Laptops :: Laptop Pointer Stick Isn't Recognized

I am running DSL off of my Dell Precision M60. The mouse works fine with the external USB mouse but will not respond to the built in pointer or touch pad. If someone could walk me through the setup or what I would nead to make a driver I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,
Louis

You might try the full Knoppix cd to see if it will work. If it won't, then you may
be out of luck. Another one to try is PCLinuxOS, mandrake based.
Might have to stick with the external mouse. I have no idea how to find a driver
for your built in mouse, or how to put one in without a remaster.
I have a laptop with one of those pencil eraser pointers in the center of the
keyboard. DSL works with it, but it is not nearly as good as the Dell USB optical
external mouse I use with it. My restoration is on hda1, the Windows 98 partition, and right now I am running my Knoppix remaster on it, and have a fairly long cheatcode required at the boot prompt.
DSL would most likely not require all that once it is set up, as DSL 1.1 has the
fully automatic bootup restore, once you get everything working right.
Sorry I could not be of more help.

Try booting with this command:

dsl xsetup

and choose PS2 or serial mouse and see if it works.

Otherwise, you will probably need to install the Xfree86.dsl extension assuming that your mouselike device is supported by the standard XFree86 drivers.

I will try that. Could you explain what XFree86 does as opposed to X and the other things with an X in fron of their name? I thought that was already included with DSL.

Thanks,
Louis

original here.