Restarting gpm, the mouse server.

stf92 · 05-04-2019, 07:56 PM

Hi: After 'gpm -k' the mouse is disabled. Now, if I need it again, I do gpm restart, acording to /etc/rc.d/rc.gpm. But it isn't enabled again! Possible cause? Perhaps disabling it with 'gpm stop'?

I made 'gpm -m /dev/mouse -t imps2 and it restarted! Why 'gpm restart' has no effect?

Richard Cranium · 05-04-2019, 09:54 PM

Why did you try "restart" on something that you knew was stopped?

stf92 · 05-05-2019, 08:37 AM

/etc/rc.d/rc.gpm takes a parameter which can be stop, restart or start.

bassmadrigal · 05-07-2019, 11:47 AM

It could be an issue in what happens when gpm -k is run when the program is already killed. It doesn't make much sense to me, but in the future, you could try running /etc/rc.d/rc.gpm start directly if restart doesn't work to see if that allows it to function again.

stf92 · 05-07-2019, 06:24 PM

gpm stop should stop the mouse (touchpad) and gpm restart should restart it..

bassmadrigal · 05-07-2019, 06:42 PM

If you look at the rc script, restart contains the same command as the stop and start commands. In theory, running restart should work to start the command, but apparently it didn't work. That's why I asked to see if running start made a difference, because the start and the restart command both run gpm -m /dev/mouse -t imps2 which did work to start the server up again.

But, the script commands are stop to stop it, start to start it, and restart to stop and then to start it. "Restart" is designed to be used when it is running to restart the program (you can't restart a computer if it is shut down).

As I said above, restart should work, but since it didn't, I'm wondering if start works instead.

stf92 · 05-07-2019, 06:56 PM

I'll have to wait till the computer is back from the repair man. It can't be turned on. That will be tomorrow, I think.

Richard Cranium · 05-07-2019, 09:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stf92

/etc/rc.d/rc.gpm takes a parameter which can be stop, restart or start.

Running

Code:

/usr/sbin/gpm -k

results in a non-zero return code.

IF you have run

Code:

set -e

in your environment, then that non-zero return code will stop the script from continuing.

Running

Code:

/usr/sbin/gpm -k

followed by

Code:

/usr/sbin/gpm -k ; sleep 1 ; echo "Hi"

will let you know if that's the case.

If you see "Hi" on the terminal, the

Code:

/etc/rc.d/rc.gpm restart

command would not stop after the attempt the kill the non-running daemon. If you do not see "Hi" on the terminal, the restart command would fail.

stf92 · 05-14-2019, 06:08 PM

All I say is that

Code:

/usr/sbin/gpm stop

should stop the mouse. But it doesn't.

astrogeek · 05-14-2019, 06:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stf92

All I say is that

Code:

/usr/sbin/gpm stop

should stop the mouse. But it doesn't.

Why do you think it should work that way? What does man gpm have to say?

bassmadrigal · 05-14-2019, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stf92

All I say is that

Code:

/usr/sbin/gpm stop

should stop the mouse. But it doesn't.

That's not a valid argument for the command. Now, if you run /etc/rc.d/rc.gpm stop and that doesn't stop the mouse, it might be worth looking into. But that command should run:

Code:

/usr/sbin/gpm -k

...which is a valid option for the command and should stop the server.

As I said above, running /etc/rc.d/rc.gpm restart should "stop" and then "start" the gpm server, but if restart doesn't work, I was curious if "stop" works...

stf92 · 05-15-2019, 06:15 PM

The machine is still at the repair man house, sorry. Anyway, as there is the -k option for gpm there should also be an option to restart it. But there is not. To have to run /etc/rc.d/rc.gpm restart is awkward. The slackware machine will be in my power in a few days.

bassmadrigal · 05-15-2019, 08:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stf92

The machine is still at the repair man house, sorry. Anyway, as there is the -k option for gpm there should also be an option to restart it. But there is not. To have to run /etc/rc.d/rc.gpm restart is awkward. The slackware machine will be in my power in a few days.

gpm is the binary provided by the program. Slackware has no control over that and what flags/options it supports. /etc/rc.d/rc.gpm is provided by Slackware to control gpm (mostly) on startup). This file should support start, stop, and restart. If you look at the script, you can see what it does:

Code:

if [ "$1" = "stop" ]; then
  echo "Stopping gpm..."
  /usr/sbin/gpm -k
elif [ "$1" = "restart" ]; then
  echo "Restarting gpm..."
  /usr/sbin/gpm -k
  sleep 1
  /usr/sbin/gpm -m /dev/mouse -t imps2
else # assume $1 = start:
  echo "Starting gpm:  /usr/sbin/gpm -m /dev/mouse -t imps2"
  /usr/sbin/gpm -m /dev/mouse -t imps2
fi

So, if it's passed "stop", it will run /usr/sbin/gpm -k, if it's passed "start", it will run /usr/sbin/gpm -m /dev/mouse -t imps2, and if it's passed restart, it will run /usr/sbin/gpm -k, followed by a 1 second pause, and then /usr/sbin/gpm -m /dev/mouse -t imps2 to start it back up. If this script is not working, that's the only thing Pat can tweak. That's what we need to test.

If you think gpm should support a stop flag, you'd need to get with the developers of gpm and see if they're willing to add support for that.

I did test running /etc/rc.d/rc.gpm stop and it successfully stopped the process (although, my mouse still worked, but I'm too lazy to research why, although, it's probably a simple reason). Then I ran /etc/rc.d/rc.gpm restart (which should try and kill the gpm process and then start it again). I got an error that it couldn't kill the program (since it was already killed) and then it successfully started gpm again.

Code:

root@craven-moorhead:~# /etc/rc.d/rc.gpm stop
Stopping gpm...
root@craven-moorhead:~# ps -ef | grep gpm
root     21316 16974  0 19:52 pts/1    00:00:00 grep gpm
root@craven-moorhead:~# /etc/rc.d/rc.gpm restart
Restarting gpm...
O0o.oops(): [daemon/check_kill.c(38)]: Could not open /var/run/gpm.pid.
root@craven-moorhead:~# ps -ef | grep gpm
root     21321     1  0 19:52 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/gpm -m /dev/mouse -t imps2
root     21324 16974  0 19:52 pts/1    00:00:00 grep gpm

So, from my end, the rc.gpm script seems to be working as expected.

stf92 · 05-16-2019, 06:03 PM

Thanks bassmadrigal. I hope I will have the machine soon.