hello everyone. i'm a slackware novice. i've tried mandrake 9.1 and 10 and got pretty decent with those, but slackware is kicking my ASS.

anyway, my mouse isn't working in 9.1 AT ALL. now, i have an interesting situation with my mouse. it's a USB Microsoft optical mouse (it might be an intellimouse, i'm not sure; two normal buttons, wheel in between, those two annoying natigation buttons on the side). i run two computers (one winxp, one linux) via an IOGEAR 2 port kvm switch.

i run the USB mouse into a USB to PS/2 adapter into the KVM. the KVM then runs into a PS/2 to USB adapter and into a USB2.0 pci card in the back of my linux box. the reason i have to do this is that the mouse ps/2 port on the motherboard doesn't work (and it's a usb mouse anyway, so it was never a big deal). mandrake 10 community didn't have a problem with this, so i'm trying to figure out what the problem is.

i'd really appreciate it if someone here could help me out. and please, i'm still a screaming, pissing my pants linux novice, so try to dumb down responses as much as possible, hehe

thanks in advance

-P.

be shure to find out what type of mouse you have, you can probably find it somewhere on the mouse. How many buttons does it have?

As you probably know the mouse is set up in /etc/X11/XF86Config :
Section "InputDevice"

this are the options for a standard wheel mouse with 3 buttons:

Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "Buttons" "5"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"

(edit as needed)
You could try to fill in the protocol to "Auto" as well,
I don't think the kvm has anything to do with it, it will prolly be wrong config (read: protocol) of your mouse

huh, i didn't realize it would be labelled on the bottom. it's a USB Microsoft Intellimouse Optical 1.0A USB & PS/2 Compatible mouse. it has five buttons IF you include the mouse wheel as one button.

does this help?

-P.

I am not shure about the button thingie, but there is an instead of IMPS/2 fill in IntelliMouse

i tried reinstalling slackware with the mouse plugged directly into the computer (instead of the kvm) and it worked fine. but once i plug it back into the kvm, it gets all screwy. it'll only move vertically across the screen, no horizontal movement at all.

-P.

Perhaps
Option "Protocol" "auto"
in the Xfree .config file can help.

All of my KVM problems went away when I noticed that the actual mouse I was using was connected to the
KVM through one of those PS/2 (round plug) to USB (rectangle plug) converters.

I found another mouse that didn't need the converter, but still has the wheel and everything works great.

For me the IMPS/2 didn't matter and getting rid of the scroll wheel in XF86Config didn't help but getting that converter out of the way made everything work like magic.

Drake42

So you have a USB mouse going to a PS2 adapter into the KVM and then from the PS2 through a USB adapter into the USB port on the PC? If you absolutely have to use this USB mouse try ditching the second adapter and plugging the KVM cord straight into the PS2 mouse port on the back of the PC. That's most likely where you're running into problems. The KVM isn't made for USB.

You should edit /etc/X11/XF86Config

Here is how "Core Pointer's InputDevice section" should look like :

# **********************************************************************
# Core Pointer's InputDevice section
# **********************************************************************

Section "InputDevice"

# Identifier and driver

Identifier "USB mice"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection


At the end of XF86Config is "ServerLayout section" and it should have these two lines:

InputDevice "USB mice" "CorePointer" ## ---> this one is important
InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"

While that's probably a good idea to do (and I would probably do it as well) the problem isn't in the config if the mouse works when directly connected to the PC.

If the problem is not there when you connect directly to the PC but is there when you add the KVM you'd have to logically deduce that the problem is the KVM or rather how the KVM is connected.

One thing I've noticed with USB is it's pretty easy to go from USB to PS2 but the reverse doesn't always work well.

KVM's are also kinda touchy about that sort of thing ( I have a similar setup right here on my desk).

The USB mouse with a PS2 adapter to the KVM should work just fine but you're undoubtedly causing a problem with the adapter back to USB on the KVM cable. Aside from that USB isn't noticably faster than PS2 so you won't suffer any if you ditch the second adapter and plug the KVM into the PS2 port.

If you're playing games on Linux (quake3 , UT ...) you should notice big difference in mouse input. For me USB works much better (Logitech B69 usb/ps2 mouse).

Really? I'll have to check that out then (probably why I keep getting my ass kicked in Tribes 2)...