Thanks, JohnnyH

The HD install is not my primary distribution right now; it is to serve as a supplement to my main distribution.

The principal reason for installing, as I indicated above, is to customize and remaster the live CD.

The locale setting is one of the first things I checked and it is set for USA (although I'm in Canada) and English. lang=us set that parameter correctly. It appears that kbd data is the only thing that's screwed up.

I kept trying keys until I got enough information to "su - root" and edit the kdmrc file to allow root logins--and lo, the personalizer wizard CAME UP IN ENGLISH instead of German, and sure enough, the keyboard layout was US.

So, although the basic problem remains, it is of little consequence for my purposes, since I can now log into the GUI as root and personalize my installation using synaptic. I hate mysteries, but this one can wait for another day.

Is there a way I can mark this one solved?