changed mouse from serial to PS/2

nappy501 · 01-27-2005, 04:48 PM

Hi

I have a dual-boot machine running Redhat 9 and Windows 98. A couple of weeks ago my serial mouse stopped working. I tried another, which didn't work, so I swapped it with a ps2 mouse from another machine which works fine. (This is all in Windows). The serial is now working on the other machine. So my serial port must be faulty.

This week I booted into Redhat 9 and my machine boots into the graphical mode. The mouse wasn't working. I then realised the problem as I was now using a ps2 mouse instead of the original configured serial mouse.

The problem is I am unable to do anything after I have logged in with the keyboard as I have no mouse.

Can anyone tell me how to configure the ps2 mouse, if I am not able to use the mouse?

Do I need to boot into rescue mode? Can I get Redhat 9 to realise there is now a different mouse connected? Or once I have logged is there a keyboard way to reconfigure the mouse?

Thank you

Regards

Nappy

mjrich · 01-27-2005, 06:37 PM

There are several ways to do this, but the "grass roots" way (generally distro-independent) is as follows.

Switch to a console (CTRL-ALT-F3 etc.) or boot into rescue mode, and log in as root. Then edit your /etc/X11/Xorg.conf (or XF86Config-4), and change the mouse location from /dev/ttyS0 to /dev/mouse, and the protocol to "auto". I.e., you should now have an entry such as

Code:

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

You'll also need to uncomment out the ZAxisMapping line if you have a wheel mouse, if it hasn't already been done.

Good luck

mj

EDIT: You'll probably also want to leave the "Identifier" line as it already was - either that or change it also to PS/2 Mouse in the "Server Layout" section (usually either at the beginning or end of the config file).

nappy501 · 01-30-2005, 06:55 AM

Hi mj,

Unfortunately, because I didn't shutdown properly the last time. Redhat 9 won't boot up. It gets to INIT I type in 3 or 5 and it stops.

I am going to reinstall. I tried rescue mode, but I really don't know what I am doing, so it is best that I start again. Thanks again for your reply.

I presume when I reinstall it will pick up the mouse.

Regards

Nappy501

mjrich · 01-30-2005, 12:52 PM

Oh, well, re-installation is also good practice I guess

Yes, it'll almost certainly pick up your mouse.

Cheers,

mj