said Dan Youngquist:
| At this point it seems to me more like a hardware compatibility | issue between the USB keyboard adapter and the docking station. | Sometimes perfectly good devices just don't play nicely together | with certain other devices in certain situations. (This assumes | the other USB keyboard adapter you tried is identical, or at least | uses the same chipset.) If you can try a real USB keyboard, or a | USB adapter with a different chipset, I suspect the problem may | disappear. Also, try a live CD of a different Linux -- different | kernel, display manager, DE, etc. -- and see what happens.
i would agree but for the fact that the aberrant behavior is not displayed until x starts. both keyboards work uneventfully in a linux text-based boot. not a hiccup. this suggests, if it does not prove, a configuration issue.
thanks. i'll live with it!