I've been trying to compile the current stable kernel (2.6.19.1), and it finally works with almost all my hardware. Now that my RAID 5 is up and running and initrd is happy, I can't seem to get the mouse working. It's enabled according to the menuconfig, but when I run startx the mouse cursor freezes in the middle of the screen and I have to exit back to the command line in order to do anything. After a minute or two the red light from the optical mouse goes out as if it's done trying to work. What gives?

BTW: The mouse won't work on either the ps2 or the usb.

I'm currently running Ubuntu Edgy with the default i386 2.6.17 kernel.
AMD Athlon 1.8Ghz
biostar mobo
2GB RAM
software RAID 5 ATA-133 (5 drives on independent buses)
Nvidia GeForce with 128MB

/boot is located on the RAID and is mirrored at the head of the first drive so that the initrd image can do its thing. The raid is mounted at '/'. None of this has any problems running under the default kernel, but that kernel is optimized for the 386 and does not run OpenGL2 because it is currently limited to the nv driver without a working compile directory.

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Did you install or reinstall the nvidia driver after changing the kernel? There is an nvidia.ko kernel module that you may be missing. Also, did you run "make oldconfig" before make xconfig? That can help pick up new features of the new kernel while preserving your old options. If all else fails, you can reboot using your old kernel to get your cursor working again.

No, I've been waiting for a fully functional new kernel before installing the proprietary nvidia driver. I can't use make oldconfig because Ubuntu packages a binary kernel. However, I did start with a config file from a working kernel using the "load from alternate file" option in menuconfig (not xconfig). That kernel resides on another machine and is running linux-2.6.15.3.

I am using the old kernel right now, and I have been ever since I installed Ubuntu Edgy.

In BSD there is a program called "wsmouse" that is part of the OS and is really easy to configure. It gives you mouse access at the command line and copy/paste functionality. I seem to remember something like that in Gentoo, and I think that might be helpful in getting things like the nvidia driver installed.

"nv" is the GNU version of the nvidia driver. Both are open source, but the one from nvidia is under a different license (non-free).

Installing the proprietary Nvidia driver fixed the problem. Now I just need to figure out why my cdrom drive isn't working.

Everything is fixed now. I'd neglected to install the driver for my mobo's ide controllers, so my raid was running in degraded mode without me realizing it.

The package for using a mouse in the console is called gpm. That will give you cut and paste. You will need to check if programs and libraries like ncurses are compiled with libgpm support to allow you to for example make a menu selection using the mouse.