Earlier today I wrote:

> Again, the O/S is NetBSD 1.4.1, on an earlyish Pentium.  The
> problematic software this time seems the X server which came with the
> O/S.  It is spouting lowercase "q" characters while I type! [...]
>    but this new keyboard has been used
>    heavily in the past month while I upgraded the O/S and installed
>    software, and there was never any sign of misbehaviour while simply
>    logged in at the console without running X.
[...]
> Where would I even *begin* to look for a weird problem like this?

It *is* the sqtupid keyboard.  I took home the one from work, and
typed alql evening without any extra "q"s, and now that I've put my
own keyboard back on, I'm being deluged by those infernal "q"s.
Harumph.  I wonder why the keyboard works fine outside X, and spouts
noise only at X?

Anyway, though I may never know *why*, at least the fix is simple:
replace the keyboard.  Sorry to bother the lqist!

Anne.
-- 
Ms. Anne Bennett, Senior Analyst, IITS, Concordia University, Montreal H3G 1M8
anne@alcor.concordia.ca                                        +1 514 848-7606