Okay, so I loaded the Slackware Linux 10.1 system with a brand new ste
of discs because many of you thought I had 'bad' discs. So I punished
the old ones and instaled the new ones.

Still got error messages that say "kmod failed to exec", run portmap
and an ALSA Warning, and I still have no mouse when I run 'startx'.

I tried using the cd /dev; /dev/mouse commands suggested and got the
reply "Permission Denied". Same thing happened when I tried to do the
run portmod tocorrect an error.

Why is it denying me permission when I log in as 'root'?

I thought 'root' was the login to allow changes.

I have a 2-button Microsoft optical mouse on a PS/2 port, so I checked
Microsoft PS/2 Intellimouse in setup. Whay isn't the system accepting
my mouse?