gnome shell crashes when enabling the screen keyboard

[Shahnawaz Shahin]

I've noticed that when running Ubuntu 11.10 under GNOME Shell, when switching the Screen Keyboard on GNOME Shell crashes and I'm left with an empty desktop with the file manager menu running along the top of the screen.

I managed to open a terminal (creating a script on the desktop to open gnome-terminal and running the script). When trying to run 'gnome-shell --replace' an error returns stating on the lines of 'Failed to load XML: Could not load keymap gb'.

I am running Ubuntu 11.10 beta 2, GNOME 3.1.92, GNOME Shell.

onboard:
  Installed: 0.95.1-0ubuntu2
  Candidate: 0.95.1-0ubuntu2
  Version table:
 *** 0.95.1-0ubuntu2 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

gnome-shell:
  Installed: 3.1.92-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 3.1.92-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 3.1.92-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric/universe amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

gnome-session:
  Installed: 3.1.92-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 3.1.92-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 3.1.92-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

The issue can be reproduced by the following tasks:

1. It is worth noting that I am running under a GB (British) keyboard layout.
2. Log onto Ubuntu under GNOME Shell.
3. Click (or tap) on the Univeral Access icon (sitting alongside with the volume control, network manager, etc.), then turn the Screen Keyboard on.
4. GNOME Shell should crash at this point.

Even at this point when restarting the computer and logging back onto GNOME Shell, it still comes up with the blank desktop with the file manager menu running on top of the screen. The issue can be fixed by selecting from the menu to open a window manager, CTRL+H to display hidden folders and delete the dconf folder under the .config folder (~/.config/dconf). Restart the computer, log back on and GNOME Shell is working again.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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