mouse and keyboard lockup w/ RedHat 8.0

[Bayard R. Coolidge]

Larry said:

 >>> 1) What logs should I check for errors?
 >>> 2) What is the best way to restart XFree86?
 >>> 3) Any processes or kernel stuff I should check?
 >>> 4) Or anything else that would help me narrow down the cause?

I'll have to keep my remarks fairly general, because Larry's running Red 
Hat 8.0,
whereas I'm running SuSE 8.0.

1.) Logs: do either a 'dmesg | more' or use your favorite text editor in 
read-only
mode on /var/log/messages.

2.) I forget the magic incantation for XFree86 restart, but what I'd 
suggest you
do first, if you can get in via telnet again, is to adjust /etc/inittab 
to come up to
just level 3 and not 5. This will keep the newly booting system from 
starting
XFree86 in the first place, and you can then use a character cell login 
instead,
until you get your problems squared away. I'm not necessarily convinced that
XFree86 is the overall culprit here, but this is an excellent way to 
exhonorate it.
(You can then invoke 'startx' from a command prompt to start XFree86 if you
really want to)

3.) Other processes or kernel stuff? I dunno - we need to see what 
kernel you're
running, and what options were set, plus we need to know what type 
(maker/model)
of scanner you have, etc. I just went through a lot of tricky stuff to 
get an HP 7400c
working (and, I'm not convinced it's optimized, either - sounds kind of 
noisy).
Also, I believe that SANE or one of its major components is releasing a new
version momentarily, or was going to do so this week sometime.

4.) Do an 'lsmod' to see what modules are loaded, and if they make 
sense, do an
'lspci' to make sure that that bus is OK (even though you're using USB), 
run 'usbview'
and make sure that your other USB stuff is being seen OK, make sure you 
have the
right USB drivers involved - don't use the Intel one on the NEC hardware 
and vice-versa.

HTH,

Bayard