[svlug] keyboard wedge device enabling/disabling?

[Alan Denney]

I've had the strangest thing happen with a long-working solution 
suddenly going south...

Hardware: old Armada laptop running RH 7.2 (yes, it's old, but I have software
that needs it, and this machine is NEVER connected to the Internet when 
Linux is up)

I have an application where I scan barcodes as part of a data entry process.
I've used various regular keyboard-wedge scanners plugging into the external
mouse port with complete success and no interference with the touchpad.
(This is running a text app within a terminal window.)

Now, suddendly, when booted to Linux, the scanned data doesn't come through.
It's just ignored.  It's not the hardware, because it all still works fine 
when booted to Win98.  It's like some configuration detail got hosed by itself.

If I use mouseconfig to try to change from the touchpad default to 
anything else, X crashes on startup and/or the window cursor 
wanders randomly - no response to the touchpad (and the scanner 
data CONTINUES to be dropped). 

Stranger yet: I have a USB wedge device for use on my newer Windows XP 
machines that lack the old-style keyboard port, and it WORKS FINE on RH 7.2, 
despite no driver for it being installed (I was surprised the wedge 
worked at all).   Just plugged it in, and it works fine again through that
USB device.

All these behaviors hold whether logged in as a user or as root.

Any ideas on what might have gotten fried in the keyboard/mouse configuration?
I'd rather not dedicate the USB wedge device to this machine if it's 
not necessary.