Comment 23 for bug 283128

I've had a problem for a long time (months... back from pre-Intrepid alphas). Toshiba M200 tablet. Symptoms are very similar to Michael's. I normally use Dvorak. This happens very consistently with several different USB keyboards I've tried, different manufacturers:

boot with USB keyboard connected: no problem
boot without: no problem
boot connected, unplug: no problem
plug in keyboard: big red X on keyboard indicator panel applet, layout back to qwerty

I work around this by running "setxkbmap dvorak".

There may be bigger issues at play, because it fails to shut off after hibernation if I unplug the keyboard at the wrong time. (This also very consistent and been happening since about the same time.)

Here's from Xorg.0.log when I plug in a mouse and keyboard:

(EE) Logitech USB Optical Mouse: Read error: No such device
(II) config/hal: removing device Logitech USB Optical Mouse
(II) Logitech USB Optical Mouse: Close
(II) UnloadModule: "evdev"
(EE) DELL DELL USB Keyboard: Read error: No such device
(II) config/hal: removing device DELL DELL USB Keyboard
(II) DELL DELL USB Keyboard: Close
(II) UnloadModule: "evdev"
(II) config/hal: Adding input device DELL DELL USB Keyboard
(**) DELL DELL USB Keyboard: always reports core events
(**) DELL DELL USB Keyboard: Device: "/dev/input/event2"
(II) DELL DELL USB Keyboard: Found keys
(II) DELL DELL USB Keyboard: Configuring as keyboard
(II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "DELL DELL USB Keyboard" (type: KEYBOARD)
(**) Option "xkb_rules" "evdev"
(**) DELL DELL USB Keyboard: xkb_rules: "evdev"
(**) Option "xkb_model" "pc105"
(**) DELL DELL USB Keyboard: xkb_model: "pc105"
(**) Option "xkb_layout" "us"
(**) DELL DELL USB Keyboard: xkb_layout: "us"

Nothing out of the ordinary in dmesg, except the keyboard is registered before the mouse...