Re: PS/2 mouse erratic in X and more
The best way to get help with X is to post your /etc/X11/XF86Config. Also you
might have better luck using the graphical setuptool XF86Setup. You need to
have xserver-vga installed to use this.
Brian W. Carver wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have never installed linux before, unless you count SuSE Live Eval 7.3
> (the cd-rom thing), but I spent most of Monday dragging Debian 2.2 r5
> potato kicking and screaming onto my desktop. I've made it a long way,
> but I may finally be stuck and cannot find suitable answers in the
> archive. First a summary of my system and my current problems and then
> a recap of what I learned in the install process for the benefit of
> posterity. Sorry for the length, but I hope it will help someone figure
> out my problems and help others searching for similar solutions.
>
> My desktop is mostly a Sony PCV-220 Pentium II 266Mhz with the Intel
> AL440LX motherboard running the latest BIOS (14) from Intel. It's got
> the original ATI 3D Rage Pro Graphics card with 4MB ram and the original
> PCI ESS Maestro-1 sound card. The original 8GB Maxtor Hard Drive is
> Primary Master and a new 60GB Maxtor HD is Primary slave. The faceless
> floppy was replaced when everything got put in a new case and the
> Secondary Master is a CD-RW drive from I/OMagic or something. I've put
> 384MB of Simple Tech RAM (the max) on it. I still use the original Sony
> Keyboard and the original Sony PS/2 mouse. The monitor is Sony
> CPD-220VS.
>
> I've been installing Debian on the new 60GB hard drive exclusively,
> keeping my Win95 on the old HD. I have to boot with the floppy disk as
> holding down shift as suggested doesn't seem to bring up any boot
> options. I have 4 partitions a small boot one a 256MB root one a 384MB
> swap one and a nearly 60 GB usr partition. I seem to do the total
> re-install over again about every 2 hours, so if someone thinks those
> partitions are bad for some reason, I welcome suggestions.
>
> MY PROBLEM: I got the PS/2 mouse to work in the XFree86 setup by
> choosing dev/psaux instead of dev/mouse, and it worked perfectly during
> THAT setup routine. BUT, when I now boot into X (man was that an
> accomplishment!) the mouse won't move at all at first and then when I
> try to move it, it is very erratic, jumping all over the screen and
> clicking buttons when I don't click. I've tried using the xmseconfig (I
> have to hit F12 to get a drop down menu and then use the arrow keys and
> tab to navigate X right now) but setting it up just like I did in shell
> mode doesn't work. I found in the archive a suggestion that gpm was at
> fault and it suggested doing: dpkg -p gpm and purging gpm out
> completely. I did this but no effect. Also, I've tried running
> xf86config now that I've purged gpm, but no help. In fact it made
> things worse:
>
> MY 2nd PROBLEM: When running xf86config I did something that screwed up
> the resolution as all the text in X looks really grainy now. I thought
> I picked the same options as when I was in the other XFree86 config
> program (that the CDs run, what is that called by the way, and can I run
> it without doing the whole bloody install a sixth time?) My monitor can
> do 30-70kHz Horizontal and 50-120Hz vertical. 1024x768 @85Hz is my
> preferred resolution, but it can handle 1280x1024 @60Hz. I give it
> these custom ranges and I set up all the color depth options with the
> first 3 at just 640x480 and 32bpp or whatever it is with 1024x768
> 800x600 and 640x480 in that order. (432) What do I run/do to get the
> graphics looking right again?
>
> What I learned that may help others:
> There's something about that ATI 3D Rage Pro card that XFree86 does not
> like at all. (I finally found something to this effect in the archives.)
> For a long time all I could get when trying to write the XF86config file
> was _X11TransSocketUnixXonnect: Can't connect: errno = 111 (9x) and then
> Unable to communicate with X server! and this would start over and
> over. I did CTRL-BREAK to get out of that and let everything else
> install and then just kept trying to redo the XFree86 and it was funny,
> I would get a little closer every time. My main advice is just keep
> re-installing XFree86 and somehow it eventually works. You absolutely
> must write down that crazy Vertical and Horizontal scan range for your
> monitor though. You cannot BS on that step.
>
> Also that a PS/2 mouse has to be dev/psaux instead of dev/mouse took me
> forever to figure out. (And as described above it still doesn't work in
> X).
>
> I guess my last piece of advice is that on this most recent install I
> picked the bare minimum in the simple package setup. (I also feel that
> whatever you do, as a newbie, you should never pick advanced. You will
> basically guarantee that you're going to have to do the whole thing
> over. That's what happened to me.) All I selected in the simple mode
> was the gnome stuff and the x stuff. Install the other packages once
> you get a basic graphical interface working. I'm still not there
> myself, and I'd appreciate any help with my mouse and screen resolution
> issues. Thanks.
>
> P.S. My inexperience means that telling me to install foo won't help at
> all. You have to say where foo is, how I'd find it from a bash shell and
> exactly what I type to install it. I appreciate the verbosity.
--
Simon Hepburn.
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