Hello.
I have OS Debian Lenny
I have the same problems with diving robot in "Erratic simulation" and also
in "Simulating One Robot in StageReading from keyboard" -
i can't drive robot with keyboard.  I focus in the window where I ran
teleop_base_keyboard, but robot doesn't answer the keyboard commands.
Maybe i forgot something to do.)

When i ran package teleop_base I see:

---------------------------
q/z : increase/decrease max angular and linear speeds by 10%
w/x : increase/decrease max linear speed by 10%
e/c : increase/decrease max angular speed by 10%
---------------------------
Moving around:
   u    i    o
   j    k    l
   m    ,    .
anything else : stop
---------------------------

And that's all. Robot doesn't move when i push the buttons.)

Thank you.