be good to leave it not fixed anyway.
(Unfortunately I can't fix it myself now.)

Having installed Ubuntu 5.10 (and the corresponding Xorg), I found that the
specific file is referenced as "gr", not "el".
As these files follow the country code ("gr": Greek) and not the language code
(el), the solution is to simply rename back these occurences to "gr".

The deviation from the "country code" convention brings up problems with
configuration tools that want to make the desktop to Just Work.

This might break some applications/manual-step tutorials who mention "el",
however it is a double benefit as end-users should be using the graphical tools
(that is, for end-users) to set the keyboard layouts.

For example,
http://planet.hellug.gr/misc/bra/

Therefore, could you please check that "gr" is used universally in the
configuration files to describe the Greek layout?

I've been using the attached fix (on FreeBSD/i386 with xorg 6.9.0) and it works
fine.

Created attachment 4525 [details] [review]
Fix for the bogus references in the greek keyboard symbols.

I confirm what Simos Xenitelis said earlier. There was a discussion in 2001 in
the greek i18n mailing list about this issue. The conclusion is that, since
there is no pure greek keyboard available, but only a greek language "support
layer" on top of the american keyboard, the correct way to define the layout was
by using the *language* ISO code and not the *country* code. For this reason a
request from gr to el was performed and accepted, and we please to change back
the symbol from gr to el again.

So what's the deal here...   Should it be el as it is now, or should it really
be gr?  I've got a bug report in Fedora bugzilla about greek not working and
want to know wether we should apply the patch above, or punt it to GNOME
or whatever.

Right now I'm inclined to apply the patch since it is not working for people
as-is.

Please clarify.

> Right now I'm inclined to apply the patch since it is not working for people
> as-is.
The patch seems to be ok for xkbdata. While in xkeyboard-config, where everyting
is 'gr' (not 'el'), this is not an issue. Regarding the global 'gr' vs 'el'
issue - it is a separate story, and for xkeyboard-config actually not really a
subject for discussion, since we are trying hard to keep country-based layouts only.
So, I'd say this bug should be either redirected to xkbdata or closed:)

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