Query string in URI fails on default controller

[eluser]Unknown[/eluser]
Hello,

I’m working on a site that occasionally uses query strings to get a couple of user defaults (for instance language, as in http://example.com/page/?lang=en).

Everything worked fine up to 2.0.2, but 2.0.3 broke in a particular situation: when the query appears on the home page (as in example.com/?lang=fr). Everything still works when the controller name appears in the URI (such as in example.com/home/?lang=xx, home being the name of the default controller).

Calling example.com/?something triggered the 404 page. Calling example.com/?something=stuff raised an additional error if the ‘=’ character was not in $config['permitted_uri_chars'].

I can find a number of workarounds (explicitly using the default controller name, for instance), but I suspect there is some king of bug (maybe in URI.php) that prevents the use of GET ?parameters on the default controller.

If anybody has the same issue, or even better, a fix, or even best, advice as to how I could do it in a better way, please chime in!

lj