I'm having troubles making Linux to recognize my mouse. I've tried 3 different PS2 mice (producers: GPT, Compaq, Accord) and none is working. A USB mouse taht I have is working fine but I don't like him at all and really prefer working with one of the PS2's (preferably the GPT).
Any help will be appreciated.

OK - which linux do you have and how have you tried getting the mice to work?

Anything special about the mice? Odd button layouts or anything like that or are these standard PS2 3-button wheel thingies?

I would think a mouse is a mouse I'm using a Logitec optical PS2 3 button wheel mouse thats so old I've rubbed the wording off the top, had to pick it up and look at the bottom to find out what kind it was. Of all the distros I've tried the only one I ever had problems with was RH 6.1 And even in there the only problem was getting the wheel to work. Now using Mandriva 2005 works perfect. Infact I just checked the back and its one of those that can go either PS2 or USB.

There's no reason why any mouse shouldn't work fine on Linux; the chances are that your system is simply configured for USB mice and not for PS/2. If you can tell me which distribution and which version you're using, I can give you some sensible instructions on how to change this.

It would also help to know if your distribution uses XFree86 or Xorg and which version of those, and also which Linux kernel version it uses, but if you aren't sure it shouldn't matter too much.

I'm using Fedora Core4. Kernel v2.6 (I think 2.6.11 but no sure).
The mouse I'd like most to make working is an optical one, produced by GPT. 2 Buttons + wheel. Nothing special. The other mice are 2 buttons+whell (accord), and 2 buttons only (compaq). The USB one has 4 buttons and a wheel and is working fine.

How are you trying to recognise the mouse?

With fedora, kudzu should deal with the ps2 mice happily. The simplest is to switch off, pull the mouse out, switch on.

kudzu will tell you a mouse has been removed.

switch off, plug the ps2 mouse in, switch on.

kudzu announces that a mouse has been added and asks if you want to configure it.

There are ways other than this nasty windows-ism, but this will usually work.
(Just plugging the ps2 mouse in will not always get it detected.) I have a ps2 mouse in FC4 and I havn't actually tried hotplugging it...

Didn't work:-(
BTW, I'm working on a computer with a dual OS (FC4 and WinXP Pro).
From some reason, the moment I restart the computer and choose to load FC4 the light in my optical mouse turns off and it stops working.

Does the PS2 mouse work when you boot to windows?

When I start my computer with WinXP there's no problem. But if I start it with WinXP, then boot to linux (and using the USB mouse) and then trying to get back to win it doesn't work - I have to plug out the mouse and then plug it in in order for Win to recognize it

OK - for some reason the mouse is being switched off when you boot.

after bootstrap, try dmesg | grep mouse etc (or just dmesg and hunt through the output) to see what the syslog says about your mouse.

also, I'll want to have a look at /etc/X11/xorg.conf for the bits where the mouse is mentioned.

Hmmm... hunting around the fedora forum there is some intimation that this can be a bios problem. Some bioses have the ability to turn off ps2 mouse recognition ... dosn't seem to be needed in windows. Worth a look.

You may also need to add the following to the kernel line in grub.conf:

psmouse.proto=imps

http://kerneltrap.org/node/1587
http://www.computing.net/linux/wwwbo...rum/27854.html

Some thoughts: when you say "didn't work" what did you mean?
Presumably that the reboot/replugging procedure didn't get the mouse to work. Never mind that, did kudzu detect the mouse at all?

Are you using this mouse through a switch? Or directly into the ps2 socket on the back of the box?

dmesg | grep mouse resulted in:
PS/2 mouse device common for all mice

I went to /etc/X11/xorg.conf and found the following:
under ServerLayout section:
Input Device: "Mouse0" (among others)
under InputDevice section:
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "yes"

It doesn't mean too much for me (I'm quite new to all this Linux thing...)

It's connected directly to the socket on the back of the box

That's all right - you won't want to wade through the xorg.conf man page either

Now there is something missing from this file. I don't see anything saying "corepointer" Under "ServerLayout" section, the line should read:What it means - is quite easy to guess:

Identifier: is just a string so the computer has something to call it when it talks to you.

Driver: identifies which driver X must use.

Option: these lines specify driver command-line options to be used. In your case it uses IMPS/2 protocol because it is a ps/2 mouse; the files for it are at /dev/input/mice; the axis mapping is to get aspect ratios right; and you can emulate a "middle-button-click" by pressing the left and right buttons simultaniously (Emulate3Buttons=yes).