Comment 40 for bug 460328

Confirming: with empty gconf keys g-s-d now correctly takes settings from console-setup.
When something is changed on user-level, only corresponding gconf key is being set. Others remain empty and work correctly.

I've tested addition of custom options by adding compose key option, and noticed that supposed "garbage" in "options" key may actually be some kind of headers. Gconf list entry of compose option goes like that: "Compose key compose:menu". So it seems to be correct behavior, because these options can be transferred correctly to console-setup by "apply systemwide". The only question is: why those redundant words are needed in gconf list anyway? But without them things break.
Maybe it is better to leave it as it is. The only downside: it is hard to manually type in gconf "options" list with all correct symbols in place. But I doubt many people will ever need to do it.

One last thing: wouldn't it be better to set /desktop/gnome/peripherals/keyboard/general/defaultGroup to 0 by default, instead of -1 ?