Hi all

My Apple keyboard goes dead after about 2 minutes of no use, If I leave Mepis at the KDE login screen it also happens.
The temporary solution is to reconnect the keyboard usb connector, its then 're detected' and continues to work for a little longer.
I've used Fluxbox, Gnome, KDE, and XFCE and this problem affects all desktops.
The keyboard works fine as I use it all the time in windows xp.
Using Mepis 3.4.3

is there any useful information in dmesg after it stops working?

I experience the same problem. I tried a few combinations:

a) A PS/2 keyboard on a desktop PC with also the Apple USB keyboard.
b) Only the Apple USB keyboard on a desktop PC.
c) A notebook with built-in PS/2 keyboard and the Apple USB keyboard.
d) Another brand USB keyboard and the Apple one.

In all situations, the keyboard goes dead after a few minutes of inactivity.

Another strange issue; the special volume keys en al first pass out and the "normal" keys keep working. After a longer period of time, the complete keyboard is dead.

Yet another issue; when the keyboard is dead, all other devices (e.g. mouse) connected on the USB-hub in the keyboard are also dead.

I checked the dmesg, but no disconnect is shown.