said Dan Youngquist:

| At this point it seems to me more like a hardware compatibility
| issue between the USB keyboard adapter and the docking station. 
| Sometimes perfectly good devices just don't play nicely together
| with certain other devices in certain situations.  (This assumes
| the other USB keyboard adapter you tried is identical, or at least
| uses the same chipset.)  If you can try a real USB keyboard, or a
| USB adapter with a different chipset, I suspect the problem may
| disappear.  Also, try a live CD of a different Linux -- different
| kernel, display manager, DE, etc. -- and see what happens.

i would agree but for the fact that the aberrant behavior is not 
displayed until x starts. both keyboards work uneventfully in a linux 
text-based boot. not a hiccup. this suggests, if it does not prove, a 
configuration issue.

thanks. i'll live with it!
-- 
dep

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