Okay, I finally made some progress in figuring out why I couldn't type in an X11 session started from either startx or xdm.
I decided to try entirely pulling the xorg.conf file and check the error logs again. This time, I got keyboard input. Unfortunately, the keyboard layout was wrong. Checking /var/log/Xorg.0.log, I found that the assumed keyboard model was pc105. After playing around with a minimal xorg.conf, I tried this: Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Keyboard0" Driver "kbd" # From the sample: Option "Protocol" "standard" Option "XkbRules" "xorg" # Option "XkbModel" "macintosh" # Option "XkbModel" "ibook" Option "XkbModel" "pc105" Option "XkbLayout" "jp" # end-sample EndSection This gives the same results as no xorg.conf, so I nosed around a bit further and I find that there is no "jp" layout for either macintosh or ibook models. It looks I have some work to do, but if anyone could point me in the direction to start looking for source to work from, I'd appreciate it. (Probably won't be able to get started until next weekend, anyway.) Joel Rees