Can't change keyboard layout selection

Question

I was given an ubuntu 10.10 machine with the following weird thing: it has several 'US' keyboard layouts in list (and hotkey cycling). When I open System - Preferences - Keyboard and try to fix, I can delete extra layouts, but:

1. GTK skin on all windows changes to something default and ugly.
2. After relogin, everything is back.

I have tried applying changes system-wide and from root, changing keyboard Input Method. I have checked file access rights on my home folder are OK. Any ideas?

Answer 1

If the GTK theme is changing, the most likely cause is that gnome-settings-manager is crashing. Hit Alt+F2 and type gnome-settings-manager. You should get your settings back. If not, try running gnome-settings-manager from a terminal so you can see any error messages.

Note that this answer might not help with your original keyboard problem. But it might. And if you can confirm that gnome-settings-manager is the culprit, then you'll have a bug you can report and you'll have some more info to go on.