usb keyboard works in bios, not in DF

[esmith]

 usb keyboard works fine, when used to navigate the mobo bios, but fails in 
dragonfly. It is not possible to log in at the blackscreen console prompt. In DF when 
the keyboard is un/plugged the kernel prints usb detach/attach info. The usb hub 
built in to the keyboard appears to be recognized as well, and when devices are 
attached/detached from the hub the kernel prints correct id info.

from dmesg
uhci0: <VIA 83C572 USB controller> port 0xd400-0xd41f irq 10 at device 16.0 on pci0
installed MI handler for int 10
usb0: <VIA 83C572 USB controller> on uhci0
usb0: USB revision 1.0
uhub0: VIA UHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1
uhub0: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered
uhub0: port error, restarting port 1
uhub0: port error, giving up port 1
rarely on boots the usb keyboard does work, only about 1 out of every 15 boots... strange

The same machine & keyboard have no problems with another unix-like OS