Re: mouse configuration
On Fri, Jan 05, 2001 at 04:26:42PM -0500, Mithras wrote:
> My mouse has been working fine, but perhaps something more subtle
> could be wrong. Learning something new's always valuable.
Yes, it is only working because your errors zero'd out:)
> On Fri, 5 Jan 2001, Carel Fellinger wrote:
...
> > This doesn't sound right! (maybe it's just me failing to understand you)
> > You should not touch /dev/gpmdata, let alone rename it. Let me recap:
> >
> > In XF86Config you should use:
> >
> > Protocol "whatever suits your mouse"
> > Device "/dev/mouse"
>
> Currently I have:
>
> Protocol "Microsoft"
> Device "/dev/ttyS0"
If it works, fine; however X and gpm tent to give raise to problems
when both try to read the mouse. IIRQ this applies only to busmouse,
like PS/2, but it's good to be prepared. So to be on the safe side
you better do as adviced:) Besides, if you ever deside to replace
the mouse then you'll only have to change this symlink to have it
working again (yeah right:)
For busmouse the workaround is to use gpm in `repeater' mode, and have
gpm read the mouse all the time, writing what it reads to /dev/gpmdata
for other programs (like X) to read. By default gpm will translate
the raw mouse data to the `msc' protocol before writing it out to
/dev/gpmdata. This behaviour is triggered by the `-R' or `--raw'
option. If you don't specify a protocol, or an empty protocol, then
`msc' is used, but you're normally better of using `raw' as protocol
as this leaves all the mouse data as is. If you setup gpm to do its
repeating thingy, make sure that gpm is the *only* program reading the
mouse directly! Have other programs read /dev/gpmdata instead. But
be advised to let those other programs read from /dev/mouse and
symlink /dev/gpmdata to /dev/mouse. The nice thing about using the
/dev/mouse symlink and have gpm repeat in `raw' mode is, that you
don't have to reconfigure those other programs whenever you decide to
dump gpm (or the repeater mode). Just dump gmp and adjust the symlink
/dev/ttyS0 to /dev/mouse and your done!
If you don't have a busmouse (like /dev/ttyS0) then you don't really
need this repeater stuff. Simply commenting the `raw=' line out in
/etc/gpm.conf and the repeater stops: no /dev/gpmdata, and X needs to
read from /dev/ttS0 it self. Be advised, however, to still let X read
from /dev/mouse, and symlink /dev/ttS0 to /dev/mouse.
> I haven't used anything like the repeat_type or append settings you
> have there. Gpm's device is /dev/ttyS0, and the type is ms.
> repeat_type is ''.
So repeating is on, and translated into `msc' protocol.
> Still, these settings did not work until I moved /dev/gpmdata. The
I bet that after restartin gpm (eg. after a reboot) you'll have
problems again. I think gpm creates this file each time it's running,
so you'll have to remove it each time. Don't. Either setup gpm to do
no repeating or do it properly.
> mouse did not move, yet I'd set the pointer to use /dev/ttyS0. I
> remembered reading here or on the web that someone else couldn't get
> their mouse to work on X until they removed gpmdata, so I thought I'd
> try that. I'd read it was a named pipe that the gpm process populated
> with mouse input so X could get its data from it, so I figured it
> wouldn't hurt anything in the console if I took it away. Maybe X was
Taking it away was the error that evened out the previous errors:)
In effect it prohibited gpm from doing its repeating thing, so it
stopped reading from /dev/ttS0 and X no longer had a conflict on
who was reading the mouse:) Oh and yes, gpm is smart enough to
know when someone else (X) controls a virtual console, so it starts
reading at the moment you switch back to a text oriented console.
> This might not be ideal, but I'm a practical guy.
To me this is not practical, but making a mess out of your system.
A few of those and debugging odd behaviour gets very complicated,
better leave that to the windows world:)
--
groetjes, carel
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