On Monday 20 August 2007, you wrote:
> Steven M. Bellovin wrote:
> > On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 09:44:45 -0600
> >
> > Sverre Froyen <sverre@viewmark.com> wrote:
> >> On Saturday morning, I cvs update'ed my pkgsrc, deleted all packages
> >> and rebuilt the package subset that I normally use.  Running the new
> >> version of xorg, I see massive problems with keyboard input.  Both
> >> key down and key up event are frequently missed (input characters are
> >> missing and keys keep repeating until another key is pressed).  Also,
> >> the ctl-alt-esc and ctl-alt-fn combinations are ignored.  Mouse
> >> events appear normal.  I have also seen Xwindows hang a few times
> >> (some of hangs can be revocered by logging in over the network and
> >> killing the X server).  On further examination, it appears that the
> >> problems are only present when running a KDE component such as
> >> konquerer (I do not have to run the KDE desktop to see the problems).
> >
> > What I'm seeing is *really* sluggish interactive behavior, and I don't
> > run KDE anything.  On an idle machine -- not a slow one; it's a 3.4Ghz
> > Dell with 1G of RAM -- I've seen repeated delayed character echoes in
> > xterm, for example.  I don't know if my problem is the kernel or xorg;
> > I'm seeing application slowness, too.  (I updated to -current as of
> > Wednesday Aug 15 and cc'd current-users.)
>
> I suspect that Xorg is using a console that's already used, like
> "console" or "ttyE0" as defined in /etc/ttys. I disabled "ttyE0" and
> enabled "ttyE1" instead here, and Xorg no longer crashes.
>
> It looks like 1.3.0 is either not wscons-aware anymore. It also seems
> that X no more understands the "vtXX" argument. I would be glad if
> someone could confirm that, and tell what the proper fix would actually be.

Thanks for the hint.  Adding

    Option "Protocol"    "wskbd"
    Option "Device"      "/dev/wskbd"

to the keyboard input device section in my xorg.conf file seems to cure most 
of my problems.  No more missing or endlessly repeating characters.  And, so 
far, no hangs.  Ctl-alt sequences are still non-functioning, however.  And 
serveral other keys such as the arrow keys and page up/down keys are not 
working.  I tried a configuration without the protocol option (a config file 
comment claims it is usually not needed).  That configuration had massive 
problems and was completely unusable.

There was a discussion on port-sparc about problems using /dev/wskbd with 
multiple keyboards attached.  I'll find out tomorrow.

Sverre