Not sure what happened.. but something I installed last night (most likely a dependency of one of these window managers: openbox, XFCE4, Window Maker) screwed with the files in the /usr/share/X11/xkb directory.

No idea what changed.. but it was quite entertaining.. when executing my xmodmap .Xmodmap like normal .. it caused the keyboard to be completely backwards.. when pressing the buttons WITHOUT the function key, you got the function key's item, (IE: hit q, get a 1).. but when pressing the function key and the letter - you got the letter.. (FN+q = q)..

Totally reversed on me. I messed with my xmodmap and nothing worked.. so - IF this happens to you.. running the following from OS2008

will get your keyboard working again with my file. I do not know exactly what it changed.. and if I get bored I'll try and find out the exact file - but for now; I have noticed no other problems in using OS2008's xkb directory in debian.. and the keyboard works again.