Upstream bug at http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=18583 Basically the problem is that before you press any key after X startup xkb is in a different state from after the first keypress which somehow confuses the X server. Only affects people who set their keymap in X session scripts or similar (perhaps gnome prefs too) and start X session with startx or gdm autologin. Thanks Michal