How to redetect PS2 mouse that got unplugged?
 

My PS/2 mouse sometimes gets unplugged accidentally, when this happens and I plug it back in, the linux desktop server cannot detect it again unlike a USB mouse. When this happens, I have to logout of the x server and restart it in order to get the mouse detected again. What keyboards commands could I use to bring up a terminal window and restart some service to get the mouse to work again without losing my desktop? Thanks!

PS/2 does not support hotplugging like USB does, you are actually lucky that the system detects the mouse again at all. On most machines I have used, once the mouse was removed, nothing but a reboot would get it working again. I have also worked on a few machines who's motherboards shorted out when the mouse was removed while powered on.

I would suggest you get a wireless mouse, or a USB one, personally.

In my SuSE installation, with Kde, I press Alt+F1 to pop up the Kde menu. Then use arrow keys to navigate through the menu. System - Terminal - Konsole starts a console to enter keyboard commands.

If you use other than Kde, go into your keyboard shortcuts utility to see what pops up the main menu, or to define a key sequence to do it.

I'm using gnome so I hit control-alt-backspace which exits me out my current session and bring me back to the login screen where I can use the mouse again.

Thanks for the tip about Alt-F1, that works on CentOS as well. I figure there has to be some service that got restarted which restored the mouse for me without losing my desktop?