Comment # 10 on bug 951754 from Hannes K�hnemund

I did another test (not yet with IceWM though). Selecting "German" as language
in Grub (I think it is F2) before installing does not help either. All it does
it pre-selecting "German" in the keyboard dropdown box + setting the system
language to Germany, but the keyboard itself after fristboot and all subsequent
ones is set to "EN". It is still the case that when you start yast2 -> System
Keyboard Layout, German is already preselected but the input field reveals that
"EN" is set. When selecting any other language and then back to German, the
input field is suddenly set to "DE" and when clicking OK/Accept the keyboard is
set to German (until the next reboot).

So what helps now is to enable the system tray icon to show up even though only
one keyboard layout is available (there is an option in KDE for that). And
guess what, as soon as the tray icon showed up (it shows "de" obviously), the
keyboard is set to "DE". If the system is rebooted (I have automatic logon, so
no password asked before starting KDE), KDE loads, the tray icon is there and
the keyboard is set to "DE".

W.r.t. IceWM, I give it a try over the weekend.