Cmd+v will not work.
Cmd+any other key is fine

Shift+r will not work
Shift+any other key is fine

v+Cmd will work but – obviously – throws a v at the start and it’s not meant to work like that anyway.
r+ShiftShiftShiftShift might work.

Mac forums are without a clue
restarting – a daily event here now with the ‘oh so stable’ mac does not work
running onyx does not work

It’s an apple keyboard
I dismantled the (stupidly assembled) thing and cleaned it fully a couple of weeks ago. It is NOT the reason.

So, why has the wondrous OS X decided to start crumbling even further? Any ideas?

Can Ubuntu be installed on a mac mini? If it can, I may well. (Yes it can. Dual boot? No. I have no loyalty to OS X. It’ll be the whole HD).

Update: What appears to happen – because I had this happen before – is that OS X forgets just what language settings are in use. So curing it involved choosing another language in the International prefs, then choosing the proper one again. When it happened before I posted to the apple forums I followed up within the hour to say it was working again. No-one replied that it was a known issue. Which means it isn’t, it doesn’t happen and I have a lemon?
Apart from Parallels, ubuntu is looking good……