Re: Broken Mouse: [Was: Unidentified subject!]

[Kent West <westk@acu.edu>]

Sara wrote:

> > What type of mouse do you have? Is it a PS/2 mouse?
> > Serial? USB?
> >    
>
> PS/2
>
>  
>
> > Do you remember seeing anything about "gpm" in
> > /etc/rc*.d? (BTW, it 
> >    
>
>
> No, there is nothing.
>  
I don't know why "/etc/gpm-root.conf" is there; I'm not familiar with 
that file, but I see it's on my box also. What I really wanted to know 
about was "/etc/gpm.conf". Apparently you don't have it, and apparently 
it's never been configured for X to use it (according to your snippet 
from "/etc/X11/XF86Config-4" below), so we'll just ignore it for now. 
(gpm is a console-based mouse driver, for the non-GUI text consoles, 
etc. Configuring it to work in conjuction with the driver for X takes a 
bit more, so we'll just leave it alone for now.)

> > sounds like you're trying to do things in a manner
> > that is not "the 
> > Debian Way" -- that's okay, but you'll find that
> >    
>
> I installed Debian two weeks ago, I hardly knew there
> was a "Debian way" :). I guess I *have* to read some
> doc...
>
>  
Or just keep breaking things; you'll learn things fast that way, also  :-)

> > Do you have gpm installed? Run "dpkg -s gpm" and
> > look for the "Status" 
> > line. If so, post the contents of /etc/gpm.conf.
> >    
>
> Yes, it is installed.
Oh, wait, gpm is installed?! But there's no "/etc/gpm.conf" file, just a 
"gpm-root.conf"? Hmmm. For now, I think I'd uninstall gpm, with a 
command like:
   apt-get --purge remove gpm

> The contents of
> /etc/gpm-root.conf are:
>
>  
<blah>

> > Post the contents of the mouse section of
> > /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.
> >    
>
> Here they are: 
>
> Section "InputDevice"
>        Identifier  "Serial Mouse"
>        Driver      "mouse"
>        Option      "Protocol" "Microsoft"
>        Option      "Device" "/dev/ttyS0"
>        Option      "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
>        Option      "Emulate3Timeout" "70"
>        Option      "SendCoreEvents"  "true"
> EndSection
>  

Ah, there we go.

X has been told to look for the mouse on the first serial port, whereas 
it needs to be told to look for X on the ps/2 port. Run 
"dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86" and you should get to a point where 
it asks about your mouse. If it's a roller-wheel mouse, tell it to use 
"imps2"; if it's not a roller-wheel mouse, use "ps2". I think you might 
could even use "autops2". At any rate, this is where the problem is; it 
might take a bit of experimentation to get it just right. (Yes, you 
could directly edit "/etc/X11/XF86Config", but then the dpkg 
configuration system won't know the correct settings the next time an 
update/upgrade is done.)

> Thanks a lot :)
>
>  
No prob.

--
Kent