cartik.sharma@gmail.com wrote:

> Thanks Richard.
>
> I changed the graphics card to 3D Rage Pro and it seems to work fine
> with the new kernel
> 2.2.6 on Slackware 4.0. I might have had a the wrong drivers but kde
> loads up fine.
>
> Another problem I faced was with the PS2 mouse..it refused to show up
> by auto detection
>
> /dev/mouse
>
> so I changed it to
> /dev/psaux
>
> and it seems to be detected fine now. However its still displays some
> ad hoc behaviour..I suspect
> an irq conflict of some sort?
>
> The Xfree86Config file reads
>
> Section "Pointer"
> Protocol "ps/2"
> Device "/dev/psaux"
> Emulate3Buttons
> Emulate3Timeout 50
> EndSection
>
> Appreciate your help.

It might be a conflict with the gpm program configuration which supplies
mouse cut and paste functionality to the console. This is not a problem
with newer Slackware versions and is not mentioned in the current FAQ.

Note: please tell if the following works for you.

Richard James

From the old FAQ
http://wombat.san-francisco.ca.us/fa.../cache/22.html
Why doesn't my my mouse work in X?
Generally speaking, assuming your mouse is actually working in a terminal
(text-based, not X) window, and you have the correct protocol selected for
it in your X configuration, there are three ways to get the mouse to
actually work in X:

1. You can kill gpm (as root) with gpm -k (or killall gpm), then start
your X session as usual. For many reasons, this is not an optimal
solution -- see the next method.
2. You can edit the file /etc/rc.d/rc.gpm (or /etc/rc.d/rc.local, on
older systems) where gpm is started. Remove the -R flag from the gpm
command line, reboot and restart your X session. (If you do this, make sure
that your /etc/X11/XF86Config (or /etc/XF86Config, on older versions) file
points to the correct Device (see below). If you use /dev/mouse, make sure
it's a symlink to the correct device (/dev/psaux for PS/2 mice, for
example.)
3. If there is an -R flag present in the gpm command line, you can just
leave it and edit the file /etc/XF86Config, paying attention to the section
dealing with the Pointer device, as shown below: (Note: this only applies
to XFree86 version 3, not version 4, which comes with Slackware 8. Anyone
care to help me update this part?)

# ************************************************** ***************
# Pointer section
# ************************************************** ***************
Section "Pointer"
Protocol "Microsoft"
Device "/dev/mouse"

See the line dealing with 'Device?' Change that from /dev/mouse (or
whatever you may have) to /dev/gpmdata, save, and restart X as a normal
user. (This is actually the preferred method, although #2 works as well.)
Note that you probably don't want to fool with the 'Protocol' line: it is
correct for a Logitech three button serial mouse.

What's happening is gpm (which is more of a daemon than not) intercepts all
mouse movement events and sends them to the file /dev/mouse, EXCEPT when
the -R flag is present AND the system is in a graphics mode (such as X). In
that case, it sends them to /dev/gpmdata. It makes no difference what kind
of pointer device you have -- serial, bus, ps/2, or whatever. The default X
config file (/etc/XF86Config) tells X to look for mouse movement events
in /dev/mouse, but when you start X, the -R flag puts them in the
file /dev/gpmdata. Since the X server doesn't know to look there
if /etc/XF86Config says to look in /dev/mouse, well....

From man gpm:

-R Causes gpm to act as a repeater: any mouse data
received while in graphic mode will be produced on
the fifo /dev/gpmdata ... .

In short, gpm is NOT the cause of the mouse not working in X even though it
seems it is. Just killing gpm is NOT really a solution, even though it
seems to be.

(Editor's note: I don't run gpm on my system, because when I am using a text
console, I'm usually in no mood to use a mouse. Why bother using system
resources that I'm not going to use? YMMV, of course.)

2001-Jul-30 22:44 kkeller@speakeasy.net