system hungs when started
 

I`ve recently changed my PS/2 mouse to an USB mouse. After that when I run linux, in KDE login window I have a freeze. Neither keyboard or mouse works, it`s all hang up. I`ve tried to disconnect this mouse and run system then, but it`s the same story.
What could be the cause and how to get my system back?

Boot from CD and try: chmod -x /etc/rc.d/rc.gpm.

to me its seems like the X server is the one thats crashing.... though i will not put my jewels on the line for that.. :-D

you could try to fix this by reconfiguring your X server... i think this is pretty safe to do if you know your hardware specs... if this is where the problem is you should be able to fix it... if not... nothing will go wrong as long as you input the right hardware specs.. (especially graphics card and monitor)

now i am not sure what X server Slackware uses... xorg or xfree86 ... if its xorg run 'xorgconfig' as root from CLI (ie boot in safe mode or to CLI) and if its xfree86... i am not sure but it should be something like xf86config... (type xf in CLI and press TAB and see what programs are available and choose the one that has config in it) this also has to be done in root.. and then provide the config program with the right details...

hope all goes well!

lib.

Slackware uses xorg, so this command will be xorgconfig.

I`ve tried to boot from CD but then it loads it`s own kernel from CD just to be able to install system.
I`ve tried to pass boot=/dev/hda1 noinitrb ro (or something like this) as it says at the beginning when you load linux, meaning that you can run your system that`s already installed on your system.
That way it hungs up and there`s some VFS kernel panic saying that he can`t mount fs on 03:01.

So... does this practiclly mean that I have to reinstall slackware? And will I have to reinstall it each time I change my mouse o_0?

If you've installed slackware yourself, you'd know how to chroot to your linux installtion. After you boot from the CD and dropped off to a shell, mount your linux partitions on /mnt. chroot to it and run the command 'source /etc/profile'..... and you are there. Now you can run xorgconfig.....

Ofcourse, you don't have to this as you can boot into runlevel 3 by passing the number 3 as an argument to the kernel on the lilo or grub prompt. Presuming you're using GRUB, when you get the GRUB prompt select the kernel you want to boot into which shall be selected already. Press 'e' key, select the line that start with kernel.... and position the cursor at the end of the line and type in the number 3. Hit 'Enter', hit 'b' which, should boot you into runlevel 3. From there, you can login as root and run xorgconfig.........

I`ve run the system in runlevel 3 and it was fine. I run the xorgconfig and after that I managed to run Xs without problem though the system didn`t recongnize the mouse and I could use it in Xs.
And that`s basicly it. When I run system to run Xs automaticlly then it hangs up, and when I run it from console then it doesn`t hung up but I can`t use the mouse.
Any ideas?
I`ve tried to disconnect my mouse and then run the system, but that doesn`t help, so it would seem that it`s not because of the mouse... but it couldn`t break just like that without any reason... o_0

Did you try disabling gpm as I said above?

I`ve tried disabling gpm and it didn`t help.
I`ve tried to change settings in /etc/X11/xorg.conf but there was no X11 directory in /etc.
Long story short - I got angry and decided to reinstall the system.
During installation I picked up USB mouse. What else... I`ve disabled hotplug since it could cause some problems.
After reinstalation when I type startx I get this error:
So I`ve tried to look through /etc/X11/xorg.conf and I found line that deals with mouses and I`ve found particularly this line
Option Protocol "PS/2"
and as far I can tell this means that system runs drivers for PS/2 mouse. Firstly - why since I`ve chosen USB mouse during installation? Secondly, I guess I should chane it into some USB driver, but from those listed I cannot find any that has USB in it`s name, and most of the names don`t tell me anything about them.
I have a normal USB mouse without any sophisticated functions etc, so IMO some standrard USB driver should be enough.
Once again I ask for help. I`m totally new at Linux and I`d really like to get it going finally (I`ve been trying since November last year and so far gone through Mandrake, Ubuntu and Knoppix and only the latter did work fine :/ I just want to have a running linux)

What does "ls -l /dev/mouse" point to? It should be /dev/input/mice.

Dennisk

Have you tried typing (as root) "mouseconfig", then select the usb mouse option, and indicate that the boot command (gpm) should be updated? Reboot after doing that.

I`ve tried mouse config and it didn`t help.
/dev/mouse points to 'input/mice'

Which kernel did you install? If you used test26.s, you'll have to install 2.6 modules after installation to get mouse support.

Were you able to use the USB mouse during installation ? In short, is this USB mouse really working ? Try connecting it to another computer and see if it works ?

If the USB mouse is really working, can you post the contents of /etc/X11/xorg.conf and the Xorg's log file which should be found in /var/log ?