USB optical mouse on laptop causes bk12 boot to hang

[Robert P. J. Day]

  on to the next issue.  the setup:
	dell inspiron 8100 laptop
	RH 9
	2.5.66-bk12

  for ergonomic reasons, rather than use the laptop keyboard and
touchpad, i have (under the previous RH 8 and 2.4.20) been using
an external PS/2 keyboard and logitech USB optical mouse.  this
setup has been working fine -- when both external input devices
are connected, i can use either keyboard, and just the optical
USB mouse.

  booting under 2.5.66-bk12, if just the keyboard is connected,
no problem.  the boot works, both keyboards are active, and the
touchpad works.

  however, if i connect *only* the optical mouse, the boot gets
to "Freeing unused kernel memory", hangs for about a minute, 
then powers down the box.  not good.  (same thing happens if 
both external keyboard and mouse are connected, so i've isolated
it to just the optical mouse).

  thoughts?

rday