I have a USB optical mouse that came with my computer. Whilst Mandrake setup intializes, the red light is on, but then when the graphical interface comes up, it goes off and the mouse doesn't work. I had to complete setup with the keyboard. The same thing happens when booting into the operating system; the light goes on during boot but goes off shortly before the UI comes up. I even tried to use a USB -> PS/2 adapter and that didnt work either! (Though the light did stay on... heh.)

I've never had this happen with another distro. What can I do?

I can't offer any advice, but I can say I'm experiencing the same problem. I have my box set up as a dual boot, and I've had to revert to windoze to make it easier to search for an answer. :-/ To be specific, mine is a Logitech two button plus wheel. I think I've tried each mouse type offered in setup, and the mouse test never responds to my clicking or scrolling.

Oh well, I just moved on to Fedora.

Same problem with A4 two button, wheel, wireless, optical mouse.

Fedora is compatible?

I don't know. I have Fedora sitting here on dvd, but I'd prefer to tinker with Mandrake to see if I can get it going. If all else fails, I have a PS/2 mouse I can try. My mouse (and printer, for that matter) worked fine under Mandrake Move, so I might try booting that (I still have windoze as a dual boot) and checking the mouseconfig to see what it says.

I emailed A4 Tech about the wireless optical and received the following. I had already exchanged the mouse for a PS2 which works fine, but thought I'd post this in case it helps anyone else.





"You can have your mouse working perfectly in Linux by applying the
Xfree86 patch ,you will be able to get it running in Linux as well as
it does in Window OS , by editing the following text configuration
files.

please refer to the following text configuration.
ection "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse1"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "evdev"
Option "Dev Name" "A4Tech USB Optical Mouse"
Option "Dev Phys" "usb-*/input0"
Option "Buttons" "9"

Option "ZAxisMapping" "6 7 8 9"
EndSection

Many thanks in advance and awaiting your prompt response."

cheers
Rosemary

Yours faithfully,
George

Rock on! Hopefully that will help someone else. As for me, I changed which USB port I was using and now, oddly, my mouse works. It's nice that they got back to you with exactly how to do it -- kudos to good customer support there.

Yes - I'm most impressed and like the look of some of their other mice, so as soon as I am confident in handling the command line will get info on installation and buy a three or four button one.

Rosemary