strange keyboard behavior

[Peter Hutterer]

On Sat, Jun 27, 2009 at 12:34:30PM -0700, George R Goffe wrote:
> This system is running CentOS 5.3, 32 bit address mode. I'm having trouble
> with my laptop keyboards, both the "native" keyboard and the usb keyboard.
> During boot, prior to starting x, both appear to be working correctly.
> Once I start x, the keyboard is practically non functional. Input is
> eventually received by holding down the keys til they become typematic. At
> this point in time all I can see are the keys I've pressed (i.e., just the
> "normal" results of the typematic action), not the "cmds" I have typed
> though.

sounds like xkb slow keys activated. try deactivating it with 'xkbset -sl'
http://www.math.missouri.edu/~stephen/software/xkbset/

Cheers,
  Peter