kdm halts keyboard
 

This is a strange problem:

I've been using gdm as a login manager (with gnome, kde, xfce, and other window managers), but I recently upgraded to the most recent kde version (3.2.3) and wanted to try kdm again, to see if it had improved -- previously I found gdm to be a better login manager.

Anyway, after I installed kdm (using apt), then rebooted, my keyboard would not work as soon as kdm loaded. The mouse worked fine. The keyboard did work if I booted to a console, and it worked after I reinstalled gdm (eventually I removed kdm). What is it with kdm that kills my keyboard?

I've never had that error before, but you might get a clue as to what is causing it by taking a look at /var/log/kdm.log

i got that error after i upgraded to sid and kde 3.3. i then installed kdm and the keyboard would not work. nothing in kdm.log showed anything wrong. could there be a problem with versions? like kdm not upgraded or something? and yes i did all the dist-upgrade and apt-get update and stuff like that first before i upgraded everything

It looks like it is this bug: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=266106

The fix is to change the kdmrc to start on the 7th virtual console rather than the 2nd (it is described in the link above).