Upstream writes :

« As I can see, you are using original xkb configuration database (not
xkeyboard-config). And it may be broken in many ways. Would you consider trying
xkeyboard-config?

http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software_2fXKeyboardConfig

http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/xkbdesc/xkeyboard-config-0.7.tar.bz2 »

and closed the bug as NOTGNOME

So either Fedora ships xkeyboard-config or it needs to convince Gnome people to
support the xorg xkbdata (difficult since the gnome applet maintainer is also an
xkeyboard-config maintainer)

-> back to xorg-xkbdata

Fedora Core development, ships the stock unmodifiied X.Org xkbdata package
that comes as part of the modular X11R7 release.  We do not ship the
xkeyboard-config data at this stage in time.

What is GNOME currently using/expecting exactly?

It's all in the referenced Gnome bug (which was just closed as NOTGNOME)

http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=323210

I don't care myself which xkbdata Fedora actually uses, as long as Fedora apps
can work with it

There is some progress, in latest rawhide the applet manages to grab keyboard
lists somewhere. But :
1. you can't switch from the current keyboard to another even if you add it to
the switcher list (even the tuneable to select keypresses to switch keymaps is gone)
2. A sure way to kill your session is to select "let the server manager ctrl +
alt". Very strange boog, looks like gnome starts switching between themes madly
till the session decides it has enough

So the keyboard applet is still dead in the water post xorg 7.0

the strange bug is probably gnome-settings-daemon crashing over and over again
(probably in libxklavier)

*** Bug 176002 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

(In reply to comment #1)
> Upstream writes :
> 
> « As I can see, you are using original xkb configuration database (not
> xkeyboard-config). And it may be broken in many ways. Would you consider trying
> xkeyboard-config?
> 
> http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software_2fXKeyboardConfig
> 
> http://xlibs.freedesktop.org/xkbdesc/xkeyboard-config-0.7.tar.bz2 »
> 
> and closed the bug as NOTGNOME
> 
> So either Fedora ships xkeyboard-config or it needs to convince Gnome people to
> support the xorg xkbdata (difficult since the gnome applet maintainer is also an
> xkeyboard-config maintainer)
> 
> -> back to xorg-xkbdata

This is quite an interesting hot-potato toss.  The official X.Org X11R7
release ships "xkbdata", which is what is in Fedora Core 5.  It is way
beyond the feature freeze dates to switch to xkeyboard-config for FC5,
or to include it even as an option at this point.

So we are stuck shipping xkbdata in FC5.  If the GNOME project wont support
the xkbdata that is shipped in X.Org X11R7, then it appears this problem
is unresolveable until FC6.

Removing from FC5Target tracker.

AFAIK, Xorg has been slow in adopting xkeyboard-config.
In any case I hope this gets resolved soon.

Dunno if it helps any, but today's xorg-x11-xkbdata claims to support
xkeyboard-config.  Unfortunately, that completely broke setxkbmap:

$ setxkbmap br
Couldn't interpret _XKB_RULES_NAMES property
Use defaults: rules - 'xorg' model - 'pc101' layout - 'us'

/usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/xorg* is not present any more, and setxkbmap needs it.

Needless to say, my br-abnt keyboard was partially broken as soon as I logged
in.  Keys such as those for / and pipe are broken.  Oddly, even if I downgrade
to yesterday's xorg-x11-xkbdata and re-run the command above, the pipe key is
still broken.

Hi,

The setxkbmap breakage should be fixed in tomorrow's rawhide.  a fixed package
is also attached to bug 183521, if you want to fix things now.

My original bug is fixed thanks to xkeyboard-config, you can close the bug now
if you whish

The Gnome applet has resumed working (it behaves very strangely when you
add/remove layouts, seems to crash gconf repeatedly, but if you retry a few
times and restart X a few times too it finishes to stabilize working as it should)

(In reply to comment #11)
> The Gnome applet has resumed working (it behaves very strangely when you
> add/remove layouts, seems to crash gconf repeatedly, but if you retry a few
> times and restart X a few times too it finishes to stabilize working as it should)

I confirm that the Keyboard Indicator applet works now and the Layout Options
appear properly.

The /etc/X11/xorg.conf file shows correctly the layout as "us,gr" (for Greek).
However, the switching shortcut is listed as "shift" (Press both Shift keys to
switch). This key combination does not work. I am not sure if there are users
that use this combination.

In addition, the config file says the group led light is "scroll". However, it
does not lit up when I toggle group; it switches only when I toggle Caps Lock,
which is a (annoying) feature.

Works for me now, except for the crashes, now tracked at bug 183569.