[NTLUG:Discuss] Keyboard beeps with SuSE 9.1

[Steve Baker]

I just installed SuSE 9.1 on my PC (it had previously been running
8.0 - but I bought a new disk drive for the system drive - so this
is effectively a new install).

The system runs fine except that after I've been typing for a while,
the keyboard locks up and every keystroke (including shift/alt/ctrl
keys) generates a beep.  Ctrl/Alt/F1, Ctrl/Alt/BS and Ctrl/Alt/Del
do nothing (except beep!).  This morning, it did it in the middle
of typing an email - it's not like I started any particular program
that might have triggered the lockup.  I had a shell window up and
Mozilla running - that was about it.

I can start up the system and leave it running all night and the
keyboard still works OK - but after typing for maybe an hour, the lockup
eventually happens - so it seems to be something that's related to
typing rather than some random hardware or software event elsewhere.

When the keyboard is locked, the mouse still works.  Programs still
seem to run perfectly so long as I can drive them using only the mouse.

I'm running KDE with KDM.  If do a remote-login, shutdown X and restart
it, the keyboard is restored to normal for a while - then it fails
after a similar amount of time.

Needless to say, it didn't do this under SuSE 8.0 - and if I reboot
using my old hard drive, it still works OK.

At this point, I'm running only the stuff that came on the CD's - plus
the 'online patches' that the installer downloaded.  I didn't choose any
'exotic' options during the install - although I did have some problems
getting my serial mouse to work.

The only software I've changed aside from that was to download and install
Mozilla so I could build it with the integrated mail/news/chat, etc.

The PC is built from parts and has been upgraded so many times that I've
lost track of what it originally was. The keyboard is from Micro Innovations
with a split layout - but it's not 'special' in any ways I'm aware of.

Any ideas?

---------------------------- Steve Baker -------------------------
HomeEmail: <sjbaker1 at airmail.net>    WorkEmail: <sjbaker at link.com>
HomePage : http://www.sjbaker.org
Projects : http://plib.sf.net    http://tuxaqfh.sf.net
            http://tuxkart.sf.net http://prettypoly.sf.net
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