Looks like udev is the problem here. Try downgrading udev < 0.060... I had exactly the same issues, couldn't start X no mice, couldn't load ALSA hardware... I downgraded to udev/testing (0.056-3) and everything is working again. Have a look at http://bugs.debian.org/317626, http://bugs.debian.org/317332 and http://bugs.debian.org/317333. Perhaps these three could be merged. Mark