Hi,

> Generally, I use the following configuration (or sometimes its
> XF86Config equivalent, but that only on some machines I installed and
> had no problems with) for most (PC104) keyboards I work with:
> 
> setxkbmap -keycodes 'xfree86' -types 'complete' -compat 'complete+leds(scroll)' 
> -symbols 'us(pc104)+altwin(meta_win)+altwin(meta_alt)+il+group(shift_toggle)' 
> -geometry 'pc(pc104)'

BTW you could get the similar keymap with a simpler command
setxkbmap us,il -model pc104 -option 
"grp:shift_toggle,grp_led:scroll,altwin:meta_win,altwin:meta_alt"
 
> Why can't setxkbmap give some more insightful diagnostics (why did it
> fail, where?)

The thing is that setxkbmap itself doesn't load keymap but sends all names
to the Xserver.  The server in its own turn runs an exteranal program xkbcomp
which 'compiles' the keymap from source files and writes the map in a binary
form into a special file that is then read by Xserver.
Since xkbcomp parses the source files it writes to stderr messages if something
is wrong in input files.  But those message don't reach setxkbmap and it only
can say a 'common' result of loading, i.e. was is successful or not.
 
> Any idea what the problem is?  Why is the behaviour so "random"
> between different hosts?

In XFree86 4.3.0 and later you can easy connect setxkbmap and xkbcomp directly.
Run
setxkbmap ..... -print | xkbcomp -
and see xkbcomp's error messages.
-- 
 Ivan U. Pascal         |   e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
   Administrator of     |   Tomsk State University
     University Network |       Tomsk, Russia
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