I've read in various places that keyboard issues can often be resolved by setting the keyboard model to "evdev-managed keyboard" but I cannot figure out how to do this.

In System Settings > Hardware > Input Devices > Hardware > Keyboard there is an option to set the "Keyboard model" but the drop down list does not include an evdev-managed option or anything mentioning evdev at all.

Googling suggested that I might need to disable multiple keyboard layouts so I unchecked the "Configure layouts" option under the Layouts tab. However, several reboots later this still hasn't made a difference. At the same time, I also disabled "Configure keyboard options" under the Advanced tab in case that was also problematic.

I definitely have xf86-input-evdev installed and the evdev module is being loaded:

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$ lsmod | grep evdev
evdev                   9530  17


So I'm not sure what might be wrong. Everything google has turned up has suggested choosing the evdev-managed option as a _solution_ to some other problem. I can't find anything helpful concerning a situation in which the lack of this option is itself the problem!

Does anybody have any ideas?

evdev-managed is likely indicating that you should configure X to use the "evdev" driver to access keyboard's. I believe this is the default on most distributions.

Thanks. I'm not sure I understand although I'm sure it is probably obvious.

Do you mean that the lack of the "evdev-managed" option in the list of keyboard models presented by KDE means that evdev is _not_ managing keyboards on my system (even though it should be)?

Here's the contents of /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-evdev.conf. (I haven't changed anything here - it is just the default settings as far as I know.)

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#
# Catch-all evdev loader for udev-based systems
# We don't simply match on any device since that also adds accelerometers
# and other devices that we don't really want to use. The list below
# matches everything but joysticks.

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "evdev pointer catchall"
        MatchIsPointer "on"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
        Driver "evdev"
EndSection

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "evdev keyboard catchall"
        MatchIsKeyboard "on"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
        Driver "evdev"
EndSection

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "evdev touchpad catchall"
        MatchIsTouchpad "on"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
        Driver "evdev"
EndSection

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "evdev tablet catchall"
        MatchIsTablet "on"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
        Driver "evdev"
EndSection

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "evdev touchscreen catchall"
        MatchIsTouchscreen "on"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
        Driver "evdev"
EndSection


The relevant module seems to be getting loaded (though I'm not sure what the numbers mean or if they are correct):

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$ lsmod | grep evdev
evdev                   9530  18


The only other files in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ are 10-quirks.conf and 10-synaptics.conf. The quirks file is blacklisting HDAPS because it doesn't work on my machine. The synaptics file is setting up the default touchpad stuff which gets overridden by my custom configuration. I do have tweaks in my home directory for trackpad and trackpoint configuration and I re-tweak the pointer button map with xmodmap. But none of this stops evdev managing those devices as far as I can tell and, in any case, as far as I know I haven't touched the keyboard stuff so evdev should be managing keyboard input as far as I know. But KDE doesn't seem to see it even as an option...

I did notice that in ls /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/, xorg, xorg.lst and xorg.xml are linked to base, base.lst and base.xml rather than evdev, evdev.lst and evdev.xml. I haven't changed anything so I'm assuming this is correct but I'm not certain how "base" "evdev" and "xorg" relate to each other, never mind KDE.

I have a feeling I'm making this much more complicated that it should be...

As far as I am aware, KDE Keyboard Layouts are something completely different to evdev.

From what I understand, evdev is the Kernel/X driver responsible for detecting the physical keypress and turning it into a raw "keycode". This keycode is then taken by either the terminal or X keyboard layout and turned into the letters/numbers/etc you are actually pressing.

You can use the output of "xinput" and the content of /var/log/Xorg.0.log to verify what driver your keyboard is using.