Comment 13 for bug 297428

On Wed, Mar 18, 2009 at 10:40:35PM -0700, <email address hidden> wrote:
> It used to be that /etc/X11/xkb/base.xml was used as a config file for keyboard
> layouts. However, now this file is ignored and there is no way to do this
> configuration. Further, the documentation in xkb-data/README.Debian is
> outdated and describes the old method.

The documentation bit is clearly not an upstream issue.

> instead it uses /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/evdev.xml. It took me some time to
> find out, so I'd like the information in the readme updated. My other guess is
> that the information is correct, but evdev.xml should be a symlink to base.xml,
> since its pretty much the same (and /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/evdev.lst should
> point to /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/base.lst).

No, they were split for a reason. If you look, evdev specifies the evdev
keycode set, whereas base specifies the xfree86 keycode set. You use the
evdev ruleset with the evdev driver, and the base/xorg ruleset with the
kbd driver, or anything that sends AT scancodes.

I'm fairly sure this move was well documented.

> I examined the differences in custom layouts between hardy and intrepid once
> more and in my opinion there's a regression because intrepid has no real
> configuration file anymore (evdev.xml is the configuration file, but it will be
> overwritten with every update).

Not an upstream issue.

> My conclusion: The actual behavior (overwriting evdev.xml) is not good.

As above.

> Secondly, the Readme is wrong as it names the wrong configuration file, and
> that the new file is not really a configuration file because it will be
> overwritten in the update process.

As above.

-> INVALID