Comment 17 for bug 341094

I have the same problem with the Dell Vostro 1510.

Keyboard & Trackpad NEVER work unless I keep tapping keys during boot phase (kubuntu progress bar).

This was first observed with 8.10 but also occurs with 9.04. I experience the same in Debian Lenny.
During the setup process of any of the above mentioned distro's I've had to use an external USB KM & Mouse to complete the installation.

Adding only i8042.reset to the end of line # kopt=root=UUID=c10a4641-f9b2-8b06-7127-bb1ba1fe45d4 ro
in grub menu.lst file fixes the problem.

See Ubuntu forum post http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=7633298#post7633298