[kde-linux] Cannot use Start/Alt keys for Emacs

[Bruce Korb]

Pressing and releasing escape before another key is clumsy and slow.
Trying to fix that, I managed to rejigger "Start" to look like it
traditionally does:  Meta-L (xev).  Only emacs cannot see it and now that
I have done that, it does not see the Alt prefix either.  So, I have
  a MS-Natural keyboard, settings in /etc/X11/xorg.conf, and several
possible settings in Control-Center -> Peripherals -> Keyboard
and Control-Center -> Regional & Accessibility -> Keyboard Layout
and -> Keyboard Shortcuts.  Lots and lots of stuff to fiddle with.
How do I just get the Alt and Start keys to work like Alt and Meta
keys they way they were always intended to work for emacs?  Thanks. - Bruce

KDE 3.5.3-0.2fc5 Red Hat
$ emacs --version
GNU Emacs 21.4.1
Copyright (C) 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
GNU Emacs comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
You may redistribute copies of Emacs
under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
For more information about these matters, see the file named COPYING.