xorg manual configurations + usb mouse
 

Hi all,

I have been manually configuring my xorg.conf file (Ubuntu Jaunty) in order to use a Wacom Tablet - now the tablet is loaded but not detected as a mouse device. In order to do this, I had to change the InputDevice section from '/dev/psaux' to '/dev/input/mouse0'.

The next problem I had was that if I plug in a usb mouse, it is not loaded because it falls onto '/dev/input/mouse1'. To overcome this, I added another InputDevice section to the xorg.conf file that pointed at this file. This works, as long as the usb mouse is plugged in when X is started.

So the new problem is how to make the usb mouse work automatically without having to restart X - does anyone know about this? I see that 'dev/input/mouse1' is created when I plug it in, but it does not work still.

Thanks for helping,
Rich

I believe what you're looking for is /dev/input/mice. That should multiplex any and all real mice to the same device. (If the devices have radically different buttons I'm not sure how that would work, though.)

In order to stop the tablet from controlling the mouse, I need to avoid /dev/input/mice - I have not found a way around this yet, unfortunately.

If your goal is to not have to reconfigure xorg.conf and restart X when you plug or unplug a mouse or tablet, I think /dev/input/mice is just what you need. (Why do you want the tablet to not be a mouse some of the time? If it's to avoid spurious input, then why is it plugged in at this point? I suspect you need to focus on what your use cases really are.)

I use the wacom tablet as a controller for audio synthesizers - I want it completely seperate from the mouse. I read in the data into my application using its '/dev/input/wacom' and then deal with the raw control data. If the tablet did not get shoved onto /dev/input/mice as well, I would use that file.

I would really like to know what the missing step is that allows /dev/input/mice to be hot-pluggable, but not /dev/input/mouse*.

/dev/input/mice is singular and unchanging -- that's why it doesn't need to change in the config file. /dev/input/mouse*, on the other hand, depends on the order in which things are plugged in and disconnected; since this is dynamic, it causes you trouble.

If you want never to treat the tablet as a mouse, put /dev/input/mice in your xorg.conf but you'll need to patch your kernel. I think modifying mousedev.c, mixdev_add_device to skip the call to list_add_tail in the case of your tablet will probably give the desired results, but of course can't be sure of this without a tablet to test against.

ugh, maybe hacking the kernel is a little too much for me. Lately, I have just been switching between a config that has two InputDevice 'mouse0/1' sections + one for 'wacom', and then just one section fro '/dev/input/mice' when I need to use the tablet. Not ideal, but less work for me than before.

It is strange the way the tablet is thrown onto /dev/input/mice like a regular mouse. It does not function like a regular mouse, and is quite useless in that setup because the coordinate system is not relative but absolute.

Thanks for the help and explanations,
Rich