Keyboard layout switching became abnormal after 20.12.2012 KUbuntu update

[Roman]

Ubuntu release: KUbuntu 11.10 (KDE 4.7.3)
Yesterday a huge bulk of package updates (mainly KDE ones) became available in the ubuntu repositories. I installed them as I usually do. After that, KDE keyboard layout switcher stopped working normally. I have only two layouts: US English and Russian. When I start from Russian layout, I can only once switch to English. After that trying to return to Russian only causes the layout indicator to blink to Russian flag and then immediatly back to US flag. The keyboard is kept with English layout. When I right-click to the layout indicator I see rather strange menu:

[us flag] us - English (USA)
                 -- -
----[solid separating line]---
[ru flag] ru - Russian
----[solid separating line]---

Obviously there is some fake empty keyboard layout named "--" that breaks the switcher and that should not be there.
To get Russian layout I should call this menu (right-click to the indicator) and then to click to the Russian layout item. This is extremely inconvenient and annoying.
I must note that I set the switching key combination to Ctrl+Shift+Backspace (via "Alternative combination" option in the "Keyboard settings"), which I am using for many years, and don't like anything else. If I choose something among standard X combinations, like Ctrl+Shift or some other (they are in the advanced settings tab of the keyboard setrtings module), I can again switch there and back smoothly, but pressing any alternative combination that I try to set breaks this again.
Also, I can set some combinations to get to a specific layout (directly to Russian and directly to English) and they both seem to work, but this is not convenient for me too and I consider it only as a temporary solution.

This problem definitely was not present before yesterday (20.12.2012) update. Possibly, it appeared due to some of the KDE packages that were updated (there are a lot of them, so I am not sure which one is responsible).

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

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[Roman (m01brv)]

Then I am marking kde-workspace-bin package because KDE keyboard configuration tool is there. However I cannot check this for sure, since all KDE packages are mutually dependent and cannot be tested separately.

[Roman (m01brv)]

I am sorry, I have just noted the mistake in the date. I mean the update of 20.12.2011 of course. It seems I am already in 2012...

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Simon Davis (davis-decent)]

Hello,

I am affected with exactly the same problem. I have EN (US) and one national layout. The switching has stopped working after the mentioned update. With the shortcut, I am only able to switch back to EN layout. Trying to switch to the national layout does not work and creates the "-- -" entry in the menu. Switching to the national layout using mouse (not shortcut) still works.

Please fix the problem because this makes Kubuntu quite unusable for all the people who need localized keyboard layout. Using mouse is really no way to go, if you need to work seriously.

[Simon Davis (davis-decent)]

Nobody is working on this? This bug in combination with #865193 (also without any progress) renders Kubuntu 11.10 COMPLETELY unusable for some people. Imagine a desktop where you cannot simply switch keyboards and windows periodically lose focus.

[Roman (m01brv)]

Well, for now the only possible solution I see is to try to downgrade the kde packages to some previous version. Due to this bug I actually stopped installing all updates on my home laptop since December and until I find it is fixed (or until next Ubuntu release is issued in April).

[Roman (m01brv)]

The bug looks fixed with today update, probably due to a new KDE version (4.7.4)

[Simon Davis (davis-decent)]

I can confirm this.