It seems that one of the updates made changes to the keyboard layout management and now the setxkbmap workaround is no longer necessary. I had set it up as a startup command. After I disabled this command the keyboard layouts are being respected and function as desired. Therefore this is no longer a bug.
** Changed in: control-center (Ubuntu) Status: New => Invalid -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1033432 Title: custom keyboard layout gets lost on shutdown To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/control-center/+bug/1033432/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs