MOUSE NOT WORKING!!!!!!11one

Forum: User Feedback
Topic: MOUSE NOT WORKING!!!!!!11one
started by: uniphil

Posted by uniphil on June 07 2005,00:49

Hi
I'm pretty sure that my mouse works, however I screwed up win 95 so I have no way to know for sure.
it's a serial one.
when i boot, sometimes I get into xsetup, and sometimes I dont. I'm running a 100mhz p586, with about 35mb of ram. I boot, and go into xsetup and configure everything, and I've tried every option with the verious "COM1" and all those things and still cant get it to work.
What happens is X starts up and the mouse just sticks in the middle of the screen.
I also tried booting with "expert" and then "(re)configured my mouse" and tried those options and still nothing

sorry I'm sort of in a rush

any help will be appreciated.

Posted by Guest on June 07 2005,02:23

Using X-windows at 35 MB RAM may be cutting it close, especially without a swap file or swap partition. 20 MB is gone just after boot-up, and you have to count all the stuff residing on the /ramdrive depending on the extensions you load. I'd suggest that you boot into console mode first using "dsl 2" boot option and create at least a 30 MB swap file somewhere. Activate this swap file and then execute "startx" to go into X-windows.

My experience with serial mouse is that it is inherently problematic. I get better result with a serial-to-PS2 adapter, but still observe glitches and missed clicks.

Also, there are some BIOS that have the Plug-n-play options set by default for operation with Windows. These settings are not necessarily suitable for other OS.

Posted by jls legalize on June 07 2005,10:43

serial mouse works under dsl, configuring it with xsetup, but I have problems if I use mouseconfig.

Posted by uniphil on June 07 2005,21:11

thanks for the replies.

I'm gonna get 16mb more more ram right now (if the store's still open), which I hope will be enough. How do I set up a swap partition, and how do I open programs without a mouse because the x keyboard shortcuts don't seem to work

Posted by cbagger01 on June 07 2005,23:03

Try booting with:

dsl vga=normal noicons xsetup

and choose xvesa server and follow the prompts.

Posted by uniphil on June 08 2005,00:15

thanks I will try that.

I noticed that when I boot I get a message "You passed an undefined video mode number. Press <Return> to see vide modes available, <Space> to continue or wait 30 secs.>

This doesnt seem to have made much difference whether I press enter or not, but I thought it might mean something.

Also, probably of more relevance, I get this right before it goes into x:
"EXT2-fs warning: maximal mount count reached, running e2fsck is recommended.
su(pam-unix)[345]: session opened by suer dsl by (uid = 0)
grep:/etc/sysconfig/mouse: no such file or directory
Using Xvesa default 1024 x blah blah blah...........

I dont think the rest is relevant, but I think the problem lies at the grep:/etc/sysconfig/mouse: no such file or directory message.

I know it works with the ps/2 mouse on this comp.

by the way the ram is now about 65mb.

thanks for the replies.

Posted by uniphil on June 08 2005,01:31

Ok.

I've allready been through every "xsetup" option thing and nothing works. I guess it still could be the mouse it's self.

I also noticed that when the computer boots up, I get a thing testing my memory, telling me that there's 65152kb. However when dsl is booting it says "total memory found: 59236kb
and then
"Creating /ramdisk (dynamic size = 45488k) on shared memory"

Posted by Guest on June 08 2005,21:16

If your computer has on-board video, it is usually allocating part of the RAM for the video cache. 4-6MB is just about normal. The size of the ramdisk, on the other hand, is set by some rule in the KNOPPIX setup. If I remember right, it will use either 90% of available memory or 200 MB, whichever is smaller, for the ramdisk.

The serial mouse is a hit-or-miss thing. If you know of another Linux distribution that allows you to work with your mouse on this computer, look through the modules (command "lsmod") to see what it is using. Knoppix (and DSL for that matter) is well-known for its huge module-autodetecting capability, but it is possible that it just doesn't have the version that will work properly with your mouse.

Posted by uniphil on June 09 2005,00:06

ok thanks.

my video is not actually onboard, it has it's own card.

so, to summarize so far:

1. is there a way to make a swap thing in my hd using just the keyboard so I can try knoppix or something else to find out what's wrong wit the mouse?

2. what exactly does "You passed an undefined video mode number. Press <Return> to see vide modes available, <Space> to continue or wait 30 secs." mean?

3. what exactly does "EXT2-fs warning: maximal mount count reached, running e2fsck is recommended.
su(pam-unix)[345]: session opened by suer dsl by (uid = 0)
grep:/etc/sysconfig/mouse: no such file or directory" mean?

4. is there a way by looking at the motherboard to find out which "com1" or ttysomethingorother my mouse is plugged into?

thanks for all the support.

Posted by cbagger01 on June 09 2005,16:04

1. Boot up with the:

dsl 2 vga=normal

command.

Then type:

/usr/sbin/mkdosswapfile

at the "root" prompt. follow the instructions.

2. This error message means that the DSL default framebuffer resolution is unsupported by your video card. I believe that this resolution is 1024x768x32bit but I could be wrong. If you use an alternative cheatcode like:
dsl vga=normal

or

dsl vga=787

it may avoid this error message. Press the F3 key at the boot prompt for some additional choices for framebuffer modes.

4.
You can figure out your COM port by looking at the motherboard, but someimtes the COM port number does not translate directly into linux tty numbers. Here are the typical mappings (not always true)

COM1 = /dev/ttyS0
COM2 = /dev/ttyS1
COM3 = /dev/ttyS2
COM4 = /dev/ttyS3
etc...

If your mouse is plugged into the motherboard itself, my guess is that it is located on one of these four tty ports. Try each one and see what happens.

Posted by uniphil on June 12 2005,03:08

allright.

I'm gonna try to get another mouse because I think that my be the problem, but I'm pretty sure this one works.

Is there a way to get into programs using the keyboard only? Most of the regular kde shortcuts dont work. I think just getting into the terminal thing IN kde would be sufficient, because if I hit crlt-alt-backspace, to kill x or whatever, and then type in the name of almost any program on dsl, it'll think about it for a second, then give me a message that it "cant open display" or "cant connect to x" or other things like that which I assume are caused from not being in kde and it thinking I'm in kde. I really only need flwriter to work if that helps.

there is one program (that I found) that works outside kde and that's links.

Thanks, Phil

Posted by cbagger01 on June 12 2005,17:15

Actually, the DSL window manager is called "Fluxbox", not KDE.

To get an xterminal window to appear, boot with:

dsl 2 vga=normal

type su dsl

and then edit your .xinitrc file:

nano /home/dsl/.xinitrc

add a new line with

rxvt &

directly above the

fluxbox &

line and save the file and exit nano.

Then type

startx

and you should get an rxvt terminal window already opened up.

Posted by uniphil on June 13 2005,00:03

awesome!

now I can do most of the stuff with the keyboard!!

Thanks