diff -up gnome-settings-daemon-2.24.0/plugins/keyboard/gsd-keyboard-xkb.c.fix-gdm-layout-even-more gnome-settings-daemon-2.24.0/plugins/keyboard/gsd-keyboard-xkb.c
--- gnome-settings-daemon-2.24.0/plugins/keyboard/gsd-keyboard-xkb.c.fix-gdm-layout-even-more	2008-10-10 21:52:55.000000000 -0400
+++ gnome-settings-daemon-2.24.0/plugins/keyboard/gsd-keyboard-xkb.c	2008-10-10 22:25:28.000000000 -0400
@@ -162,14 +162,27 @@ apply_xkb_settings (void)
         /* With GDM the user can already set a layout from the login
          * screen. Try to keep that setting */
         if (gdm_keyboard_layout != NULL) {
+                /* if there is just a single layout,
+                 * just override it (it is probably the X server default) 
+                 */
+                if (current_kbd_config.layouts_variants &&
+                    current_kbd_config.layouts_variants->next == NULL) {
+                        g_free (current_kbd_config.layouts_variants->data);
+                        g_slist_free (current_kbd_config.layouts_variants);
+                        current_kbd_config.layouts_variants = NULL;
+                }
                 if (current_kbd_config.layouts_variants == NULL) {
-                        current_kbd_config.layouts_variants = g_slist_append (NULL, (char *) gdm_keyboard_layout);
+                        current_kbd_config.layouts_variants = g_slist_append (NULL, g_strdup (gdm_keyboard_layout));
                         gconf_client_set_list (conf_client,
                                                GKBD_KEYBOARD_CONFIG_KEY_LAYOUTS,
                                                GCONF_VALUE_STRING,
                                                current_kbd_config.layouts_variants,
                                                NULL);
-                } else {
+                }
+                else {
+                         /* if there are multiple layouts, 
+                          * try to find the one closest to the gdm layout
+                          */
                          GSList *l;
                          int i;
                          size_t len = strlen (gdm_keyboard_layout);