Change Keyboard Layout permanently

[junicast]

Hi,

I know there are several threads regarding keyboard layout but none answers my question.
I'm running pfSense 2.4.4p3 on two Xeon Server with CARP/HA.
During Installation I changed German keyboard layout but it doesn't seem to affect the installation. It's still US American layout. Weird, right?
I changed the default behaviour of the system to ask for a password for people who connect to the console directly.
Having some kbdcontrol in .profile won't help me since the Administrator needs to type in the password which - of course - contains special characters and the .profile is loaded after successful login.
Our Admins all are German so they have absolutely no clue where to reach { or * or + or similar on the keyboard.
Is there an official way to switch the layout permanently? The only other option I see is to get rid of special characters in the password.

Thank you

[kiokoman]

did you try this perhaps?
https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/using-localization.html

specifically this for the file /etc/csh.login

22.2.1.2. Shell Startup File Method

However, the name of the configuration file and the syntax used differs for the csh shell. These are the equivalent settings for ~/.csh.login, /etc/csh.login, or /usr/share/skel/dot.login:

setenv LANG de_DE.ISO8859-1
setenv MM_CHARSET ISO-8859-1

[junicast]

I will give it a shot, thank you.

[junicast]

@kiokoman
Sadly nothing I tried worked. I can change the keyboard map after login manuallyl by running kbdmap or kbdcontrol but I can't find a way to make this permanent (reboot/upgrade).
This is a bug I found but I can't find any help in there, too:
https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/807

[kiokoman]

how do you connect to pfsense?
i have
setenv LANG it_IT.ISO8859-1
setenv MM_CHARSET ISO-8859-1
on my machine inside csh.login and it's working for me, but i connect via ssh with putty

[junicast]

@kiokoman
It's not about ssh connections. They work fine out of the box for me.
My concern is console logins for people who need access to the machine via keyboard/video/mouse in cases of emergency for example.

[stephenw10]

It you can set it manually you can just have that command run at boot everytime:
https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/development/executing-commands-at-boot-time.html

Steve

[junicast]

I tried the shellcmd option but keyboard layout still is qwerty.
This is how I changed the configuration:

<pfsense>
        <shellcmd>/usr/sbin/kbdcontrol -l /usr/share/syscons/keymaps/german.iso.kbd</shellcmd>
        <version>19.1</version>
        <lastchange></lastchange>
        <system>
        ...
</pfsense>

[stephenw10]

Hmm, when you set that manually and it works do you have to do from the console on question?

If you ssh in as admin and run it the physical console remains unchanged?

Steve

[junicast]

@stephenw10 said in Change Keyboard Layout permanently:

Hmm, when you set that manually and it works do you have to do from the console on question?

yes, I have to enter the kbdcontrol command after successful login in order to change the keyboard layout to German.

If you ssh in as admin and run it the physical console remains unchanged?

Steve

I don't understand. Why should I do that?

[stephenw10]

To test whether that has to be at the console directly to change it, which I think it does.
In which case it needs somehow redirecting to run it as a shellcmd.

Steve

[junicast]

@stephenw10
I just tested it.
When I invoke kbdcontrol in an ssh session the keyboard layout on the physical console does NOT change accordingly.

[stephenw10]

Ok that's what I thought. Deeper dive into FreeBSD needed....

[junicast]

I filed a feature request since I think there should be an easy option for everyone in the GUI to change the console's keyboard layout permanently.
https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/9942