Mouse not functioning in KDE2.2(stable)/ X-windows-system-core 4.2.19 (unstable)

[shut <shut@raspberryheaven.net>]

Hello,

I have spent the last 24 hours grappling with a problem in configuring 
KDE 2.2 and X 4.2.19 to use my mouse.  I have gone through the default 
configurations after installing them via apt.  The pointer merely 
remains in the center of the screen while X/KDE loads at start-up, and 
remains non-functional through logging in via the GUI.  This is a 
generic 3 button mouse, made (or branded by) General Electric.

Here  the relevant part of my /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 (made by xf86config)

# Identifier and driver

    Identifier  "Mouse1"
    Driver      "mouse"
    Option "Protocol"    "MouseSystems"
    Option "Device"      "/dev/mouse"

I have set this to /dev/psaux as well with no luck, the mouse pointer 
remains in the middle of the screen.  After reading through several 
messages in the archive, I apt-get'd gpm and configured that as well, 
using the defaults.  Here's that current (/etc/gpm.conf) config file.

device=/dev/mouse
responsiveness=
repeat_type=ms3
type=autops2
append=""
sample_rate=

Also, I would like to know how to disable X/KDE from starting up if I 
have to do anything involving either of those two applications such as X 
-configure or some such.  Then again, I'm not really sure what I am 
doing with these files aside from linking device files (mouse is 
symbolically linked to gpmdata).  And yes, I am doing all of these from 
root.  If there is someone whom had the same problem as I and I missed 
the message, could you please link me to the archive or whatever search 
terms you used to find it.  Thank you very much.

John Scanlan