Some ideas for the Manjaro: language changer, loader, shutdown, lang indicator

Feedback Feature Request
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  1. I ask for your attention. When installing a system (for example, Manjaro), the installer prompts you to select one or more languages ​​for data entry. But after installation, if I choose to log in with authorization, at the start of the system, there is no way to select a language other than English (by default).
    That is, if I set the administrator password on the Russian keyboard layout, then I cannot enter it in any way, due to the absence of a keyboard indicator and the ability to select another language at system startup, for the first time.

  2. I am very grateful for making the operating system loader that appears after the BIOS / UEFI. This significantly improves the user experience, as a simple black screen made you sometimes get scared due to the fact that the thought arose that the system would not boot. I had to focus only on the indicator of the hard drive, which was blinking, which means that the system is booting …

  3. Please explain why there is a wait after I clicked the shutdown button? This waiting is extremely inconvenient. Every time I consciously press the shutdown button, I manage to press it, and I expect the computer to turn on at that very moment, and I will not wait another 30 seconds. This expectation, as far as I understand, is not edited in any way, it cannot be turned off, you just need to press the turn off button again. But it’s also a bad user experience. Could you add somewhere in the settings the ability to edit the time 30 seconds or turn off the wait completely?
    screenshot:
    https://f.usemind.org/2021-03-02_16-40.png

  4. The idea is that when entering a password or data, from the operating system, the active language is highlighted. For example, I use Russian and English. But when the system asks for the administrator password, for example, to install the program, I have to look at which language is currently active. This is very inconvenient, given the fact that you often have to enter the administrator password and similar system data.
    https://f.usemind.org/2021-03-02_15-57.png
    Is it possible to create a small, one might even say microscopic, highlighting of the tongue above the input field, something like the screenshot?

2

Ad 1. You have virtual keyboard on bottom left corner. You can switch languages if needed :wink:

Ad 3. You can disable waiting in Startup and Shutdown → Desktop Session and uncheck Confirm logout

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To change the number of seconds on the KDE exit timer you need to edit

/usr/share/plasma/look-and-feel/org.kde.breeze.desktop/contents/logout/Logout.qml

and change the 30 to whatever you want.

You can also just press enter to bypass the countdown timer

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I’m afraid you are completely unaware of a number of things and have very strange ideas on account of some others. One of those strange ideas is that the Manjaro developers would be responsible for the coding of the entire operating system. This is not how things work in the world of GNU/Linux.

I’ll address your individual points below.

First of all, as stated above in my introductory paragraph, this is not Manjaro’s work, but the work of whoever wrote the desktop environment you’re using, and there are several very different desktop environments. In your case ─ since you posted this thread under the #support:plasma category (where it doesn’t belong) ─ it is the developers at KDE who write up the code for the various dialog windows.

Secondly, what you call the administrator password could be one of two things, depending on when and where the system asks for the password. It could be the root user’s password ─ and do you really want to give a potential attacker a clue on what language they have to use for entering the password? ─ or it could be your own password, and in the latter case, it would then also be in the language you are currently using.

Thirdly, see the advice given by @Tomek.

That boot loader is GRUB, and was not created by Manjaro, even though Manjaro does apply its own customization to it. But even if you don’t get to see the boot loader while the system is booting, it is still there.

The default is to not have the menu visible if there’s only one operating system on the machine, but then you can still bring it up during its timeout ─ 10 seconds by default ─ by hitting the Esc key. In order to have the menu visible at every boot, one needs to edit the file /etc/default/grub and change the line…

GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden

… into…

GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu

… and then run… :arrow_down:

sudo update-grub

As explained by both @Tomek and @SimonJ, you can bypass that timeout, as well as that you can also disable the confirmation.

Also, it is better for consistency if you log out first ─ which you can either way do without confirmation by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Del ─ and then shut down the machine. If you command the shutdown from within a running session, then chances are that some information doesn’t get properly saved due to race conditions. Logging out first gives all applications the time to save their data and/or state.

See my reply to your first bullet point, and the advice given to you by @Tomek regarding the virtual keyboard.

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