Keyboard not working properly in ell Vostro 1500 running Ubuntu 8.10

No real answer... It is a bug! You are not alone at all.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg/+bug/283336
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=897367

Thanks midnightflash, I appreciate it! Somehow I missed this while trawling through for Ubuntu bugs. Well figures. I will try the workaround and see if it fixes it. Hopefully somebody will patch it correctly

Thanks midnightflash, that solved my question.

Ok so the plot just go thicker with this bug...the workarounds aren't working, I have tried both the command prompt and also editing the xconfig file.

This is where it gets strange. I decided that maybe somebody fixed this bug so I decided to update my packages using the package manager update feature and sure enough there were new packages to download. I did that and my graphics card drivers would not load properly. I had to use the 800x600 mode to login and found that my keyboard was fixed and even my volume keys were working properly. But i had to fix the graphics driver and so I had to use 800x600 to go download the Nvidia driver(176) and then reboot in rescue mode and level1 and then reinstall the Nvidia driver. At the end of the driver installation I asked it to run the nvidia-xconfig tool to modify the xconfig file. I rebooted to find that the graphics card problem was fixed but the annoying keyboard bug was back. Now I can't for the life of me figure out how to keep the one without the other....anybody have any suggestions?

Ok I think and as is probably obvious from the post above. The problem seems to be nvidia's new nvidia-xconfig tool that writes a new xorg.conf file in etc/X11/

This tool breaks the keyboard and the sound buttons on my dell vostro 1500 laptop. I am posting both the files below. Hopefully somebody with more X11 experience will be able to help me out. Thanks in advance.

xconfig keyboard working but no nvidia driver working properly:

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 1.0 (buildmeister@builder5 Wed Oct 1 15:12:53 PDT 2008

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# generated from default
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Unknown"
HorizSync 30.0 - 110.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 150.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

nvidia driver working but no keyboard and no sound buttons:

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 1.0 (buildmeister@builder5 Wed Oct 1 15:12:53 PDT 2008

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen 0 "Screen0"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Unknown"
HorizSync 30.0 - 110.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 150.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Please read https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg/+bug/254840
Try to install the xserver-xorg-input-all package.

Hope this helps

Since the last xorg updates all my xorg-problems are gone.
What about you Amit?