OK. I'm using SuSE Linux 9.3. It installed perfectly. It detected everything - including my Microsoft Wireless Mouse, which was working like a charm until a couple of boots ago.

Now, it seems X isn't detecting any mouse. Whenever I start my system, the mouse is dead until I find my way to YaST using the keyboard, and open Hardware>Mouse. As soon as the Mouse module starts, the mouse comes back to life.

This isn't happening in Windows, the mouse works perfectly there.

I have no idea about what's up. I installed a couple of packages - again using YaST - without any problems, and now this.

Ah, and while we're on the subject, is it at possible to watch a DVD using Linux, or should I just buy a proper DVD player or go back to Windows?

I won't even get started on ATI drivers - I'm using a somewhat expensive X700 Radeon card and even though I downloaded and installed the rpm from ATI it still shows Mesa as my OpenGL driver vendor. No eye candy for me then.

Linux really does take a lot love - anyone in their right mind would've given up and gone back to Windows a long time ago.

Thanksfully there are communities like this one. Can anyone help with the mouse issue? It's driving me crazy!

Cheers.

I have the same problem. Did you find out what the problem is?

I cannot help you with the mouse (maybe some mouse module is not being loaded? - you could check the output of lsmod before & after you get the mouse working.)

Yes, of course you can watch DVDs with linux - linux is better than my DVD player!

You do need to install libdvdcss to support DVD decryption, and some sort of mediaplayer (mplayer is very popular, and I have had good results with xine).

ATI video cards...... I always buy Nvidia, just because their drivers for linux work reliably. They are not expensive. Other people have managed to get ATI cards working - perhaps a specific post in the Hardware forum, after you have done a search or two.

Yes, linux does take a lot of love, but after a while you'll find that it rewards you amply!

HTH

Thanks Tredegar. I've downloaded libdvdcss a number of times, have placed it in a many folders and Xine/Kaffeine still says I can't play DVDs. I've also downloaded a number of proprietary Win32 codecs and placed them in various folders (especially those recommended by Kaffeine itself) but to no avail.

As for ATI, I've installed their app but I just don't have the guts to run their fgxlrconfig thing, it messes X up completely for me (no option for my Keyboard layout for instance, plus a lot of questions I have absolutely no idea how to answer.

So whenever the slow window rendering bothers me, I just switch back to WinXP.

I just can't see myself using Linux for any serious work right now. It may be the most stable thing on earth, but if I can't get a mouse and a video card to work properly, and if I can't install a couple of codecs for watching a DVD, what's the point? (even though in one of those problems it's the vendor's fault).

Being an old-time DOS and Windows man, I think I'll just re-format the whole thing and start from scratch! hehehe that's the way to deal with persistent bugs in Windows.

I am also having this same mouse problem. Very annoyinG!


any ideas?

Hey try booting the system without the mouse and allow yast to remove the mouse drivers. After this restart the system with the mouse connected. this has worked for me once i faced the same problem. I don't know why this happens but it works