USB (mouse) headaches

Hello Debian-Friend

I am not a complete newcomer to Linux, having used another distro
previously. I heard Debian was the very best, so I decided to test it
out for myself. I did get it installed properly, excepting for the
USB/HID devices. I cannot locate nor load the proper modules for them!

I have tried:

installing gpm (it had not been installed somehow); but this did not
make the mouse work, nor did stopping and restarting gpm.

insmod on various modules (usbmouse, hid, etc.) - system cannot find
them. Maybe I am insmodding the wrong things?

lspci -v shows (along with other things) my three USB Controllers: one
is the native Intel one (which is disabled in the BIOS [enabling it
did not help]); the other two are Opti USB controllers (I have a
four-port PCI card, to which the Logitech USB Wheel Mouse is
connected).

I nano'ed vmlinuz and I could not find ANY mention of USB anything. I
th ought I was modifying the kernel... someone please correct me if I
am in error.

During bootup, I see this message (paraphrase):

emu10k1 not scanned as assumed it is compiled into the kernel
usb-uhci not scanned as assumed it is compiled into the kernel
usb-ohci not scanned as assumed it is compiled into the kernel

I guess my OS never heard why one doesn't ASS-UME, eh? LMAO!

My XF86Config Pointer section looks like:

XFree86Config-4 snippet:

Section "Pointer"
        "Device"                "/dev/psaux"
        "Protocol"              "IMPS/2"
        "Emulate3Buttons"
        "ZAxisMapping"          "4 5"
EndSection

I thought it would be "/dev/input/mice" instead, but X won't start if
I locate it there. mdetect locates three ports: ttyS0, ttyS1, and
psaux. discover can't find it (and, yes, read-edid is installed).

I tried: /etc/init.d/gpm stop as suggested here:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12780&highlight=debian+usb+mouse
which changed nothing.

[Module mousedev is missing, everything else looks ok to me.
It's in Input core support -> Mouse support,
CONFIG_INPUT_MOUSEDEV in .config .]

This above is another bit of advice... which .config is he talking
about? I located a bunch of USB_CONFIG instructions somewhere... I
just don't know where they're supposed to go. My Windoze Tech Support
job must be ruining my Linux skills!!

[Try this. "/etc/init.d/gpm stop" . If your mouse works after that,
then type "rm /etc/rc3.d/S20gpm. I had the same problem with my USB
Logitech mouse.]

This one didn't work either

[As far as the mouse is concerned - assuming your USB modules are
installed correct... type ' dmesg ' from the console and see if the
system is recognizing a USB device (mouse).]

My USB modules aren't installed, apparently. dmesg returned no sign of
any USB device.

[You must also have USB mouse support installed into the kernel in
addition to basic USB support. I can give you a 2.4.17 config if you
need one.
Once you have "confirmed" that the system is detecting your mouse by
running ' dmesg ' (this is updated on-the-fly, so if you unplug/plug
the mouse, the log will change. It shou ld read something like this:

hub.c: USB new device connect on bus1/1, assigned device number 3
input0: USB HID v1.00 Mouse [0461:4d09] on usb1:3.0]

I should have written this cat and asked him for his configuration...
it was someone else's post on a long-forgotten site. Maybe he will
read this and send me it... ? Or some other kind, gracious soul?

Maybe "/dev/psaux" is not readable??

Could you please point me in the right direction? I am not afraid
to directly modify my kernel, if needed. I installed Woody last week,
and I can log into Linux, both terminal and GUI (kdm) mode; but I just
can't move that goshdarned mouse!

Determined as ever

MelloDrone