Mouse scroll wheel not working, just installed Slackware

fullmetalgerbil · 03-22-2009, 10:49 PM

I just installed Slackware for the first time and the scroll wheel on my mousen (I tried a USB and a PS/2) does not work. Actually, because I'm a little thick I reinstalled it a few times trying out different options for mouse configuration.
I just don't know what to do. I have a feeling the solution lies somewhere in editing xorg.config but I really don't know where to start. I looked at the Slackbook, but I didn't see anything addressing this problem.
Any help would be much appreciated.

tramni1980 · 03-22-2009, 11:11 PM

Make sure you have the line:

Code:

Option  "ZAxisMapping"          "4 5"

in the "InputDevice" section of
your /etc/X11/xorg.conf

I would recommend you to use "xorgsetup" to configure your X.

Woodsman · 03-22-2009, 11:32 PM

Perhaps the following will help:

Configuring xorg.conf for Mice with Scroll Wheels

fullmetalgerbil · 03-23-2009, 12:17 AM

Nothing. I tried to use xorgsetup and got a fatal error when it went to create a new configuration file.
The mousewheel tutorial didn't really do much good because my xorg.config file is completely different than the example given.

fullmetalgerbil · 03-23-2009, 12:32 AM

Now I just went back and tried to pull up /etc./X11/xorg.conf. with nano again and it would not show the file, nor did any of the commands work.
So, in short, my Slackware experiment is over. Thanks for trying to help, but I'm going to try something else that isn't as user friendly as a rabid weasel on amphetamines.

brianL · 03-23-2009, 05:40 AM

Did you run all those commands: xorgsetup, editing xorg.conf, whatever else, as root? Doesn't sound like it if none of them worked.

nerix · 03-23-2009, 06:22 AM

Hi;
First backup your "xorg.conf" file then exit from "X window" and perform below steps as root.

Code:

Xorg -configure

Code:

mv /root/xorg.conf.new /root/xorg.conf

Code:

cp /root/xorg.conf /etc/X11/

Now start "X window".

jrecortel · 03-23-2009, 06:30 AM

just uncommenting the

Code:

Option     "Protocol"     "Auto"

in the InputDevice section works for my mouse scroll wheel

linus72 · 03-23-2009, 06:47 AM

Please calm down...I also had issues with it-it's really simple-but you must either edit the xorg.config before startx or restart the X window after editing the file.

Code:

Section "InputDevice"

# Identifier and driver

    Identifier	"Mouse1"
    Driver	"mouse"

# On platforms where PnP mouse detection is supported the following
# protocol setting can be used when using a newer PnP mouse:

#    Option     "Protocol"      "Auto"

# The available mouse protocols types that you can set below are:
#    Auto BusMouse GlidePoint GlidePointPS/2 IntelliMouse IMPS/2
#    Logitech Microsoft MMHitTab MMSeries Mouseman MouseManPlusPS/2
#    MouseSystems NetMousePS/2 NetScrollPS/2 OSMouse PS/2 SysMouse
#    ThinkingMouse ThinkingMousePS/2 Xqueue
    Option "Protocol"    "IMPS/2"

# The mouse device.  The device is normally set to /dev/mouse,
# which is usually a symbolic link to the real device.

    Option "Device"      "/dev/mouse"
#   Option "Device"      "/dev/psaux"
#   Option "Device"      "/dev/ttyS0"
#   Option "Device"      "/dev/ttyS1"
    Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"

That's my xorg.config-all I added was changing "Protocol" "PS/2" to "Protocol" "IMPS/2" and then added the following line- Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5". Then logout and restart X-"startx".
Remember you don't have to use nano-just open the home folder on your KDE desktop, goto the folder-"etc"-then to the folder "X11", click on the "xorg.config" file and "Kwrite" or Kedit will open it, edit it as above according to what your mouse is-PS/2, IMPS/2, etc.
Hit save, logout, then enter "startx".
Does that work??

fullmetalgerbil · 03-24-2009, 12:21 PM

Yeah, I finally calmed down and got it. Scroll wheel is working, but there's a host of other things I still need to address to get this installation dialed in just so (like an issue with screen resolution for example, and using the Slackware package management tools as well as just finding the right places to install programs compiled from source-Debian kind of spoilt me with apt and being able to find every program I needed packaged as a .deb...and there's a minor keyboard glitch I have to iron out...and so on).
But if I really wanted a distro that just worked "out of the box" I'd be using Ubuntu or PCBSD or something and not really learning much about how Linux works compared to using Slackware.
Thanks for the help everybody.

brianL · 03-24-2009, 02:52 PM

For packages, check out these sites:

http://slackbuilds.org/
Read the Howto.
This, sbopkg, can help with SlackBuilds from there:
http://www.sbopkg.org/

Packages created by Eric ("Alien Bob"):
http://www.slackware.com/~alien/slackbuilds/

And src2pkg, to help if you have to build something from source:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/...nload/src2pkg/

tommcd · 03-24-2009, 05:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fullmetalgerbil

Yeah, I finally calmed down and got it. Scroll wheel is working, but there's a host of other things I still need to address to get this installation dialed in just so (like an issue with screen resolution for example...

If you are still having problems with xorg.conf:
First backup your current xorg.conf.
If you have a working Debian install on the same computer you could just copy the xorg.conf from Debian right over to Slackware and it will likely work. The first time I tried Slackware I copied the xorg.conf from Ubuntu over to Slackware to get a working xorg.conf.
Or boot up a live CD like Knoppix and simply copy that xorg.conf to your Slackware system. I got this idea from Woodsman's site:

http://humanreadable.nfshost.com/sde...ideo_sizes.htm

fullmetalgerbil · 03-24-2009, 05:58 PM

Thanks for the package info.
Naw, I don't have a Debian installation on the same computer.
I knew this whole Slackware thing was going to be a challenge but more and more I'm finding out its more of a challenge than I ever expected. I don't want to get all off track with the latest problems it's giving me, but it just seems like its one thing after another.
I'm determined to give this thing a fair amount of usability on my box before I go apecrap and downgrade to some training wheels distro that does everything for me. It's just a bit frustrating finding out that I only knew a twentieth about Linux than I should have known. Things would have been so much better if I just started out with Slackware in the first place.

brianL · 03-24-2009, 06:15 PM

Give us some details about what problems you're having, and we'll see if we can help.

fullmetalgerbil · 03-24-2009, 06:58 PM

Well, the latest big problem is the login manager. I was using KDE and KDM at first, but then had to reinstall and chose Xfce just because I like it better anyways. Thing is, I couldn't get GDM working with it and when I tried XDM it worked, only once I logged in Firefox wouldn't launch (it said there was an I/O error). So I wound up reinstalling-since in my brilliance I had deleted all the lines pertaining to GDM and KDM in the /etc./rc.d/rc.4 file so as to have it pick XDM by default.
So now I'm having no login manager, and I don't know how to get GDM or KDM working with Xfce and I'm scared of borking firefox by using XDM again.
Not that a login manager is the most crucial thing in the world, I just would rather have it for when the wife and kids use the computer so they don't have to remember to start x manually after logging in.