Tails

#2 Updated by intrigeri 2014-09-20 16:06:49

> I’m closing that one, because this is not Tails specific but related to Debian.
> You should better report such issue to Debian directly.

Well, no. This is about design decisions, not a mere bug. So, better discuss it directly with GNOME people, than bother the Debian GNOME team with it. Likely they’ll argue that this is a very rare operation to do in 99% of the use cases, so I don’t find it crazy that their UI is not optimized toward it.

#3 Updated by snova 2014-09-21 00:04:36

Right, it’s rare for 99% of use cases of Debian, but not rare for Tails, since it has to be done on every boot (for some users). I don’t care about “Debian”, I just use “Tails”. More specifically, I don’t care how hard it is for other Debian users to do this, as long as Tails provides some easy way. Maybe there’s a way to bring up that dialog with some script (or even a small binary)? Maybe there is already a command that brings it up, I just don’t know it. Maybe GNOME people can suggest something - ask them. Try to actually find a solution, rather than just passing the buck.

#4 Updated by sajolida 2014-09-21 01:28:31

Note that the recommended way of changing the keyboard layout is from
Tails Greeter. See
https://tails.boum.org/doc/first_steps/startup_options#index2h1. This is
presented to you every time you start Tails and changing the default is
two clicks away.

So, yes I still consider than changing the keyboard layout from inside
Tails is a rare use case and I’m happy with the default GNOME interface
which is also adapted to rare cases.

#5 Updated by snova 2014-09-22 10:36:15

Thanks, I did not realise it was possible to add a keyboard layout from the greeter. I just ignored it, because I assumed it was only to change the language of the UI.

Through this I found that the regional settings panel can be accessed by running

gnome-control-center region

A simple shortcut to that command would be very helpful to those who either haven’t discovered the greeter setting or realised they need another layout once logged in. That’s exactly what I meant by “Maybe there is already a command that brings it up, I just don’t know it.”

#6 Updated by intrigeri 2014-09-22 14:07:41

> A simple shortcut to that command would be very helpful to those who either haven’t discovered the greeter setting or realised they need another layout once logged in.

This is documented, but it’s indeed currently hard to see on the bottom of the Greeter screen… which will be fixed by Feature #5464. So, I don’t think we need to invest time into temporary workarounds.