Can I use two mice?
 

Just wondering - I got a cordless mouse as part of a package today and thought it might be handy to be able to use it to change volume/channel in TV/video applications when I'm sitting on the couch. It's too small to use as my standard mouse, but is there a way to have both mice recognised and usable? I'm pretty sure I've used two mice concurrently on a Windows machine, though I might be mistaken. Any ideas how I might do this in Xorg.conf?

You'll get a wealth of information if you google for this:

Hope this helps.

Quoth pickarooney:

Why not use three blind ones?

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

The answer is yes. I have a HTPC with an old wireless mouse connected by the serial port and a normal mouse connected by the PS/2 port. Both of them work. Either will move the pointer around.

Back when I was running Windows 98 on my HTPC, both of them worked also.

[edit added:]
Oh the way I did it in xorg.conf was to manually add a mouse entry for the serial mouse. However, this might only have been necessary because the serial port doesn't have any hardware autodetection capabilities.

I've been fiddling with Xorg, adding a second InputDevice of type mouse but X never restarts after making changes.

Currently the serverlayout and inputdevice sections look like this:

I can't figure out what to add as the "Device" for the new mouse nor if it should be "mouse" driver" or "evdev" (both are USB mice)

On a laptop, the "pointing stick", the touchpad, and an external USB mouse will all work together. Just as long as you and your friend/significant/dog/cat don't try to control the cursor at the same time....;)

I've got X running again now, but still only one mouse working.
Is there anything obviously wrong with this?

I don't really know how to fix your problem. I just tested out some USB mice on my main computer--it has just one mouse device entry, which looks like your "Logitech Mouse" entry.

I had a PS/2 mouse and two USB mice attached at the same time. All three mice worked, even though there was only one InputDevice configured. I suppose /dev/input/mice gracefully handles multiple simultaneous mouse devices (at least as long as they're PS/2 or USB).

BTW, I'm using Debian 4.0, which may have some small differences with Kubuntu Edgy.

I'm beginning to think it's a USB problem - when I plug in the wireless mouse my webcam crashes out. Something's not quite right hardware-wide, I reckon.

You can even do it from two physically separate PCs (even 'doze).
Seriously sexy - synergy.

Hey, I just had a thought--maybe your computer's BIOS is set to a "legacy" mouse compatability mode, or something like that? Many BIOS's have options to make USB keyboards and/or mice emulate PS/2 devices (for operating systems that lack adequate USB support). I can see that if such a compatability mode is activated, only one USB mouse would be active at a time.

But that wouldn't explain your issue with the mouse vs webcam, of course.

Still, you might as well check it out.