troubleshooting /dev/mouse link in a Slack14 VM guest

turtleli · 09-27-2013, 07:51 PM

I found a evdev bug report with someone having issues in qemu using the -usbdevice tablet option. I also notice in your xorg.0.log that you have a virtualbox usb tablet device loaded as well which shows similar characteristics to the qemu -usbdevice tablet option. I'm guessing that this could be the source of your problems.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ReaperX7

I'm wondering if there's a remote chance your system isn't looking for hald for some reason. It shouldn't, but...

No. HAL should not be installed. I don't use VirtualBox, but there's no reason to believe that it will suddenly make X use HAL. Programs do not mutate without valid reason.

Drone4four · 09-28-2013, 11:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by turtleli

Did you try this? What button events did you see (ignore all the mouse movement events)?

Sorry for overlooking this suggestion when you first made it. When I run xev, moving the mouse cursor over the box causes code to whiz by in the console. Likewise, when I right click, left click, click both left and right buttons at the same time, code registers in console. Clicking the mouse wheel shows that something is happening. But when I scroll, nothing happens.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ReaperX7

ZAxisMapping should setup the wheel mouse completely and set it properly for scrolling. As Turtleli suggested run xev and see what comes out in the output and logs.

See above for the output I saw when running xev.

Quote:

Do you by chance have package xf86-input-mouse installed? I know a lot of distributions ONLY supply the xf86-input-evdev package for udev purposes, and I think Patrick does still include some of the older drivers for maximum detection capabilities, but you should run and check pkgtool's list to be sure before we proceed any further.

pkgtool indicates that I have slackage installed called xf86-input-mouse-1.7.2-x86_64-1

Quote:

I'm also wondering because of how fickle VirtualBox is, I'm wondering if there's a remote chance your system isn't looking for hald for some reason. It shouldn't, but just in case you require it, here's the downloads for it:
64-bit version
hal-0.5.14-x86_64-3
32-bit version
hal-0.5.14-i486-3
and the hal-info
hal-info-20091130-noarch-1
You shouldn't need this package at all to be truthful, but as I stated VirtualBox tends to misbehave and often doesn't work right in any regards.

I held off on pursuing this suggestion as per turtleli on the next page confirming your claim that I shouldn’t need hal.

Quote:

Just curious but have you attempted to check your VirtualBox virtual machine of Slackware against another Virtual machine like qemu to see if one has problems the other does or doesn't?

As I stated before VirtualBox has been problematic as of late, so don't put too much stock in it being completely stable and useful, but we will see what we can do to help with the mouse problem.

To be completely honest, I think it's VirtualBox that has the problem and not Slackware.

I installed qemu on Ubuntu. It’s user friendly for users willing to pore over the documentation and get everything running with a CLI. I would like to do this, but there are so many other things on my agenda to ‘hack’ and learn from. Would trying another *nix iso in VirtualBox provide equivalently useful insight? I just tried elive topaz and the scroll wheel works perfectly automagically. Thinking there was a possibility that by interchanging the elive VM xorg.conf with the xorg.conf in my Slack14 VM might work. It didn’t, but at least we’ve ruled out that it’s a problem with VirtualBox.

Here is the elive xorg.conf for reference:

Code:

# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
#   sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier	"Generic Keyboard"
	Driver		"kbd"
	Option		"XkbRules"	"xorg"
	Option		"XkbModel"	"pc105"
	Option		"XkbLayout"	"us,ca"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier	"Configured Mouse"
	Driver		"vboxmouse"
	Option		"Device"	"/dev/input/mice"
	Option		"Protocol"	"Auto"
	Option		"CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier	"Configured Video Device"
	Driver		"vboxvideo"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier	"Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier	"Default Screen"
	Monitor		"Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section     "Extensions"
   Option       "RANDR"     "enable"
   Option       "RENDER"    "enable"
   Option       "Composite" "enable"
EndSection

Section "dri"
        Mode 0666
EndSection

Thanks,turtleli and ReaperX7 for your continued patience and help.

turtleli · 09-29-2013, 09:20 AM

Are the VirtualBox guest additions installed? I've just installed Slackware64-14.0 as a VirtualBox guest and initially the mouse wheel would not work and the Xorg.0.log was very similar to yours. After installing the guest additions the mouse wheel works perfectly and the Xorg.0.log changes quite signficantly.

My Slackware64-14.0 VM does not use any xorg.conf files by the way.

Drone4four · 09-29-2013, 05:51 PM

@turtleli: I went to install these packages, including virtual box's dkms, guest additions and even guest-xll, from the Ubuntu repository but aptitude tells me they are already installed:

Code:

gnull@raring ~ $ sudo apt-get install virtualbox-guest-additions-iso virtualbox-guest-x11 virtualbox virtualbox-guest-dkms virtualbox-dkms
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
virtualbox-guest-additions-iso is already the newest version.
virtualbox is already the newest version.
virtualbox-dkms is already the newest version.
virtualbox-guest-dkms is already the newest version.
virtualbox-guest-x11 is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
gnull@raring ~ $

turtleli · 09-29-2013, 07:05 PM

I mean install the guest additions in your Slackware14 guest, not in your host system.

When your Slackware14 VM is running, go to the VirtualBox VM menu, Devices->Install Guest Additions which will insert a CD into the virtual machine CD drive, mount the CD if it doesn't happen automatically (I think it happens automatically if you're running kde or xfce) and as root execute the VBoxLinuxAdditions.run which you'll find there.

If you're familiar with SlackBuilds then an alternative is to use the virtualbox-addons and virtualbox-kernel-addons Slackbuilds. If you're not familiar then I would suggest you use the above option instead.

Drone4four · 09-30-2013, 03:17 PM

Ah yes, that worked. I immediately chose the second point of attack. Afterall, I go way back with the SlackBuilds community on irc. I shared some good times with mwalling and rworkman, alienBOB and Gizzmo. SlackBuilds.org had scripts for creating virtualbox-addons and virtual-box-kernel-addons. Everything built and installed real snappy. After rebooting, the scroll wheel was working. And the irregular mouse tracking behaviour described by ReaperX7 went away too.

turtleli: I wholeheartedly appreciate all your detailed suggestions. Thank-you, my friend.

ReaperX7 · 09-30-2013, 08:15 PM

Do be careful with VirtualBox however in any regards. The Additions drivers have been problematic in recent versions, so do take care with them.