Hello again!

I have just installed Slackware yesterday and I managed to get through the installation ok and I even managed to get my system dual booting XP and Slackware. Here is my problem...the mouse does not work when I go into Xwin. I am using KDE as the windows manager and the mouse will not work in it. I have the Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop which has the mouse and keyboard both going through one usb port, and at startup it seems to detec it ok. In the list of all the other stuff there are two input devices, input0 and input1, and both of them say wireless optical desktop (just to clarify this is when the system is starting up and listing all the stuff about your computer). Is whatever Xwin needs to use the mouse not being passed in? The keyboard works fine, and even when I plug in an old regular mouse it still won't work.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated! Thanks!

Try plugging the mouse in one USB port and the keyboard in another usb port.

Check that the "USB" sections are properly activated in the different config files in /etc/rc.d/. Check the changes by restarting your machine and checking dmesg -- both keyboard and mouse should appear as "detected" in the dmesg output...

For instance, I know it is necessary to un-comment some USB commands in these files to make my USB disk-on-key work. I suspect something like this is responsible for your problems...

If all else fails, test your mouse on another system, and see if XFree86 requires some special configuration. Which is probably the case, since you are using a USB mouse...

Another good reason *not* to use Microsoft... no?

Dunno if this will help but...

I have a laptop... I also have a usb wireless mouse, in X only the built-in touchpad worked.

To fix it, I added a new section in XF86Config... here it is

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "USBMouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Device" "/dev/pointer"
Option "Name" "AutoDetected"
Option "Vendor" "AutoDetected"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping "4 5"
EndSection

Then, later in the file you will see the section "ServerLayout"

In my case in the wireless usb is a secondary mouse it is listed second... but I guess you should list it first

So add something like

InputDevice "USBMouse" "CorePointer"

Furthermore, remember to make sym-link between /dev/input/mice and /dev/pointer

(ln -s /dev/input/mice /dev/pointer) and you should be set

Cheers

Hey, thanks for the replies but I think I didn't make my situation clear with my first post. Even when I plug in a non usb mouse, it still does not work. Right now I am not too concerned with getting the Wireless Dektop to work, just a mouse in general.

Do I have to have the other mouse (non usb) plugged in at start up in order for it to work? When I used Knoppix just to play around the mouse from the wireless desktop worked fine.

The wireless desktop has one usb plug which can control both the mouse and the keyboard, but it also has PS/2 connecter that when plugged in will control the mouse. I started up Knoppix and the mouse didn't work through the usb so I plugged in the PS/2 connecter and it worked like a charm.

So I don't think the problem is with the mouse, I think it is with Xwin not getting what it needs to make a mouse work. But since I am very new to linux I don't know what X needs in order to use a mouse or how to give it to it.

Sorry for not making my situation clear from the beginning but I hope this post helped clarify.

Hopefully someone can find it in their heart to help a poor newbie out.

Thanks everyone!

In /dev do you see a mouse entry?

If so, in the instructions I gave you before just make the ln -s command
'ln -s /dev/mouse /dev/pointer'

or change the Option "Device" "/dev/pointer" to
Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"

Ok...I will try that, right now I am at work but I will try when I get home. Could I make one more request of you though? (Sorry for being such a newbie) Could you explain what you mean a sym-link and could you explain where I change the option you talk about? Is /dev/mouse just a file I can edit with something like pico? Same question with /dev/pointer...

Thanks a lot for the help, I hope it works. I'll keep you updated.

Thanks again!

In Linux all the devices look like files. For instance, /dev/hda is your primary harddrive.

A sym-link is like a shortcut in windows. Basically, it lets you create a new file which points to another file. In this manner it is possible to make something called say /dev/hda accessible through /dev/myprimarydrive.

When I say make a sym-link to /dev/input/mice and call it /dev/pointer, that means that any program looking at /dev/pointer trying to find a mouse driver, will ultimately see /dev/input/mice.

About the second question. In the file /etc/X11/XF86Config, where I suggested you add lines to enable a USBMouse (or any kind of mouse), there is a line :
Option "Device" "/dev/pointer"
I was suggesting that you could change that line to
Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"
Instead of make sym-link to /dev/mouse called /dev/pointer

Excellent, thanks a lot for the clarification. I am new but I think I will be able to pick things up as I go along. I don't think the concepts are too hard it is just a lot of the teminology and ways of doing things I haven't learned yet. So thanks a lot for the reply it was very helpful. Hopefully I can find many people like you to help with my journey into the linux world.

I'll post progress with the mouse after I try those things. Thanks again!

Update......

I tried using modifying the xf86config but it already had "/dev/mouse" like you said to change it to and it still won't work. I then tried to look at /dev/mouse but everytime I try to open it in pico it just freezes and says "reading file" or something like that down at the bottom. Should I be able to edit this file?

How can I tell if my mouse is working outside of Xwindows? Should the mouse appear at the command prompt (right now it does not, does this mean it is not being detected?)

Please help I don't know what to do.....

Thanks

You can never read any of the files in /dev directory.
They are all actually devices. So editing /dev/mouse is akin to trying to open your mouse up in notepad, and re-programming it.

If your mouse is not showing up on the command prompt screen when you move it, then it isn't working.

This is a USB mouse right? I am fairly certain that under kernel 2.4.20 in Slackware, USB HID (Human Input Devices) are not setup by default.

So, just to get some kind of mouse working... do you have a standard PS/2 mouse you can plug-in?

If so, Linux should auto-detect that mouse and put it into /dev/mouse.

Then, in XF86Config, under the section for "USBMouse", change Option "Device" "/dev/pointer" to Option "Device" "/dev/mouse".

BTW, the fact that it is called USBMouse is ok... that is not a special identifier for things in USB ports, so you needn't change it for a PS/2 mouse.

Now, moving along, I have been using linux now for almost a year... I switched over to Slackware9 2 days ago. I *know* that when I started out I would never have been able to figure out Slackware, it is one of the hardest distributions to setup.
So, in my humble opinion, I would suggest you learn Linux using RedHat (my choice) or Mandrake. These two distributions will configure mice etc... for you, and let you focus on learning how to use it. Then when you are ready, you can play around with the Slack.

Yeah it is a USB mouse but I also tried plugging a PS/2 mouse in when I loaded up KDE. Does the mouse have to be plugged in when I turn the computer on in order for it to put it into /dev/mouse?

Thanks.

Yes... you should plug the mouse in before you turn on the computer.

Hotplug support under 2.4.20 for USB is shakey

Ok thanks! It seems to be working now, I guess it just needed to be plugged in when I turned it on. The PS/2 mouse is working fine and later on I will work on getting the other mouse working. Thanks for your help!