Alright. I'm a complete newbie to the entire linux world. I chose slackware because I wanted to get the feel for a real linux distro without all the extremely user friendly features. I'm starting to think I made the wrong decision because I just can't get this to work. I had a problem getting KDE to load at all at first, but now it will load, but the mouse won't work. It sits at the top for the most part and goes crazy. I have a MS Intellimouse USB adapted to PS/2 port. I use xf86config and have tried basically every mouse config in the list. None of them seemed to work right for it. My keyboard is USB and that seems to be working fine, so right now I'm going to try the mouse with USB. I doubt it will work because I'm using the bare kernal. Any help would be great.

I am assuming it is Slackware 8.1 runing XFree86 version 4. The configuration file is in the /etc/X11 directory. It is called XF86Config. There is a section that handles the mouse pointer. It is usually set to the device /dev/mouse. That device is just a symlink. If it is set incorrectly then X would be reading the wrong device. X can also be configured to read the device directly if desired. You have to look to see what it is actually using. For PS/2 mouse the device port would be /dev/psaux and for USB mouse the device port would be /dev/input/mouse0. The /dev/mouse symlink can be changed to anything really, use a command something like;

ln -sf /dev/input/mouse0 /dev/mouse
or
ln -sf /dev/psaux /dev/mouse

There is also another important parameter and it is called the protocol. The standard default mouse config would be PS/2 I think. Yours would use IMPS/2 as the protocol, even if USB port. That has to be set in the XF86Config file.

There are some additional settings you will probably like to add as well. I have provided the pointer section from my XF86Config as a guideline below.

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse1"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Resolution" "300"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Buttons" "3"
EndSection

The resolution setting I have found to be a great help with high resolution screens, 1024x768 or higher. Reduces my arm fatigue. The last two settings are provided for wheel mouse support.

Not sure how you have the USB keyboard running on the bare.i kernel. When I tried to switch I couldn't login. I had to conenct the PS/2 kb and then load the modules for the USB kb to get it to work. But for USB mouse and USB keyboard support I would recommend loading the following modules. I use the /etc/rc.d/rc.local file to load my modules. Others seem to like /etc/rc.d/rc.modules file. The commands here load the modules and some others that are needed.

modprobe usb-uhci (or usb-ohci)
modprobe hid (or usbmouse and usbkbd)
modprobe mousedev
modprobe keybdev

The modules usbcore and input will be autoloaded as well.

Perhaps it will provide the assistance that you desire. If you are using a USB keyboard you might want to switch to the usb.i kernel. In the event of a system failure and the modules can't be loaded you might not have keyboard control. The usb.i kernel includes all the features from the modules above.

thanks a lot for your help.. i'll get to it and post back. I dont know how to edit files directly but i won't pester you because I know theres documentation around. thanks again.

An easy editor for a beginner is the "mcedit" from the Midnight Commander package if it was installed. It has function keys, etc.

mcedit /etc/X11/XF86Config

And Linux is case sensitive everywhere!

Quick tip...

pico is a good editor for beginners (and for me)

so, if you want to edit say.../etc/rc.d/rc.modules, then...
pico /etc/rc.d/rc.modules

Hope it helps.

Ah...Excalibur...I forgot mcedit

wow. thank you so much! my mouse works now... I just have to configure everything else now.