I just installed linux on my box already running Windows XP. The distribution is Mandrake 9.0.
I'm having a very annoying problem with my PS/2 mouse.
Whenever I reboot and change the OS (Linux -> Windows or Windows -> Linux) the mouse stops working. If I'm logging onto linux then the dev/psaux file is missing.
The only way I've found to fix this is to unplug the mouse, plug it again, and then do another reboot to the same OS, and then the mouse starts working again (dev/psaux suddenly appears on linux).
Has anyone else had this problem?
Even though I can get around it by plugging and unplugging/ rebooting, this is very annoying. Is there a way to fix this?

Whaaaattt? This ain't right...

Here's a nice link on what you can do about it short of rebooting:

http://lists.arm.linux.org.uk/piperm...ch/000925.html


Next time you catch your /dev/psaux in the wild, check its permissions & ownership and share what you find with us.

Basically it boils down to "if you aren't creating/deleting this device, then who is?"


John

First off, thanks for the link, I'll check it out.
I don't know. I'm a complete newbie with linux but I do have some knowledge of computers in general as I have been using them since I was a kid and also programming for a few years.
My guess is that the bootloader is doing something wierd back there. I have the Mandrake 9.0 distro, and I installed the graphical lilo bootloader.
It's a really strange thing. So far my only lead is the "plugging/unplugging of the mouse makes it work after another reboot" thing. Anyone know how this could be affecting the situation. Maybe a plug and play issue?

Well, I found in /etc/X11 a file called XF86Config (not XF86Config-4) that had "Protocol" "IMPS/2" int it. I changed the "IMPS/2" to "PS/2" and now the mouse works after I reboot. But I am getting error messages in the "Starting console mouse services" line of boot up and also when shutting down. The mouse IS working though, so should I be worried?
Also, any short explanations as to what I did, what are these XF86* files?

Well, problems are back again. I'm stumped. Sometimes the mouse, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes I get the dev/psaux not found message, sometimes another error, sometimes no error at all.
This is sooooooooooo frustrating.

Could this be related to running the GPM service (console mouse thingy)? I took this off the processes that start at bootup and I have found some improvements: when rebooting in windows the mouse works always(?).
Anyways, I'm still waiting for any well-versed opinions or suggestions.

You certainly have been busy...

/etc/XF86Config is your X server config file, along with the video portion, it also contains information on what mouse you have. XF86Config4 is the config file for the version 4 series of Xfree86.

Probably not where you want to be.


gpm is the old mouse server that you don't need if you are running X (Kde, Gnome and its ilk). Its only use these days is as a mouse server (think "driver") for non-X programs.

You shouldn't be running gpm as far as I can tell (however I don't use Mandrake). You definitely do not need it for "normal" use within a Window Manager (Kde, Gnome, ilk...).

It certainly shouldn't be needed at bootup. It should be okay to delete this from your startup services.


Definitely not a plug-n-play issue. Not unless your mouse is tied to your ISA/PCI buss in some way.

Your bootloader is not the problem (it doesn't mess with the mouse, nor should it be deleting devices).


So, what's the permissions on your /dev/psaux? We still would like to know what's happening to your psaux device, and have you tried manually re-creating your /dev/psaux device when it shows up missing? (how to do this is in that link that I sent you). However, if killing gpm does the trick...


Indeed


John

Duly noted. It's off the startup services.
Read/Write for root user, Read for root group.Well, I'd also like to know that. I haven't tried recreating manually though.
So far it does... So that's it.

Well, it's been a long couple of days, but I have nix up n running with a mouse (let's hope I'm not jinxing it), internet connection sharing, etc.

So thank you John, you have been very helpful.

Yoav

That sounds good, so the only user that could delete this link (supposedly) is "root". I'm obviously real suspicious of anything going around and deleting/modifying my devices... (queue sinister music).

I wonder if it was the gpm daemon running amok?

Anytime


John