I have two anoyances and hope someone has satisfactory solutions to them.

1) pointing devices. I have several distributions of Linux on both desktops and laptops. On desktops, I generally have only the one mouse, no problems here. However, all my laptops have a built-in pointers and ports for external devices, i.e. serial, ps/2 and USB. Windows sees and recognizes all connected pointers and disturbs me little when some are not connected when booting up. Linux on the other hand, will squawk at me that it sees the initializing of a driver for a pointing device it cannot detect present. Sometimes I don't want to use the external pointing devices and use only the internal. I had to find the correct file to add the information for my external mouse. Linux always asks if I want to remove this device from the initialization script, ignore it, or forget about it. This message pops up when I intend to use only the internal pointer and this along with what I have to do to add device definitions for any others, is a pain. Anyone with a better solution?

2) laptop modems. I use both network connections and modems depending on where I am when using the computers. All laptops to my knowledge use a form of win-modem. All my laptops, with two different distributions and two version each, work fine as I have obtained a RPM binary for each matching the primary release kernal version number. However, I have an update kernal on a couple of them and if I boot to the old kernal, the modems still work fine. But, if I boot to the new kernals, the modems don't work. At this time, I don't really want to be modifying source code and compiling it again to solve this problem. My question is why and what is the need to have these modules so closely tied to a specific kernal level number? Why not just distribution and major kernal version, like 2.2.x, 2.4.x and 2.6.x?

Any help on these problems will be greatly appreciated and thank you in advance.

Have you checked the BIOS on the laptop to see if it has a setting relating to external mice? On my Compaq Presario 2170 the BIOS has a setting to either specify which device--internal or external--to use, or to disable the internal device when an external one is detected.
Zane

Zane

Thanks for the reply. I double checked what you were saying and there is the ability to disable completely or auto-disable if an external pointing device is detected. My are set to enabled.

However, I feel you may not be understanding the problem and will try to clarify it for you and others. When installing Linux, it detects my mouse defaulting to any external mouse over the internal. Under windows, also on these laptops, I can have many mice including built-in, and attached to any of the external ports and all are detected, installed if the first time detected, and does not complain when I have any external pointing devices not hooked up, as in using only the internal pointer, and all are active and can be used, one at a time, any way I want. Therefore, if its convenient to use the internal mouse at times while doing something, I can, while still having and using the external mouse most of the time.

I can only get one to work under Linux at a time and as of this message, I'm using an external wireless mouse, the internal mouse is ignored, not by the BIOS, but Linux. If I shutdown my laptop and reboot into Linux with the external mouse disconnected, I get the message about the detection in the initialization script about a device it cannot find, ask to remove, ignore or forget it, and then continue loading and the internal mouse is active to use. Windows may have it flaws, and nothing is perfect, but I'd at least like to 1) eliminate the message when a device I have install is not there, if it is not critical, mice are not, and 2) easier setup of devices in general post installation, particularly the extra mice one may have on a laptop.

Thanks again.

P.S. all four of my laptops are IBM Thinkpads, A21m, X20, 570e and 240x.

Modules can be made up to be used in the way you cite, but only if you say so on compile time.