[Techtalk] Keyboard problems

[Dan]

I'm using Debian Sarge on a desktop machine. I rebooted last night to 
test some scripts that I had changed which use hwclock. The machine 
seemed to reboot just fine (XFree came up), so I left it for the night. 
This morning the keyboard didn't work: I couldn't even switch terminals 
using Ctrl+Alt+F2. But the mouse was still working. I didn't try the 
keyboard last night.

I took a deep breath and rebooted, and then the keyboard worked. But why 
didn't it work with the first reboot?

The keyboard and mouse are both on USB cables. The log from the 
disfunctional reboot says this:

Mar 10 20:02:27 localhost kernel: hub 4-0:1.0: USB hub found
Mar 10 20:02:27 localhost kernel: hub 4-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
Mar 10 20:02:27 localhost kernel: usbcore: registered new driver hiddev
Mar 10 20:02:27 localhost kernel: input: USB HID v1.10 Keyboard [Dell 
Dell USB Keyboard] on usb-0000:00:1d.1-1
Mar 10 20:02:27 localhost kernel: usbcore: registered new driver usbhid
Mar 10 20:02:27 localhost kernel: drivers/usb/input/hid-core.c: v2.0:USB 
HID core driver
Mar 10 20:02:27 localhost kernel: usb 2-2: new low speed USB device 
using address 3
Mar 10 20:02:27 localhost kernel: input: USB HID v1.10 Mouse [Dell Dell 
USB Mouse] on usb-0000:00:1d.1-2
Mar 10 20:02:27 localhost kernel: usb 2-1: USB disconnect, address 2
Mar 10 20:02:27 localhost kernel: mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all 
mice
Mar 10 20:02:27 localhost kernel: ts: Compaq touchscreen protocol output
Mar 10 20:02:27 localhost kernel: usb 2-1: new low speed USB device 
using address 4
Mar 10 20:02:27 localhost kernel: input: USB HID v1.10 Keyboard [Dell 
Dell USB Keyboard] on usb-0000:00:1d.1-1
Mar 10 20:02:27 localhost kernel: usb 2-1: USB disconnect, address 4
Mar 10 20:02:27 localhost kernel: usb 2-1: new low speed USB device 
using address 5
Mar 10 20:02:27 localhost kernel: input: USB HID v1.10 Keyboard [Dell 
Dell USB Keyboard] on usb-0000:00:1d.1-1
...
Mar 10 20:02:27 localhost kernel: usb 2-1: USB disconnect, address 30
Mar 10 20:02:27 localhost kernel: usb 2-1: new low speed USB device 
using address 31
Mar 10 20:02:27 localhost kernel: input: USB HID v1.10 Keyboard [Dell 
Dell USB Keyboard] on usb-0000:00:1d.1-1

In the functional reboot, the keyboard stops disconnecting when it 
reaches address 13.