The last line was meant to be a joke, actually ! - but seriously :
my keyboard is an extended en.US PC-AT (modern) with 12 Function keys,
from an HP-6715b x86_64x2 2.2Ghz laptop , and xterm and all X-Windows
apps work flawlessly under KDE-3.5.9 , but NOT under KDE 4.2 only in 
respect that I cannot enter 'e' - I can enter '^E' or 'E' ok , but when
trying to enter 'e' the cursor changes and focus leaves wherever I was
entering it - where does it go ?

Xorg server log excerpts :

(==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"
(==) ServerLayout "Simple Layout"
(**) |-->Screen "Screen0" (0)
(**) |   |-->Monitor "Monitor0"
(**) |   |-->Device "ATI Radeon X1200"
(**) |-->Input Device "Mouse1"
(**) |-->Input Device "Keyboard1"
(**) Option "AIGLX" "no"
(**) Option "AllowEmptyInput" "off"
(**) Option "AutoAddDevices" "off"
(**) Option "AutoEnableDevices" "on"
(**) Not automatically adding devices
(**) Automatically enabling devices
(WW) `fonts.dir' not found (or not valid) in "/usr/local/share/fonts".
	Entry deleted from font path.
	(Run 'mkfontdir' on "/usr/local/share/fonts").
(**) FontPath set to:
	/usr/share/fonts/misc,
	/usr/share/fonts/Type1,
	/usr/share/fonts/100dpi,
	/usr/share/fonts/75dpi,
	/usr/lib64/X11/fonts/misc/,
	/usr/lib64/X11/fonts/TTF/,
	/usr/lib64/X11/fonts/OTF,
	/usr/lib64/X11/fonts/Type1/,
	/usr/lib64/X11/fonts/100dpi/,
	/usr/lib64/X11/fonts/75dpi/,
	built-ins
(==) ModulePath set to "/usr/lib64/xorg/modules"
(II) Loader magic: 0x7b99e0
(II) Module ABI versions:
	X.Org ANSI C Emulation: 0.4
	X.Org Video Driver: 5.0
	X.Org XInput driver : 5.0
	X.Org Server Extension : 2.0
(++) using VT number 7
...
(II) RADEONHD: X driver for the following AMD GPG (ATI) graphics devices:
...	RS690 : Radeon X1200, X1250, X1270. ...
...(II) LoadModule: "dbe"
(II) LoadModule: "extmod"
(II) LoadModule: "glx"
(II) LoadModule: "dri"
(II) LoadModule: "dri2"
(II) LoadModule: "radeonhd"
(II) LoadModule: "synaptics"
(II) LoadModule: "evdev"
(II) LoadModule: "i2c"
(II) LoadModule: "ddc"
(II) LoadModule: "fb"
(II) LoadModule: "ramdac"
(II) LoadModule: "xaa"

Have you tested the "e" in any other non-KDE application ? and may be in KDE3 ones?
May be some shortcut is misconfigured to "e" so pressing that key doesn't print the character but execute that action. Or may be there is some another configuration issue.
Thanks

RE: Comment #3 :> Have you tested the "e" in any other non-KDE application ?

Yes, as I said above, "Mozilla Firefox 3.0.5" and "KDE 3.5 apps" have no problem
reading 'e's from the keyboard; only KDE 4.2 apps cannot do so .

I have never made any explicit KDE keyboard mappings, and I did:
   ' mv .kde .kde-3.5; mv .kderc .kderc-3.5 '
and edited no configuration before starting KDE 4.2 for the first time -
using 'kde4 startkde' because kdm doesn't let me type in my password .

Where could I look for the source of this mapping from 'e' to some KDE4 action?
Is there an easy way to turn all such mappings off ?

OK, I rebuilt X-Windows & install from latest GIT , and also dbus (libdbus1.so.3.4.0*) and am actually typing this, with use
of as few 'e's as poss.,  on the 'e'-lacking KDE 4.2 system - build from latest
trunk in progress .
Now I am running X-Windows with /etc/X11/xorg.conf generated from output of :
 $ Xorg -configure > /etc/X11/xorg.conf
and changing vid. mod. driver to radeonhd (xorg.conf now upload.).

