Comment # 5 on bug 911953 from Egbert Eich

(In reply to Geoff Kuenning from comment #4)
> I don't use a desktop environment.  My window manager is Sawfish;it's
> actually a pretty old version (1.3.5.1) because I'm lazy about upgrading.
> 
> It might also be relevant that I run Synergy (synergyc on the laptop that
> has the problem, synergys on the desktop).  So it's possible that synergy is
> adding or removing a pseudo-device.

Ok, this would explain things - even if we don't have any prove.

Assuming synergy does this - if you do run synergy and don't run a desktop
environment you are responsible to check for input devices being added and
removed and set your custom keyboard settings for each 'new' keyboard that
appears yourself - pretty much like the desktop environments do.

I would like to close this as WORKSFORME as from the X and system side
everything is working as expected.
Should you find out that there is anything that points to something that is
malfunctioning, please feel free to reopen.