Re: A USB Mouse Remedy

["nate" <debian-user@aphroland.org>]

Richard Spillane said:

> but all the options were "prefix" PS/2.  Now I am thinking I wasted yet
> MORE time, because I chose psaux instead of what my gut told me,
> input/mouse. Now what should I do?

my debian experience tells me there is no official USb support, that
is I have yet to find any configuration tools that specifically mention
USB.

That said, I do run USB trackballs(wired & wireless, made by logitech)
on multiple debian computers(both desktop and laptop). The procedure
is pretty simple. Note I use 2.2.19 so if your using 2.4.x the procedure
may be slightly different but it may give you an idea ..

I also compile my own kernels, so I am not certain if debian's default
kernels include USB modules.

1) load the drivers:

modprobe hid input mousedev

2) plug in the mouse (this can be #1 too, doesn't matter)

3) create the /dev/usbmouse device:

mknod /dev/usbmouse c 13 63

4) configure X(v4), note that I only use USB mice as a secondary mouse
pointer:

(this is from my Logitech cordless trackman wheel but applies to probably
most any logitech usb mouse and probably most others too)
Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier "Mouse2"
    Driver     "mouse"
    Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
    Option "Device" "/dev/usbmouse"
    Option "ZaxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier  "Simple Layout"
    Screen "Screen 1"
    InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"
    InputDevice "Mouse2" "SendCoreEvents"
    InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

(note the SendCoreEvents feature)

if you only have 1 mouse, then I guess you can make it the primary.
by making it the secondary X will ignore it if it's not there, and allow
you to use it(in addition to the primary) if it is there, and only
1 cursor shows, despite 2 input devices controlling the same cursor.
X also allows you to use the secondary cursor immediately upon plugin,
you don't have to restart X after you plug the mouse in if X is running
at the time(which is cool to me)

to try the mouse in gpm I do:

gpm -t imps2 -m /dev/usbmouse

and it works fine for me..

I have setup the same thing under SusE 8 / 2.4.18 though the system
I did that on is not here but I believe the procedure was virtually
identical.

It also helps to have the usb filesystem(usbdevfs) compiled into
the kernel, and mounted:

mount -t usbdevfs none /proc/bus/usb

that way you can monitor what devices the system sees by looking
at /proc/bus/usb/devices


nate