Also rebuilt all XKB tools ( setxkbmap ,  xkbcomp, xkbutils, ...) !

Still, lack of 'e' !!

Now, with new X libs, firefox also cannot read 'e' under KDE4 .

Only way to fix is to restart X and run KDE-3.5 or gnome or motif .

Please, could someone with knowledge of KDE keyboard input internals
give me a few pointers as to how to disable all keyboard accelerators
or translations - thanks !
Will post back again here will resolution.

Created attachment 33636 [details]
/etc/X11/xorg.conf

The Xorg configuration file .

CLUE: I can type 'e' ONLY IN firefox "GTK Entry" fields, but not in GTK textview
fields ( I just typed the 'e' in "/etc/X11/xorg.conf" in the upload GTK entry,
but could not type it in the preceding text in this field - real pain! (had to
use mouse-paste ) ).

CLUE: I can type 'e' ONLY IN firefox "GTK Entry" fields, but not in GTK textview
fields ( I just typed the 'e' in "/etc/X11/xorg.conf" in the upload GTK entry,
but could not type it in the preceding text in this field - real pain! (had to
use mouse-paste ) ).

Aha! What works is to run "/usr/kde/3.5/bin/startkde", with path set to
 ${KDEDIR:-/usr/kde/3.5/bin}:${QTDIR:-/usr/qt/3/bin}
but then a ".bashrc" or ".kshrc" / ".profile" / ".login" containing
 PATH=${KDEDIR:=/usr/kde/4.2/bin}:${QTDIR:-/usr/qt/4.5/bin}
.
Then KDE4 works ok, allowing me to type 'e' again - whoopee! 

Note: I had to remove these calls from 
/usr/kde/4.2/bin/startupconfigkeys
:
kcminputrc Mouse cursorTheme 'Oxygen_Black'
kcminputrc Mouse cursorSize ''
ksplashrc KSplash Theme Default
ksplashrc KSplash Engine KSplashX
kcmrandrrc Display ApplyOnStartup false
kcmrandrrc [Screen0]
kcmrandrrc [Screen1]
kcmrandrrc [Screen2]
kcmrandrrc [Screen3]
kcmfonts General forceFontDPI 0
kdeglobals Locale Language '' # trigger requesting languages from KLocale


This file only works under KDE-3.5 - so why is it being used under KDE 4.2 ?

It appears the input module 'immodule' installed by KDE4 is severely (ouch!) 
broken !

Could whoever maintains it please contact me ? Thanks !

Meanwhile I'm hoping that building from latest trunk will cure. 

Otherwise, what a terrific desktop / window manager KDE4 is - well done !

Trying to rebuild ORBit for the kdesupport -> polkit -> gconf -> ORBit 
dependancy chain, the same missing files occur :

make[5]: Leaving directory `/tmp/ORBit2-2.14.12/src/idl-compiler'
/bin/true: line 1: kcminputrc: command not found
/bin/true: line 2: kcminputrc: command not found
/bin/true: line 3: ksplashrc: command not found
/bin/true: line 4: ksplashrc: command not found
/bin/true: line 5: kcmrandrrc: command not found
/bin/true: line 6: kcmrandrrc: command not found
/bin/true: line 7: kcmrandrrc: command not found
/bin/true: line 8: kcmrandrrc: command not found
/bin/true: line 9: kcmrandrrc: command not found
/bin/true: line 10: kcmfonts: command not found
/bin/true: line 11: kdeglobals: command not found

The same occurs during kde4 kdestart . 
Where are the sources for these commands ? I can't find them under KDE/* .

Oops, somehow /bin/true ended up as a link to 
 /usr/kde/4.2/share/config/startupconfigkeys 
!!
This is now corrected.

