bug#35583: Setting a GRUB keyboard-layout breaks GRUB… and Linux‽

[Tobias Geerinckx-Rice]

Guix,

Some (=none) of you might remember my X keyboard woes on #guix, 
where I was stuck without a backspace key or the key below it (\, 
|) on my ThinkPad X230T's US keyboard.  Both sent out 
‘XF86ScreenSaver’ codes instead.

I tried dozens of things, both in my system configuration and by 
running random stateful xkb commands (naughty), and managed to 
‘fix’ the bug without ever finding the cause (very naughty).

I think I was looking for it in all the wrong places.  Something 
goes wrong before the kernel even boots.  Here's my 
keyboard-layout:

(keyboard-layout
 (keyboard-layout
  "us" "dvp"                           ; 
  kaufmann.no/roland/dvorak
  #:model "thinkpad"                   ; pc104, pc105, thinkpad, 
  …
  #:options                            ; list of XKB Option 
  strings
  (list ""                             ; unset all inherited 
  options
        "caps:shiftlock"               ; Shift Lock affects all 
        keys
        "shift:breaks_caps"            ; Shift cancels Caps Lock
        "compose:102"                  ; next to left Shift on 
        pc105
        "lv3:ralt_switch"              ; key to choose 3rd level
        "nbsp:level3n"                 ; nbsp @lv3, thin nbsp 
        @lv4
        "numpad:shift3"                ; Num Lock: Shift chooses 
        lv3
        "kpdl:semi"                    ; key pad semicolon @lv3
        "misc:typo"                    ; add extra typographic 
        chars
        "ctrl:swapcaps"                ; onwards for great Emacs
        "terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp")))   ; zap X just to watch it 
        die

Here's what works just fine:

  (service slim-service-type
           (slim-configuration
            (xorg-configuration
             (xorg-configuration
              (keyboard-layout keyboard-layout)
              …

However, today I tried to (re-)add it to GRUB, too, and ended up 
writing the following comment:

(bootloader
 (bootloader-configuration
  (bootloader grub-efi-bootloader)
  ;; XXX Strange bug: GRUB can read the LUKS passphrase, but 
  afterwards (at
  ;; the menu screen) no longer responds to key presses.  Even 
  stranger: it
  ;; makes my X230T's backspace key send ‘XF86ScreenSaver’s even 
  on Linux.
  ;; (keyboard-layout keyboard-layout)
  (target "/boot/efi")
  (timeout 1))))

This is 100% reproducible.

I'll try to narrow it down a bit, but the combination of losing my 
actual work-workstation (which is also my funstation) while 
entering my passphrase 5 times, every time, makes that an 
unpleasant and tedious affair.

Kind regards,

T G-R

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