[K12OSN] serial mouse problem and getting desparate

"Terrell Prudé, Jr." microman at cmosnetworks.com
Sat Sep 11 19:05:05 UTC 2004


John P. Conlon wrote:

> I need to get a serial port track ball working in 4.1
> When I installed i got the list of mice to choose from but when I 
> selected the correct drive choice I was not given the port selection 
> choice that was prsent in 4.0.1.
>
> Now after installation is complete on a stand alone machine, how do I  
> install the serial track ball?  I have a student who can't move her 
> arms but can move her fingers, barely.  I did not install the ltsp 
> option when I set this machine up so I don't have an lts.conf file to 
> modify.
>
> Where do I need to look?
> What do I need to modify?
> How do I modify it?
>
> Thanks
> Pat


Hello Pat,

Whenever I run into mouse issues, my first target for investigation is 
/etc/X11/XF86Config, or, if you're running X.org, /etc/X11/xorg.conf.  
Go to the "InputDevice" section and check out what it says.  On my box, 
it says the following:

********BEGIN SNIPPET*********

Section "InputDevice"

# Identifier and driver

    Identifier  "Mouse1"
    Driver      "mouse"
    Option "Protocol"    "IMPS/2"
    Option "Device"      "/dev/mouse"

*********END SNIPPET*********

The "Protocol" option is what might need tweaking here.  Make sure that 
it says "Auto" in your case.  Also make sure that /dev/mouse is linked 
to the correct serial port (will usually be /dev/ttyS0 or /dev/ttyS1, 
depending on which serial port you're using). 

Now, if autodetection of the mouse protocol doesn't work, then we've got 
to set it manually.  I've got an older Logitech mouse that came with the 
PS/2-to-Serial adaptor, and that's how I used it for years.  When in 
serial mode, I treated it exactly like a serial Microsoft Mouse, and so 
the Protocol option should read "Microsoft".

The other way to accomplish all of this is to, as root, simply run 
xf86config, which will make a new /etc/X11/XF86Config file for you.  
You'll need to know your video board, though, in addition to what kind 
of mouse you've got.  When I'm feeling not-so-techy, I'll do it this 
way.  For those of you using X.org, the command is xorgconfig.

HTH,

--TP
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