I have just recently formatted & repartitioned everything to install SuSE 9.2 Pro. Its on, its working, but i'm having to do all my navigation with the keyboard. I'm far from proficient with command line interface (total noob). USB devices flash their LEDs a little during post, before Linux gets involved. Then they go dead after all the PCI, etc detection.

I was advised to type modprobe ohci-hcd, which i did (like a blind trained monkey). no idea what that was about..... even after a trying man files.

help. my system needs to be up and running, and it can't run very fast without my USB mouse or my USB wacom graphics tablet.

kernel is 2.6.8-something.

Modprobe is used to load a module into the kernel. You have the kernel recognize your mouse as USB. Usually this can easily be done during installation of your Linux by simply selecting what your mouse connection is...(PS/2, USB, serial, etc.). I know for a fact that at least most USB mice work under Linux fine. I have never used a tablet, but I would assume that works.

uh, yeah. thnx for that.

still no closer than i was before to getting my mouse working.

when i was installing linux (tried it three or four times this time round), i went through each of the given mouse options, even the silly ones i expected not to work.

i know it should work. it DID work, in suse 9.1. maybe not from the start but i've been sat here scratching my head for days now trying to figure out what it was i did all those months ago to get my mouse working.

i hate being a noob. this woulda been sorted in minutes (rather than days) if i knew my way around like many of the guys here.

sorry, for the somewhat limited reply. I have never used SUSE or a tablet before and you didn't mention what type of mouse or tablet you had.

the mouse, its a generic 5 button optical.... or MS inteli explorer compatable... something like that. the graphics tablet is an A4 Wacom Intuos. both USB.

it worked! or almost. i don't know what i did. either something in the comand line i did helped ( doubt it ) or it was when i selected the USB explorer mouse from the bottom of the list and shutdown the computer (a first since.............. 200? ?). It told me something different from normal. usually it says full speed thingy on 2, but the time it worked... it said slow device found on 3. or more computery words to that effect.
problem is, i never got to log in, never quite made it to KDE. there's always been a weird flash for a second or two of a messed up screen made up of 4 psychadelicaly glitchy versions of the previous boot screen (just before when i used to see a little cross in the center of the screen before it became my familiar cursor), and thats how far i got, to that screen there.... except it didn't stay on for a mere 2 seconds.... this time, it was there for........ many minutes, more than i had the patience for. ouch, i hit the reset button (i really don't like having to do that). it went back to doing exactly as it had done before. bugger. so close and yet so far, and i'm still wandering around clueless.

*shakes fist at a bygone wasted 14 years of institutional education using bbc, macs and windows machines*

can you tell i'm an artist and not an i.t. guy? lol.

I now wish i had .... a mouse! lol .... forgot what i was gonna say then after "had" so, a mouse will do.



*runs off to try to replicate (for the third time) what happened when it nearly worked*

help

I know now why this place is called linux questions....


....and not linux answers.


juuuust messin with yas.

but seriously, if i don't have a mouse working ASAP (deadline 20th January), i'll be homeless for the day before (21st) my birthday (22nd).

this is not a pleasant prospect in a place where temps are usually around -3 to 7 C with a -20 windchill and stay like that for a few months... especially considering my circulation problems.



all because i never got my mouse working. or USB rather. and i have no PS/2 mouse (but i do have USB to PS/2 adapter, no joy after trying that earlier either)




I'm up for anything it takes to get this working on time. install from scratch, command lines (much help will be saught), editting code (much much much help will be required).... anything, just please don't sit back and watch one of linux & the open source comunity's best possable allies* fall into homelessness, computerlessness and.... no, thats bad enough! * (an activist who converts many away from 'doze - at least 5 so far, about another 9 on the way, many more i don't know of.)

Someone please help the dude.

Man, I wish I could help.

Maybe once you know what you are doing, you don't bother hanging around here, so those of us who are here are all just wailing into some sort of wonderwall.

Maybe it's meant to be like that.. a zen exercise where you focus on your question, and come up with a solution yourself, from out of the depths of your being.

Well, good luck mate, and here's a tip - if all else fails, install windows to get you through the hardship, until you can relax and get back into Linux.

thnx for that st0neskull.

well, i lost that flat, and avoided sleeping rough by... moving back in with the folks. lol.

even though i'm obviously still a lost noob wondering roughly in an upwards direction up the learning hill (as opposed to the 2 dimensional learning curve), i've been trying to get a friends computer onto linux that was already brought to its knees from windows and trojans and worms etc.

i'm just gonna see if i can find a PS/2 mouse until i get around the usb problem.

like another friend said, "the best approach i find with computers is to keep on breaking them until they work."

i think i'll keep trying a mix of that^ and LQ zen.




i wont be returning to windows .... unless the "Partial Linux Support" that the new printer i'm getting is more "partial" than expected.

haha, it just occured to me... how dedicated to the linux way am i!? ha! i nearly brought about homelessness because i won't go back to being a subject of king gates. though it may be more challenging, being a citizen of the linux comunity holds far more rewards.


once i know what i'm doing, i'll try not to do what seems to be comonly done, by returning here often. its in my nature. i think i even still have that in my sig... educate yourself so you may educate others.

this is late, but i hope it helps in future...

just try selecting the most basic usb mouse that there is... find the generic or something, and once that's working, you can at least use your pc...