I have the subject machine with MacOS 7.5.5 on it.  Don't think I'll
make the transition to 8.  Over the past couple of years I've been
learning all about linux.  Now I'm proficient enough in that to risk
doodling with my Mac.  I want to put a MacBSD on it when the next
release comes out.  I've been lurking on this list, trying to learn a
little about the BSD way and how to fit it on a Mac.  A couple of
questions:

1.  From what I can tell on www.macbsd.com, this machine is supported
pretty well.  It's pretty well stock with a new keyboard, an additional
16 Mb of RAM (24 total), a different keyboard, and an additional
external LaCie 1.2 Gb hard drive.  No bogeys here, right?
 
2.  As far as I can tell the machine came from the factory broken.  I've
owned it for over 5 years now, and I'm plagued by a problem of having a
frozen cursor on bootup.  That is, the screen comes on, the cursor
appears, and it is frozen--does not respond to the mouse.  I can hit the
reset switch (at that instant) to reboot a time or two and it will
finally recognize mouse input.  This problem repeats itself randomly. 
In other words, the computer often boots just fine.
 
        a.  Does anyone know what causes this behavior?  It has
persisted through endless extension deconflicting sessions, several
MacOS system upgrades, the keyboard change, etc.  What hardware should I
suspect?  I think, but am not sure, the problem persists whether the
mouse is plugged into the keyboard or either one of the ports on the
back of the machine.  I haven't swapped the mouse out yet, so does
anyone have any advice on an appropriate MacBSD compatible 3-button
mouse? Since the problem is intermittent, it's damn hard to figure out
what I've changed since the last time I booted the $@%&!

        b.  Assuming I can't stop the problem with a little looking,
what ramifications does this have to the MacBSD bootup?  In linux, where
I use LILO to boot my operating systems, I imagine this problem could
get ugly.  However if I used a "loadlin" style of bootup where I
bootstrap MacBSD off of the MacOS, I could still use my index finger
method of problem-solving.  I am unclear how MacBSD boots--does it
bootstrap itself or does it bootstrap from the MacOS or both?

 
Sorry this was so long.  Didn't realize how that bootup problem was
getting to me :-).  I'll go back to lurking, learning, and waiting for
1.3 

                                  TIA, Kevin