I have installed Red Hat 8.0. During installation the mouse worked fine. On rebooting into Linux the mouse no longer works. (It still works in Windows). I have tried swapping serial ports but no luck. Help!

What kind of mouse are you using?

A Microsoft 2 button serial mouse. I tried the same mouse on another RH 8.0 machine and it was fine.

You are going to have to edit your /etc/X11/XF86Config file. Open it up with a text editor. Scroll down until you get to the section that's entitled "Input Devices". In there you are going to find a section that reads something like this:

Identifier "Mouse1"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"

note: that is the entry from my file. If you're using a two button mouse yours should be slightly different. Under Option "Protocol" you file should probably have "PS/2" instead of "IMPS/2". And you shouldn't need the Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5" entry. So your entry should probably read something like this:

Identifier "Mouse1"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "PS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"

This will probably work, but your best bet is to go to the other Redhat machine you tested the mouse on and go into /etc/X11/XF86Config and look for the above entry in that file. You should copy that entry into your mouse section, but do not copy the whole file and put it in your computer. That would be bad. Just edit that one entry. You'll have to be su or root to do this.

oulevon:
Thanks for your suggestion. I will give it a try, and let you know if it works.

I looked at the XF86Config file on the machine with the working mouse. It read as follows:

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "Microsoft"
Option "Device" "/dev/ttyS0"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
EndSection


Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse1"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

The machine with the mouse problem had the "Mouse0" section with a line that said:
Option "Device" "/dev/mice"

I changed it as above but it made no difference.

I then tried a generic unbranded serial mouse from my third PC and it worked fine.

When I said in my previous post that I had used the same mouse on my second machine, it was actually an identical Microsoft Serial Mouse 2.1A, bought from the same store at the same time.
I next unplugged the working Microsoft mouse and plugged it into the machine with the problem. Result: mouse works!

On looking closer, the working mouse is made in Mexico and the non-working mouse is made in China. They both work fine in Windows, but Linux seems to have a problem with Chinese mice!! Who can explain that??

That's really strange. So you're all set now right?

Yes, thanks for your ideas.

I'm struggling with printer setup now, but I'll look for a relevant thread before posting anything.