>>>>> "Calum" == Calum Mackay <cmackay@alconemg.com> writes:

    Calum> For some reason, when running X, and I'm quite happily
    Calum> typing away the keyboard suddenyl locks up, will not
    Calum> respond to keypresses and I have to shutdown back to the X
    Calum> login to get some key reaction, but sometimes this does not
    Calum> even work and a full server reboot has to be done

Have you tried unplugging the keyboard and then plugging it back in,
while the machine is running? I know this is not  necessarily a good
thing to do with hardware, but I've been pretty much required to do
this since I switched to a new keyboard, and have not been able to
figure out the problem, perhaps it's related to yours.

Here's the story: I fried my old keyboard and then bought a 'Mouse
Systems 1-0-7 Keyboard', which is their clone of the Microsoft Natural
keyboard. It's got a standard keyboard plug, not PS2. After I plugged
it in, I experienced keyboard lockups that were fairly predictable and
thoroughly weird, for instance:

When I boot my machine, all goes well. After I've logged in and
received a shell prompt, I usually run xdm-nodaemon. That brings u xdm
and X, and suddenly my keyboard locks up. So at that point, I climb
under my desk, unplug the keyboard, and plug it back in. Strangely
enough, I'm always able to type after doing this. Once I've gotten X
running and I bring up an xterm, I often have to do the whole
unplug/replug routine again to be able to type. 

At this point, everything will work fine, except for a couple of
strange behaviors: If I hit caps lock, the keyboard will freeze up
again, and I'll have to do the whoe unplug/replug routine again,
sometimes a few times, to get everything working again. I think the
same goes for Scroll lock and num lock.

Thinking that perhaps the problem is with the keyboard itself, I used
xmodmap to swap my caps lock and ctrl keys, in the hope that it was
the actual location of the key that mattered- not so. Hitting the caps
lock key worked fine as 'ctrl', and didn't freeze the
keyboard. Hitting the ctrl key, which had been mapped to caps lock,
would freeze the keyboard as before.

I haven't a clue what causes this wacky behavior. I'm running NetBSD
1.3.2 with pcvt compiled into my kernel. I'd be happy to provide more
information if if anyone wants to try and help me figure this one out.

Hope this helps, or elucidates, or befuddles, or something.

-Zach Fine
czyz@u.washington.edu

PS. FWIW I hooked up the keyboard to my friend's win95 box, and it
worked just fine.