KDE: strange mouse behavior

[dmz561]

I installed KDE and ran mkxf86config script to setup X, because the desktop setup utility was useless in setting up "normal" mouse behavior. I tried various settings for xset - m but couldn't get a decent mouse acceleration/speed.

Now, when I startx for the first time the mouse works fine, but after a while it gets back to slooow responsiveness I had before running the mkxf86config script.

It happened during my first emerge --sync. And now it happened after I configured pppd and ran a script to connect to the internet (something like 'pon'). Every time I reboot the machine and startx the mouse temporarily works normaly.

What's wrong with my X configuration?

Thanks.

[dmz561]

tweak hdparm settings to enable DMA