Section "ServerFlags" Option "AllowEmptyInput" "False" Option "AutoAddDevices" "False" EndSection
to 'xorg.conf', and it all seems fine. So it seems there's some issue with nouveau, and it would be polite if 'nvidea-xconfig' refrained from killing the mouse. Other than that, I don't care which video driver is used, so long as the damned thing works.