OK, Here's the problem. I'm using a basic, run of the mill Labtec optical PS/2 mouse. I've got XFree86 4, and Gnome (I can't find a version #). I'm using the 2.3.8-2-386 kernel and the Debian distro sarge.

I can't get my mouse to work in gnome. There's an error that comes up while booting, but it goes by too fast for me to catch it all - I catch mouse, ide, and module - is there a way to pause bootup so that I can read it? Mouse and module make sense, but ide?

Well, I guss that's it for now... I have other issues, but I think I can fix them myself once I get the mouse working.

Thanks in advance for the help.

You can enable the bootlog by going to /etc/default and editing the file bootlogd. Change to save your changes and reboot. I think the bootlog will default to be the file /var/log/boot. Scan this log for errors.

You might also get some information scanning through the output of dmesg.

Well, bootlogd is now enabled, but I can't find an output file. There's no boot in /var/log. The man says that's the default location, but there's nothing there. I was going to make one, but I can't figure out how... vi won't let me save a new file (or I don't know how, anyway. I haven't bothered to look very hard yet.) Just occured to me, is boot a folder? I can make that easily enough...

That might be moot anyway, I found this in dmesg:

Does that mean my PS/2 mouse is on a serial port?

Also, I rebooted about a million times trying to get the error message, and this is what I got...

If I'm reading this right, the problem isn't with the mouse, it's with the ide-detect or the CD-ROM driver.

So that means I'm back to square one.

If it helps, this is the entry in XF86Config-4:

Just recentrly had similar problem - was installing debian on my friend's pc. Here is what you can do:
a) debconf xf86config or debconf xfree86 (I think it was the first command)
this will let you reselect monitor, keyb, videocard etc... the main important thing is that it will allow you to select different type of mouse connection. Try different ones. One of them should work
or
b) boot with knoppix live CD and copy /etc/x11/xf86config to the /etc/x11/xf86config to your sarge hard drive (making a backup of the file first)

Oh, forgot to tell you. I also had sound problems with her pc. The reason was - old kernel - 2.4.something. I fixed it eventually, but if I had chosen 2.6.something version of kernel I wouldn't have had this problem in the first place.
So if I were you - I would also think about updating the kernal (maybe this will fix your mouse problem as well)

Ok, I've updated the kernel to 2.6.8.2.386.

I've installed gpm (it wasn't at first) and pointed XFree86 at /dev/gpmdata for the device location and set the mouse to use the ImPS/2 protocol.

As the system boots now, where once it said input [failed], now it says input [success].

A good sign. Unfortunately, I still have no response in Gnome (the only place I know of to test it...).

Any Ideas?

Oh yeah, I DO have a sound card issue, but I never expected to be able to be able to use that card. It's a cheap off-brand 4-channel thing that I had a serious problem finding a WinXP driver for let alone a Linux one... Once I get the mouse working, I'll pull the tower apart and swap back in the Creative Labs' SoundBlaster16 I had in there 3 years ago.