mouse wheel not working?
 

So far you guys have been a genius (and patient) in fixing my issues with my new Debian system, so here we go again.

The wheel on my mouse does not work did I do something wrong during installation or is there a setting that needs to be changed?

Thanks in advance.

To change X configuration run (as root) the following command:

dpkg-reconfigure -plow xserver-xfree86

It should ask you several questions, including whether you want the mouse wheel enabled or not. If you're not happy with the settings you chose, you can always run the same command again to make changes. (Hint: If you don't know answers to all questions, you can mostly accept the suggested defaults and you can also leave some settings blank.)

if you have a ps/2 mouse, then follow the instructions from the article.

dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86

when you get to the mouse part:

dev/psaux
imps/2

Selecting imps/2 instead of ps/2 made the difference, but I do have a question.

What is the difference between selecting ps/2 and imps/2 ?

I don't know. The mouse protocol ImPS/2 appears to be newer than PS/2. Both should work OK, but if you've got a relatively new computer, ImPS/2 might be a safer bet. If you've installed mdetect (like I suggested in some earlier thread), you should be given the option to auto-configure your mouse protocol during "dpkg-reconfigure -plow xserver-xfree86". Now, if you've for some reason still got a 2.4.x kernel (do "uname -r" to find out), then macondo's suggestion is correct and ImPS/2 (or PS/2) mouse should be pointed to /dev/psaux, but if you've got 2.6.x kernel, then the correct device for an ImPS/2 (or PS/2) mouse is /dev/input/mice.

As long as your mouse seems to work, any of this is not such a big issue. Just do the "dpkg-reconfigure -plow xserver-xfree86" and enable mouse wheel. There's a well-known saying that is constantly recycled in the Linux world: "If it isn't broken, don't try to fix it."

I'm not 100% sure, but I believe imps/2 stands for Intellimouse ps/2

R00ts is probably right, the ImPS/2 mouse protocol quite likely stands for Microsoft PS/2 IntelliMouse, but I've got a Logitech cordless optical PS/2 pilot mouse and it seems to work just fine using the ImPS/2 protocol. :p

Intelli Wheel Mouse using the PS/2 protocol and the Im in ImPS/2 tells X you have a wheel mouse instead of just a PS/2 and it adds the "ZAxisMapping" "4 5" option to the mouse section in the file to make it work with supposedly two extra buttons when you (re)configure it.

That is not exactly correct it may be depreciated in favor of the /dev/input/mice but it still works with the /dev/psaux. I have never had a problem using it in the IIRC entire year I have being using a 2.6 kernel.