just had a more detailed search and it seems having my mighty mouse plugged in might be the issue. gonna go and try now.
see:
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/feedback/boot_camp_user_reports.html
i tried intalling win xp using boot camp and an xp pro .iso i downloaded from bittorrent (to avoid the hassle of slipstreaming it myself) and it doesn't respond to keyboard input at all. tried this with two different versions of win xp. any ideas? anything i should be doing? would the language...