libvirt users - Nov 2018 - virsh console and other language keymaps

Hi,
I've got a small vm server running kvm + libvirt, and I made a simple shell
script that allows users to ssh in and control their vms (power off, etc).
However, one of my users uses the french canadian keyboard layout on her home
computer, and upon being told "escape character is ^]" expected to
need to press ctrl+right-alt_] (] being in the same location it is on a US
keyboard). This is because on a french canadian layout, the right bracket key is
in the same spot at on US layout, but needs to press right alt with it or it is
the c-cedilla key. However, upon pressing ctrl+right-alt+c-cedilla, nothing
happens (even this is ctrl+right bracket on a canadian keyboard). Instead,
pressing ctrl+c-cedilla on her canadian french keyboard exits the console as if
it were using a US layout. My question: how to make it so pressing
ctrl+(canadian ]) works? Is this something that has to be done on the vm side,
or on the host side, or maybe on the client ssh side?
I'd prefer it be something thast can be different based on who is using the
virsh console  command since me, as the admin, may need to help with the console
at some points, and my keyboard is US, so I have no c-cedilla or canadian right
bracket key, but she does.
Thanks,
-Michael.

On Thu, Nov 29, 2018 at 06:41:19AM -0800, Michael Taboada
wrote:
> Hi,
> I've got a small vm server running kvm + libvirt, and I made a simple
> shell script that allows users to ssh in and control their vms (power
> off, etc). However, one of my users uses the french canadian keyboard
> layout on her home computer, and upon being told "escape character is
>  ^]" expected to need to press ctrl+right-alt_] (] being in the same
> location it is on a US keyboard). This is because on a french canadian
> layout, the right bracket key is in the same spot at on US layout, but
> needs to press right alt with it or it is the c-cedilla key. However,
> upon pressing ctrl+right-alt+c-cedilla, nothing happens (even this is
> ctrl+right bracket on a canadian keyboard). Instead, pressing
> ctrl+c-cedilla on her canadian french keyboard exits the console as
> if it were using a US layout. My question: how to make it so pressing
> ctrl+(canadian ]) works? Is this something that has to be done on the
> vm side, or on the host side, or maybe on the client ssh side?
The guest OS is not involved. This is interpreted by virsh running
on the host. The  "^]" key is an ascii control character (0x1d).

Libvirt doesn't control how this control character is entered. It
just reads bytes from the console until it sees the value 0x1d.

IIUC how ^] is entered is upto the the terminal program you're
using, possibly with influence from TTY settnigs.
> I'd prefer it be something thast can be different based on
> who is using the virsh console  command since me, as the
> admin, may need to help with the console at some points,
> and my keyboard is US, so I have no c-cedilla or canadian
> right bracket key, but she does.
You can use '--escape STRING' to customize which control key
sequence triggers exit

Regards,
Daniel
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On Thu, Nov 29, 2018 at 06:41:19 -0800, Michael Taboada
wrote:
> Hi,
> I've got a small vm server running kvm + libvirt, and I made a simple
shell script that allows users to ssh in and control their vms (power off, etc).
However, one of my users uses the french canadian keyboard layout on her home
computer, and upon being told "escape character is ^]" expected to
need to press ctrl+right-alt_] (] being in the same location it is on a US
keyboard). This is because on a french canadian layout, the right bracket key is
in the same spot at on US layout, but needs to press right alt with it or it is
the c-cedilla key. However, upon pressing ctrl+right-alt+c-cedilla, nothing
happens (even this is ctrl+right bracket on a canadian keyboard). Instead,
pressing ctrl+c-cedilla on her canadian french keyboard exits the console as if
it were using a US layout. My question: how to make it so pressing
ctrl+(canadian ]) works? Is this something that has to be done on the vm side,
or on the host side, or maybe on the client ssh side?
> I'd prefer it be something thast can be different based on who is using
the virsh console  command since me, as the admin, may need to help with the
console at some points, and my keyboard is US, so I have no c-cedilla or
canadian right bracket key, but she does.
'virsh -e' allows you to specify your own escape key if that helps