diff --git a/src/managers/KeybindManager.cpp b/src/managers/KeybindManager.cpp
index df4e3637..4607fdd4 100644
--- a/src/managers/KeybindManager.cpp
+++ b/src/managers/KeybindManager.cpp
@@ -123,7 +123,16 @@ void CKeybindManager::updateXKBTranslationState() {
 
     const auto PCONTEXT = xkb_context_new(XKB_CONTEXT_NO_FLAGS);
 
-    const auto PKEYMAP = FILEPATH == "" ? xkb_keymap_new_from_names(PCONTEXT, &rules, XKB_KEYMAP_COMPILE_NO_FLAGS) : xkb_keymap_new_from_file(PCONTEXT, fopen(FILEPATH.c_str(), "r"), XKB_KEYMAP_FORMAT_TEXT_V1, XKB_KEYMAP_COMPILE_NO_FLAGS);
+    auto PKEYMAP = FILEPATH == "" ? xkb_keymap_new_from_names(PCONTEXT, &rules, XKB_KEYMAP_COMPILE_NO_FLAGS) : xkb_keymap_new_from_file(PCONTEXT, fopen(FILEPATH.c_str(), "r"), XKB_KEYMAP_FORMAT_TEXT_V1, XKB_KEYMAP_COMPILE_NO_FLAGS);
+
+    if (!PKEYMAP) {
+        g_pHyprError->queueCreate("[Runtime Error] Invalid keyboard layout passed. ( rules: " + RULES + ", model: " + MODEL + ", variant: " + VARIANT + ", options: " + OPTIONS + ", layout: " + LAYOUT + " )", CColor(255, 50, 50, 255));
+
+        Debug::log(ERR, "[XKBTranslationState] Keyboard layout %s with variant %s (rules: %s, model: %s, options: %s) couldn't have been loaded.", rules.layout, rules.variant, rules.rules, rules.model, rules.options);
+        memset(&rules, 0, sizeof(rules));
+
+        PKEYMAP = xkb_keymap_new_from_names(PCONTEXT, &rules, XKB_KEYMAP_COMPILE_NO_FLAGS);
+    }
 
     xkb_context_unref(PCONTEXT);
     m_pXKBTranslationState = xkb_state_new(PKEYMAP);