Comment 5 for bug 222653

I've confirmed this bug on Hardy on both amd64 and i386. It seems to be related to automatic login.

If I set my laptop to automatic login, then reboot, the compose key settings are not active after startup.

If I then log out and then log in manually, the compose key settings work again.

You should be able to reproduce this with these steps:

 1) Go to the login window admin utility (i.e. gdmsetup)
 2) Go to the "Security" tab and enable automatic login
 3) Reboot
 4) Notice that your compose key no longer works (e.g. typing Compose-' e in a terminal or a text box will give you 'e)
 5) Log out
 6) Log in
 7) Notice that your compose key works again (e.g. typing Compose-' e in a terminal or text box will give you é)