But what I don't understand is these lines in startupconfigkeys which I had to 
comment out :
# kcminputrc Mouse cursorTheme 'Oxygen_Black'
kcminputrc_mouse_cursortheme="Oxygen_Black"
# kcminputrc Mouse cursorSize ''
kcminputrc_mouse_cursorsize=""
# ksplashrc KSplash Theme Default
ksplashrc_ksplash_theme="Default"
# ksplashrc KSplash Engine KSplashX
ksplashrc_ksplash_engine="KSplashX"
# kcmrandrrc Display ApplyOnStartup false
kcmrandrrc_display_applyonstartup="false"
# kcmrandrrc [Screen0]
# kcmrandrrc [Screen1]
# kcmrandrrc [Screen2]
# kcmrandrrc [Screen3]
# kcmfonts General forceFontDPI 0
kcmfonts_general_forcefontdpi="120"
# kdeglobals Locale Language '' # trigger requesting languages from KLocale
kdeglobals_locale_language="en_US:en_GB:de:da:ar"
klocale_languages=en_US:en_GB:de:da:ar


This file originally contained, after the KDE 4.2 build :
kcminputrc Mouse cursorTheme 'Oxygen_Black'
kcminputrc Mouse cursorSize ''
ksplashrc KSplash Theme Default
ksplashrc KSplash Engine KSplashX
kcmrandrrc Display ApplyOnStartup false
kcmrandrrc [Screen0]
kcmrandrrc [Screen1]
kcmrandrrc [Screen2]
kcmrandrrc [Screen3]
kcmfonts General forceFontDPI 0
kdeglobals Locale Language '' # trigger requesting languages from KLocale


Ie. it looks like some KDE program is trying to run this as a script, but 
none of these are commands : 
-rw------- 1 jason  1004  145 2009-05-13 18:39 /mnt/gentoo/usr/kde/4.2/share/config/kcminputrc
-rw------- 1 jason  1004 4550 2009-05-13 17:32 /mnt/gentoo/usr/kde/4.2/share/config/kdeglobals
-rw------- 1 jason jason   40 2009-05-13 16:43 /mnt/gentoo/usr/kde/4.2/share/config/ksplashrc
-rw------- 1 jason jason   54 2009-05-12 16:16 /mnt/gentoo/usr/kde/4.2/share/config/kcmfonts


They are all configuration files, but some startup scripts seem to be 
treating them as scripts !

I'm confused! Anyone have any suggestions how to fix ?

Mh, this report is a bit messy. Also your installation seems to be messed up (mixed KDE3/KDE4 installation, mixed config files).
Have you tried with a new clean user account (just for testing)... or trying a LiveCD ? to see if the problem is in your configuration mixup or in the hardware configuration.

Ok ... how long till everyone learns to assign such bugs to me. Have a look into "kcmshell4 khotkeys". Somewhere is an action having 'e' as it's shortcut. IIRC it's "go to kde website".

That problem shouldn't happen anymore. We had that during the early 4.x development stage and i thought we fixed it. The problem behind it is qt inability to parse invalid key sequences correctly. It will take "Win+e" and parse it as 'e' because qt doesn't like/know 'win'.

We substitute 'win' with 'meta'. which qt knows. 

Jason Are you willing to work with me to find out how that problem still can occur?

I would have to ask you some questions and to test some stuff.

Mike

Many thanks Mike for responding - Yes, I'd be happy to provide further information
and investigate this more - but problem seems now to be fixed, after I rebuilt 
dbus, dbus-glib, and latest qt-copy (4.5) from KDE SVN, and then un-commented-out
the lines from startkde which failed before:
  cat >$kdehome/share/config/startupconfigkeys <<EOF
kcminputrc Mouse cursorTheme 'Oxygen_Black'
kcminputrc Mouse cursorSize ''
ksplashrc KSplash Theme Default
ksplashrc KSplash Engine KSplashX
kcmrandrrc Display ApplyOnStartup false
kcmrandrrc [Screen0]
kcmrandrrc [Screen1]
kcmrandrrc [Screen2]
kcmrandrrc [Screen3]
kcmfonts General forceFontDPI 0
kdeglobals Locale Language '' # trigger requesting languages from KLocale
EOF
kstartupconfig

So, this bug is now fixed - I have 'e' again - hooray!

But is there still any info I get for you ?

This was probably a DBUS misconfiguration issue - but perhaps KDE could do a
better job of ensuring that DBUS is correctly configured before agreeing to
'startkde', and 'startkde' should verify it has a complete and correct
configuration before proceeding.