Greetings. I don't claim to be a Linux pro, so please excuse errors in jargon, names, etc. I would very much appreciate your help so that I can use my pointing devices again.

I installed Knoppix as a short cut to a Debian-like system onto my laptop about 2 years ago. I have been using the 2.4.26 kernel. Yesterday I ran apt-get dist-upgrade after apt-get update. Over 100 packages didn't get upgraded, mostly KDE programs. One was kmail, which I really depend on. I read that aptitude is a better way to go, and found that it was already installed, so the next morning I found kdepim (to get kmail reinstalled) and marked it for download in aptitude. Somehow, aptitude noted that there were a bunch of packages that needed upgrading, including most of the ones that apt-get had left behind the previous evening.

The long and the short of it is now my PS/2 mouse (Logitech) doesn't work. I've read many postings, but the obvious things (that were problems for others) seems ok. I understand that this is likely an X problem, so I've included partial contents of some X config files below. First, the mouse works when I boot with the 2.6.4 kernel. Booting with the 2.4.26 I get the KDE desktop, the mouse arrow is at center screen, and I can Ctl-Alt-F1 to a command line.

I can access the computer (DELL Inspiron 8100) via SSH and run programs like Konqueror, Kmail, Xemacs, etc. remotely. Further:

The mouse link looks ok:

pearman@pearman:~$ ls -l /dev/mouse
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Aug 20 2004 /dev/mouse -> /dev/psaux

The mouse shows up here:

pearman@pearman:~$ cat /proc/interrupts
CPU0
0: 867762 XT-PIC timer
1: 3705 XT-PIC keyboard
2: 0 XT-PIC cascade
3: 27231 XT-PIC pcnet_cs
5: 3005 XT-PIC Maestro3(i)
8: 5 XT-PIC rtc
9: 1 XT-PIC acpi
10: 3 XT-PIC Texas Instruments PCI4451 PC card Cardbus Controller, Texas Instruments PCI4451 PC card Cardbus Controller (#2), usb-uhci, ohci1394
12: 34 XT-PIC PS/2 Mouse
14: 26267 XT-PIC ide0

There's a PS/2 mouse here:

pearman@pearman:~$ cat /etc/X11/XF86Config [partial file only shown]

Section "ServerFlags"
EndSection

Section "Keyboard"
Protocol "Standard"
AutoRepeat 500 5
LeftAlt Meta
RightAlt Meta
ScrollLock Compose
RightCtl Control
# This is just the default keymap for X.
# May be changed with the KDE international keyboard tool.
XkbModel "pc105"
XkbLayout "us"

# XkbOptions "ctrl:swapcaps"
# XkbKeycodes "xfree86"
# XkbTypes "default"
# XkbCompat "default"
# XkbSymbols "us(pc101)"
# XkbGeometry "pc"
# XkbRules "xfree86"
# XkbModel "pc101"
# XkbLayout "us"
EndSection

Section "Pointer"
Protocol "PS/2"
Device "/dev/mouse"
Emulate3Buttons
Emulate3Timeout 70
EndSection

And there's a PS/2 mouse here....

pearman@pearman:~$ cat /etc/X11/XF86Config-4
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "XFree86 Configured"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "PS/2 Mouse" "CorePointer"
# Serial Mouse not detected
# USB Mouse not detected
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "AllowMouseOpenFail" "true"

EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "ddc" # ddc probing of monitor
Load "GLcore"
Load "dbe"
Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "glx"
Load "bitmap" # bitmap-fonts
Load "speedo"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
Load "record"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "keyboard"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xfree86"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"

EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Serial Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "Microsoft"
Option "Device" "/dev/ttyS0"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "Emulate3Timeout" "70"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "PS/2 Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "Emulate3Timeout" "70"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "USB Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Buttons" "5"
EndSection

I would really appreciate any tips for trouble shooting this one. Perhaps it's all here for X and there's a module missing or something like that. Others who had posted had tried randomly changing mouse types using gpm. Does one need to restart X after that? I've never had to configure or restart X, so some of this is still beyond me. Please give me your thoughts.

Best,

Peter

something must be wrong with your /etc/X11/XF86Config-4
try running dpkg-reconfigure x-server-xfree86 as root.

My problem was with the 2.6 kernel. There were no mouse problems with the 2.4 kernel, but I had a stuck pointer with the 2.6. modprobe psmouse fixed it, and then adding psmouse to /etc/modules. Nigel. aka farpoint.

Solution found: gpm was turned on at boot time. Removing gpm with update-rc.d gpm remove

fixed the problem

Peter

Peter, I'm a complete noobie to linux, could you please furnish step-by-step instructions. I'm having the same problem with the latest version of Knoppix 5-27-2005, I have no PS2 mouse, but USB keyboard is running. thanks in advance

Sure, it was:

update-rc.d -f gpm remove

I hope that works If it doesn't, you can return things to their original state by doing:

update-rc.d gpm defaults

I forgot to write that you would have to reboot after making the change