Sebastien, this is in feisty - so it should be 2.17 rather than 2.16. May be, the reason is broken xkeyboard-config package. Could the person who reported the bug build libgnomekbd and try to run the indicator test (test/gkbd-indicator-test)?

No gnome-applets 2.17 tarball has been rolled

That's your answer. g-a 2.17 (HEAD) work with g-s-d 2.17. g-a 2.16 work with g-s-d 2.16. All other combinations are not supported.

So, you should chase Davyd and make him release g-a 2.17.x. I will do the same.

it's doing the same with 2.17.1, reopening

Great! :) Sebastien, do you have libgnomekbd built on your system? Could you please run test/gkbd-indicator-test ? What do you see?

gkbd-indicator-test displays the right country code and not a "?"

This is really odd! The thing is that the applet is 99% same as the test - they are using the same widget. Could it be some version clash or smth? Could you please try to run the applet from the console setting the XKL_DEBUG to 150 or more - it should show you where (at which point) it takes that stupid question mark...

in fact it happens with gkbd-indicator-test too, but not every time (or it's correct after some time or something like that):
* configure one layout (french by example) from the keyboard capplet
* start gkbd-indicator-test
* use the capplet to add another layout (english by example)
* left click on the label from gkbd-indicator-test

the code is switched to "?"

Log from gkbd-indicator-test after one left click on the layout label:

[1168209754,150,xklavier_evt_xkb.c:xkl_xkb_process_x_event/]    Xkb event detected
[1168209754,150,xklavier_evt_xkb.c:xkl_xkb_process_x_event/]    XkbStateNotify detected, changes: 2000/(mask F0), new group 0
[1168209754,150,xklavier_evt_xkb.c:xkl_xkb_process_x_event/]    Xkb event detected
[1168209754,150,xklavier_evt_xkb.c:xkl_xkb_process_x_event/]    XkbStateNotify detected, changes: 2000/(mask F0), new group 0
[1168209755,150,gkbd-indicator.c:gkbd_indicator_button_pressed/]        Flag img size 226 x 110
[1168209755,150,gkbd-indicator.c:gkbd_indicator_button_pressed/]        Mouse button pressed on applet
[1168209755,100,xklavier_xkb.c:xkl_xkb_lock_group/]     Posted request for change the group to 1 ##
[1168209755,150,xklavier_evt_xkb.c:xkl_xkb_process_x_event/]    Xkb event detected
[1168209755,150,xklavier_evt_xkb.c:xkl_xkb_process_x_event/]    XkbStateNotify detected, changes: 2000/(mask F0), new group 0
[1168209755,150,xklavier_evt_xkb.c:xkl_xkb_process_x_event/]    Xkb event detected
[1168209755,150,xklavier_evt_xkb.c:xkl_xkb_process_x_event/]    XkbStateNotify detected, changes: 90/(mask F0), new group 1
[1168209755,150,xklavier_evt.c:xkl_engine_process_state_modification/]  Focused window: 4000003, 'gkbd-indicator-test'
[1168209755,150,xklavier_util.c:xkl_engine_update_current_state/]       Updating the current state with [g:1/i:0], reason: Restoring the state from the window
[1168209755,150,xklavier.c:xkl_engine_try_call_state_func/]     change_type: 0, group: 1, secondary_group_mask: 0, allowsecondary: 0
[1168209755,150,xklavier.c:xkl_engine_one_switch_to_secondary_group_performed/]         Resetting allow_one_switch_to_secondary_group flag
[1168209755,150,gkbd-indicator.c:gkbd_indicator_state_callback/]        group is now 1, restore: 0
[1168209755,150,xklavier_evt_xkb.c:xkl_xkb_process_x_event/]    Xkb event detected
[1168209755,150,xklavier_evt_xkb.c:xkl_xkb_process_x_event/]    XkbIndicatorStateNotify
[1168209755,150,xklavier_evt.c:xkl_engine_process_state_modification/]  Focused window: 4000003, 'gkbd-indicator-test'
[1168209755,150,xklavier_util.c:xkl_engine_update_current_state/]       Updating the current state with [g:1/i:0], reason: Restoring the state from the window
[1168209755,150,xklavier.c:xkl_engine_try_call_state_func/]     change_type: 1, group: 1, secondary_group_mask: 0, allowsecondary: 0
[1168209755,150,gkbd-indicator.c:gkbd_indicator_state_callback/]        group is now 1, restore: 1

I cannot reproduce it - I still have normal readoable IDs. Another idea - could you please try killing gnome-settings-daemon and start test/gkbd-config-registry-server instead (before starting gkbd-indicator-test). Again, setting some XKL_DEBUG might be handy.

The bug doesn't happen with the previous steps exactly now, starting with a french locale, then adding an english one:

[1168528950,100,gkbd-config-registry.c:gkbd_config_registry_get_descriptions_as_utf8/]  ids: [fr][]
[1168528950,100,gkbd-config-registry.c:gkbd_config_registry_get_descriptions_as_utf8/]  description: [Fra][France][][]
[1168528950,100,gkbd-config-registry.c:gkbd_config_registry_get_descriptions_as_utf8/]  ids: [gb][]
[1168528950,100,gkbd-config-registry.c:gkbd_config_registry_get_descriptions_as_utf8/]  description: [GBr][Royaume-Uni][][]

then adding a spanish one:

[1168528961,100,gkbd-config-registry.c:gkbd_config_registry_get_descriptions_as_utf8/]  ids: [fr][]
[1168528961,100,gkbd-config-registry.c:gkbd_config_registry_get_descriptions_as_utf8/]  description: [Fra][France][][]
[1168528961,100,gkbd-config-registry.c:gkbd_config_registry_get_descriptions_as_utf8/]  ids: [gb][]
[1168528961,100,gkbd-config-registry.c:gkbd_config_registry_get_descriptions_as_utf8/]  description: [GBr][Royaume-Uni][][]


Then the gnome layout capplet list french, english, spanish, the gkbd-indicator-test cycles between "Fra", "GBr" and "?".

You might need to remove a layout to trigger it, if adding a layout works fine try to remove it and add it again then, it should be listed with the "?" label

The bad thing is that I cannot really reproduce it - I added/removed layouts many times. May be, there is some kind of race condition here? It seems even after you added 3rd Spanish layout, the indicator is still asking for two layouts. Do you see anything in gkbd-indicator-test debug output anything which could explain this strange effect?

works fine now

Funny. I'd love to find out what is the difference between "now" and "then". Just in case, you know...:)