X-Arcade on Linux -- keyboard issues

[Chris Goodwin]

I just (meaning about a month ago) put together a new computer, and connected my X-Arcade to the PS/2 keyboard port in exactly the same manner as I had done with my previous computer.  The result was what I can only describe generally as weird behavior.  To be more specific: 

* In console mode, I would frequently get messages similar to the following: 

atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0xf4 on isa0060/serio0).
atkbd.c: use 'setkeycodes e074 <keycode>' to make it known.

The exact keycodes would differ (e060 and e074 were the two most common).  When I would use the setkeycodes command to change them, the codes would change to different numbers.

* In X, I would frequently get repeated keys (usually after another key had been pressed).  I would also get oddball keys popping up in my typing, such as a tilde or an angle bracket in the middle of a word, when my fingers were nowhere near those keys. 

* Also in X, not infrequently the shift key would seem to lock into the on position (not caps lock; it wasn't on, and tapping the left shift key a few times would fix it).  This last would only happen when I would use the cursor arrow keys or the Page Up/Page Down keys.  The physical key on the keyboard was not having any issues; there was no stickiness or anything causing it. 

My system is an AMD Athlon64 3800+ on an ECS KN1 Lite motherboard, NVidia chipset (audio and network).  It's happened in multiple kernel versions in both 64-bit and i386 modes.  It's done it with more than one keyboard. 

A troubleshooting trick I tried was to pass the atkbd.set=3 kernel parameter, which was supposed to switch the keyboard controller from 2 (AT mode, default) to 3 (PS/2 mode).  I believe that that's what the "set 2" refers to in the error message, above.  That didn't change a thing, not even to change the error to "set 3".  I also tried to set keyboard mode to raw rather than translated, using atkbd.softraw=0, but that didn't change anything either.  I went to the extent of contacting the author of the atkbd.c code in the Linux kernel, but he wasn't able to help either. 

Removing the X-Arcade from the system solved the issue.  Which is well and good for general computer usage, with the obvious drawback that I can't use the X-Arcade. 

Has anyone else seen the same or similar issues with X-Arcade and Linux, and if so how did you resolve them?