Layout won't load on startup

I am trying to get terminator to start multiple windows each with multiple terminals in them, some of which will run a custom command on startup. I cannot get this to work, not even when trying a simplistic setup with one window, two terminals, no custom command.

What is the "official" way to do this?

I am using terminator 0.96 from ppa on Ubuntu 11.10. I have tried the following:

a) Saved simple layout as "john" from GUI preferences. Loading the layout using...

a1) terminator -l john
 - terminator window appears (sometimes) for a brief 10th of a second, then exits

a2) XDG_CONFIG_HOME=~/.config terminator -l john
 - terminator window appears (sometimes) for a brief 10th of a second, then exits

b) Saved a file using contents for "john" layout found in ~/.config/terminator/config:

[layouts]
 [[john]]
    [[[child0]]]
      position = 66:328
      type = Window
      order = 0
      parent = ""
      size = 1255, 842
    [[[child1]]]
      position = 627
      type = HPaned
      order = 0
      parent = child0
    [[[terminal3]]]
      profile = green
      command = date
      type = Terminal
      order = 1
      parent = child1
    [[[terminal2]]]
      profile = default
      command = echo $PATH
      type = Terminal
      order = 0
      parent = child1

Saved as ~/.config/terminator/test.layout.
Loading the layout using:

b1) terminator -l ~/.config/terminator/test.layout

 - terminator window with a single terminal, default profile, appears. Text output:

layout does not exist: /home/john/.config/terminator/test.layout
layout None not defined

NOTE: The file /home/john/.config/terminator/test.layout does indeed exist.

b2) XDG_CONFIG_HOME=~/.config terminator -l ~/.config/terminator/test.layout
 - same as b1).

Debug outpout says (excerpt):

noclass::<module>: Creating a terminal with layout: /home/john/.config/terminator/test.layout
layout does not exist: /home/john/.config/terminator/test.layout
layout None not defined
Factory::make: Factory::make: created a Window
Terminator::register_window: Terminator::register_window: registering 52182064:<class 'terminatorlib.window.Window'>
ConfigBase::load: ConfigBase::load: config already loaded
Config::set_profile: Config::set_profile: Changing profile to default

For a) above, terminator debug output says, at the end:

Signalman::remove_signal: no more signals for widget
Terminator::deregister_terminal: Terminator::deregister_terminal: de-registering 40743792:<class 'terminatorlib.terminal.Terminal'>
Terminator::deregister_terminal: no terminals remain, destroying all windows
Window::on_destroy_event: destroying self
Terminator::deregister_window: Terminator::deregister_window: de-registering 37858352:<class 'terminatorlib.window.Window'>
Terminator::deregister_window: no windows remain, quitting
ConfigBase::get_item: ConfigBase::get_item: autoclean_groups found in profile default: True
Terminator::group_hoover: Terminator::group_hoover: 0 groups, hoovering 0