Cfxtrjtrk

I am currently using Ubuntu MATE 15.10. While setting up Ubuntu, I accidentally selected the Colemak layout when I wanted the QWERTY layout. Now, when I am entering my password for sda_crypt at startup (which I believe is my LUKS encryption key?), it types in Colemak.

I've tried changing my default layout from System Settings, but this does not affect the layout I use at sda_crypt.

I think I've mostly solved this (except the other way round, trying to escape QWERTY), on a 16.04 LTS install.

Since the prompt is after GRUB, but before the encrypted root partition is accessible, we know the layout choice is embedded in the initramfs (mini file system loaded into memory before the real root filesystem, containing everything necessary to load the real one).

The initramfs is built by initramfs-tools, which is a giant list of scripts for copying stuff into there. It looks like the specific one affecting this is /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/console_setup, which re-uses the same /etc/console-setup/cached.kmap.gz that's used (I think?) for the normal serial/tty consoles.

(I would appreciate some clarity on this if anyone has any. Running dpkg -S on that "hook" shows that it comes from the keyboard-configuration package which could be a clue.)

Anyway, the console-setup keyboard layout comes from /etc/default/keyboard, which has some variable assignments in it. To give an idea how to set this, you can figure it out from your normal xkb layout (this is the one that "System Settings" changes), by running this in a terminal:

$ setxkbmap -print



xkb_keymap {

    xkb_keycodes  { include "evdev+aliases(qwerty)" };

    xkb_types     { include "complete+numpad(mac)" };

    xkb_compat    { include "complete" };

    xkb_symbols   { include "pc+us(dvorak)+inet(evdev)+capslock(backspace)+shift(both_capslock)" };

    xkb_geometry  { include "pc(pc105)" };

};

My layout's a bit weird, but the important bits are xkb_symbols ... us(dvorak) and xkb_geometry ... pc(pc105). From this we derive the following /etc/default/keyboard variables:

$ sudo nano /etc/default/keyboard



XKBMODEL="pc105"

XKBLAYOUT="us"

XKBVARIANT="dvorak"

XKBOPTIONS=""

[...]

Once you've edited /etc/default/keyboard, you need to trick console-setup into updating. I have no idea how to do this so I just rebooted, which seemed to work. (It could actually be because I'd already done the next step before this reboot, although it didn't work this time around.)

After that, just run sudo update-initramfs -u. It will say 'Generating /boot/initrd.img-{latest-kernel-version}' and take some time while it copies a bunch of stuff into a new initramfs image. After that, your next reboot should have the layout you want in the dm-crypt prompt :).

TL;DR:

1. Edit /etc/default/keyboard based on the output from setxkbmap -print.


2. Reboot (or figure out the proper way to update console-setup).


3. Run sudo update-initramfs -u.


4. Hopefully enjoy the next reboot slightly more.

Good luck and I'm sorry to only have had the same issue now. Maybe in another 18 months someone with the same problem will let me know how it goes?

On an Ubuntu 18.04 machine, I did:

dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration

with root permissions. That regenerated the initramfs automatically, and I was able to use the new keyboard layout to type the key on the next bootup.