Re: Debian newbie -Please help!! X server problem!

[Kent West <westk@acu.edu>]

lmyho wrote:
> Hi Kent, Thank you!!
A few "list etiquette" items (which have nothing to do with your 
questions, but are good things to know):

1) On this list, private replies are discouraged unless the postings go 
off-topic. Instead, replies should go to the list, so that others can 
add in their two-cents, and so that the conversation can be archived for 
the benefit of others who might have similar problems in the future. A 
sub-point of this is that there is no need to CC the person to whom 
you're responding. Presumably they already read the list, and don't need 
to get the posting twice.

2) On this list, top-posting is generally discouraged. Instead, the 
preferred mode is to intersperse your replies directly below the 
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than having to read "backwards".

> The installation automatically installed Grub, so I am using it, and I 
> tried the Safe Recovery login, which worked fine, but I couldn't find 
> any solution except confussed and lost, as in the system I really 
> don't know what to do, it just a black screen with big text letters, 
> different from the WinXP which I kind of used to.  And the text 
> letters are so big to me, that what I mean the "big text characters", 
> sorry for the description :((  It's not capital.My monitor is actually 
> pretty good.:)
Okay, I guess you mean the text is in a large font on the console. But, 
as I understand it from another recent posting of yours, upgrading the 
kernel solved these issues, so I won't delve further along this path.

> I am not clear about the mouse system,:) but how can I active it in 
> Debian anyway?  In the text screen, the mouse seems useless anyway, 
> but sometimes I wanted to use mouse to click to a place on the 
> text-based screen (hobby from winXP),:(, I found the mouse is totally 
> no responce!
>  
So, as I understand it, you want the mouse available in both X and in 
the text-based console. That's the way I like it, also.

To install the "driver" for the text-based console, "aptitude install 
gpm". As part of installing gpm, you'll be asked some configuration 
questions. You probably have a PS/2 or a USB mouse. The "location" of a 
PS/2 mouse will be "/dev/psaux", and the location of a USB mouse will be 
"/dev/input/mice", probably. The type will probably be "imps/2", 
although you may have to try several different types, depending on  your 
mouse. You'll also want to turn on repeating, and set the repeat type to 
"ms3". If you need to tinker with these settings, you can either 
manually edit "/etc/gpm.conf", or run "dpkg-reconfigure gpm", (which is 
the method I'd suggest, in order to keep the debconf database in sync 
with the actual file contents).

What happens is that with both gpm and the X mouse system running, mouse 
events (clicks, scrolls, etc) will be read by one system before the 
other system has a chance to read that event. Thus, with the above 
settings, gpm is instructed to read the real mouse events, and then to 
repeat them to the X system. (It is my understanding that with newer 
mice on the /dev/input/mice device, this is not a problem anymore, but 
still, using repeat under gpm doesn't hurt anything.)

Now that you have gpm installed and repeating, the mouse in the 
text-based console should work. However, you still need to tell X to use 
the repeated data from gpm. You'd do this by running "dpkg-reconfigure 
xserver-xorg" (or 'xserver-xfree86' if you're still on the XFree86 
version of X rather than the Xorg version) and specifying the mouse to 
use "/dev/gpmdata". Note that if you've ever manually edited your X 
configuration file (/etc/X11/xorg.conf or XF86Config-4.conf, IIRC), the 
dpkg-reconfigure command above won't change it until you do the steps 
found at the top of that file).

Now you should have a working mouse in both the text-based console and 
in X. If the mouse is jumpy or non-responsive, chances are the type or 
location of one of these systems is set incorrectly. I'd get gpm working 
first, since it has to repeat the correct data in order for X to work.

Hope this helps.

--
Kent