My Debian SID box was running fine with kernel 2.6.6-386. I added a Wacom pen tablet and it worked out of the box ---- more or less (no pressure etc etc.)

I upgraded my kernel to 2.6.8-2-k7 (I run an AMD XP chip) and X failed, moaning about the lack of a mouse. Plugging the Wacom tablet in rectifies this but I don't want to use that as my mouse. I want my mouse ---- it's a PS2 and it appears to be working ie if I move it the light on the wireless doodah flashes but the cursor ignores it.

Obviously, the Wacom tablet is seen as the primary and only mouse on my system. What can I do to make my PS/2 mouse wake up??

Thanks

I think you can fix this using xorg.conf. Take a look to Core Pointer's InputDevice section. Check your modules too. lsmod.

I am not sure that all of the necessary modules were being loaded using the newer kernel - lsmod showed a lack of mousedev and psmouse so I added them manually and suddenly I had a mouse again and of course X was back. Just need to work out how to load them automatically on next boot.....

Create a file named /etc/init.d/local with this inside:
#!/bin/sh

Then run as root:
chmod 755 /etc/init.d/local
update-rc.d local start 98 2 3 4 5 .
mkdir /etc/rc.d/
ln -s /etc/init.d/local /etc/rc.d/rc.local

You have now a local boot commands file.named /etc/rc.d/rc.local.
All you put inside is executed at boot.