bug#64006: Installation frustration weekend

[Denys Nykula]

Guix on a Debian laptop host works okay, GuixSD in VirtualBox a couple
of weeks ago seemed fine too, but I've just spent a weekend trying to
install it on a dedicated laptop for real use, and I'm running into
many problems.

I should split this and file multiple more detailed issues later over
the next couple of weeks, but in case I don't have a chance to get back
to it soon I thought posting it here as is would be better than never
posting it anywhere.

Installation with a desktop environment (EXWM) started to "die
unexpectedly" every time when loading subtitutes, please see installer-
dump-790b17b6.

(Nice thing) Didn't find a netcat tool in the installer image to copy
the dump to my tethering phone, but bash's feature enabling me to cat
to >/dev/tcp/192.168.x.x/PORT did what I want. So if the upload failed,
I can post the tarball manually if needed.

Nothing hints that to enter the encryption key when it asks it the
second time during the boot, the user has to switch their keyboard
layout. Guessed it accidentally by playing with the Guile REPL that
appears after three decryption attempts.

Console fonts lose Cyrillic support after the first pull and upgrade.
Question marks appear in place of my letters instead.

(Probably impossible to fix by design, but worth mentioning) Pulling
and downloading substitutes wastes hours of time and traffic, without
estimates and with the warning split into many small messages without a
total sum. Also seems like it happens from scratch after the boot,
despite the installer having already pulled so much from the Internet.

That's with the standard installer image 1.4.0 x86_64. Retried using
the latest image. It partially fixes one of the problems (desktop now
installs), and introduces more.

Nothing hints that the combination for layout switching is now
Shift+Alt, not Alt+Shift.

Video (Intel HD Graphics 400) freezes after gdm shows the mouse, so I
can't use the environment or switch to a console to get a debug log.