Thanks for checking. So the question is how this XKBMODEL="SKIP" appeared in /etc/default/console-setup in the first place. The file is written by console-setup's postinst, and that has a special case for "SKIP" once, but not in the code which actually writes the default file.
My guess would be that the question wasn't shown somehow in the installer, which leads to the debconf database having this "SKIP" value. On the date when it broke for you (3/26/2010) we did get a console-setup update, I guess this triggered the bug for you. ** Package changed: gdm (Ubuntu) => console-setup (Ubuntu) ** Changed in: console-setup (Ubuntu) Status: Incomplete => New ** Changed in: console-setup (Ubuntu) Assignee: Martin Pitt (pitti) => Canonical Foundations Team (canonical-foundations) ** Description changed: + Summary: /etc/default/console-setup has an invalid XKBMODEL="SKIP" + Workaround for affected machines: sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup + + ---------------------------------- + Original bug report: + VMWare Player 3.0.1 build-227600 Host OS: Windows XP Guest OS: Ubuntu 10.04 Beta, Kernel 2.6.32-17-generic After installing a slew of Ubuntu updates on 3/26/2010 keyboard input at the gnome login prompt no longer works. The mouse does work and I am able to use the 'on-screen keyboard' accessibility tool to input my password and gain entry. After logging in, there does not seem to be any problems using the keyboard, I experience the problem only at the gnome login screen. I suspected that after updating that possibly some of the vmware drivers may not be working correctly, so I ran vmware-config-tools.pl to recompile the tools, which didn't work. I've tried a couple of cycles of rebooting the VM and restarting vmware player, which hasn't resolved the problem either. I've attached the portion of the apt history.log showing the packages that were applied during the update. ** Changed in: console-setup (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided => High -- keyboard input broken due to invalid "SKIP" keyboard model https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/548891 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Desktop Bugs, which is subscribed to gdm in ubuntu. -- desktop-bugs mailing list desktop-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/desktop-bugs