Re: [PLUG] Odd mouse problem - resolved

[Bill Jonas <bill@billjonas.com>]

On Tue, Apr 10, 2001 at 09:32:22PM -0400, Greg Lopp wrote:
> Strange, I've had no trouble with Intellimice on my machines.
> Did you try anything like this in XF86Config ?  
> 
> Section "InputDevice"
>     Identifier            "Mouse"
>     Driver                "mouse"
>     Option "Protocol"     "IMPS/2"
>     Option "Device"       "/dev/mouse"
> 
>     Option "Buttons"      "5"
>     Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
> EndSection

I'm using an IntelliMouse Explorer with my laptop.  When I bring it up
tomorrow, I'll paste the relevant section from my config.  (I'm using it
as a secondary pointing device, USB, with the laptop's own touchpad as the
core pointing device, PS/2.)  I do recall some issues with specifying the
IMPS/2 protocol.  Also, I have the Buttons set to 7.  I'm using it
directly off the /dev/input/mice device with XFree86 4.... well, I forget
exactly which patchlevel, but it's the one that's in slackware-current as
of a few days ago.

> I seem to remember there being dearth on info on IMPS/2 in their docs.

Hmm... did he say that he was using it as a PS/2 device on his KVM switch?
I've had some issues with *that*.  I have one on my desktop at home and
while I recall it working fine connected directly to the machine, I've
noticed some weird behavior associated with it being on the KVM.  At home,
I'm using X 3.3.6, with X picking up the mouse through /dev/gpmdata; I'm
not sure if it's X or gpm, but when I switch to the other system and back
again, the mouse goes crazy in a manner similar to what was described.  I
also noticed that when I was using the KVM to switch between a Debian box
and a Win98 box, MS Windows would be fine with it, other than taking a few
seconds of moving the mouse around before it started acting normally
again.  (The pointer would remain stationary while Windows "reacquired"
(for lack of a better term) the mouse.)  Stopping and then restarting gpm
solved the problem.  (Shell script named 'm' contained the line "sudo
/etc/init.d/gpm restart" to expedite the process.)

In fact, the more I think about it, the more I think that that's what the
problem is.  (I recall him saying, "If I ctl-alt-backspace and log in
again, it works fine for a brief time again...")  I'll bet that the
problems began after he switched to the other machine and then back again,
which would vary the lenghts of time.  I was using /dev/gpmdata, so I
could just restart gpm; if you were using the mouse device directly, you'd
indeed have to kill X and restart.  And it indeed did not happen with a
regular PS/2 mouse, scroll or otherwise.

Hopefully I haven't gone down an incorrect path here.  And to anyone that
might be reading the archives and has the same problem, well, you're not
alone.

(I'll still post the relevant section from my X 4.0.x XF86Config
tomorrow.)

-- 
Bill Jonas    *    bill@billjonas.com    *    http://www.billjonas.com/
"As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others,  we should
be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and
this we should do freely and generously."          -- Benjamin Franklin


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