localectl doesn't work on modern Debian/Ubuntu

[waveform80]

On modern Debian and Ubuntu releases (23.10 onwards for Ubuntu), localectl does not (currently) operate 1 2. The keyboard: section should be used instead, which should do the right thing on whatever platform cloud-init is being used on (writes /etc/default/keyboard on Debian/Ubuntu, uses localectl on RHEL/Fedora, runs setup-keymap on Alpine).

[maxnet]

The keyboard: section should be used instead

Do all Ubuntu editions you offer through Imager support the keyboard module?

(I think I contributed the keyboard module to cloud-init in 2022. So I can imagine Ubuntu 20 lacking it, unless it has been back ported).

[waveform80]

Good question -- I know jammy and noble both do, but you're correct that focal's still in the list (though if we're going to break keyboard on a release, I'd rather break focal than noble). Still, cloud-init is one of those things that is constantly back-ported, but it'll depend if the current point-release of focal was spun before / after the release of cloud-init that added it.

Looking at the manifest of the current point release of focal (.5), it's got cloud-init 22.2. And ... (goes digging in the cloud-init repo), yes! It's got the keyboard module, so we should be good.

(I think I contributed the keyboard module to cloud-init in 2022. So I can imagine Ubuntu 20 lacking it, unless it has been back ported).

So you did, thank you (being an aficionado of ctrl:nocaps, it's something I constantly use, so I very much appreciate it)! Ooh, 22.1 -- so that just sneaked into SRU in time for focal's .5 release, nice.

[tdewey-rpi]

It's got the keyboard module, so we should be good.

Merging on the basis of contributor testing and verification.

Thanks for the submission, @waveform80