486PC:serial mouse and 3c900b not working

Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: 486PC:serial mouse and 3c900b not working
started by: bas

Posted by bas on Feb. 14 2004,19:12

I am new and just burned the DSL ISO image to a CD.
I want to use DSL on an old 486 PC with 32 MB, 3c900b and serial mouse.
Because my PC/BIOS does not support booting from CD, and have put smartbootmanager (http://btmgr.sourceforge.net) on a floppy. I boot from this floppy and then choose 'boot from CD'. This works fine.

Except two things:
I have a Genius 3 button serial mouse; this is not recognised.
Also my ethercard (3c900b) is not recognised. When I run 'netcardconfig' and choose DHCP (my ADSL router/switch supports DHCP) is doesn't get an IP address, but replies with "operation failed".

Who can help me?

PS: is there a way to enter commands in X without a mouse?

regards,
Bas

Posted by davide on Feb. 15 2004,11:53

for the mouse: maybe just give up the idea of using all of the 3 buttons and choos 2 buttons when asked during set up.
This might help. Then you can browse the net (if you solve your problem with the netcard) and look for some hints in this forums or others.
A 2 button muse is better than nothing, isn't it?

(if you've already tried this...sorry for this foolish post

)

Posted by hasty on Feb. 15 2004,13:58

FWIW I've used serial mice with machines under 32 mb ram and had no problems with detection.
As davide says just go for two button.

Posted by bas on Feb. 17 2004,20:01

hasty+davide: thanks for your ideas, but...

During setup I indicate that I have NO USB mouse; I have no PS2 mouse, and the mouse has 2 buttons.
With these settings the mouse is not recognised.

Some debug info:

$cat /proc/interrupts
only shows following interrupts:
0 timer
1 keyboard
2 cascade
8 rtc (?)
9 eth0
14 ide0

WHo can help me?

Posted by Modrak on Feb. 17 2004,21:20

8 rtc (RealTimeClock

Try to do link from /dev/ttyS0 (COM1) to /dev/mouse or /dev/mice

Posted by bas on Feb. 19 2004,08:28

Thank for your tip Modrak,
"Try to do link from /dev/ttyS0 (COM1) to /dev/mouse or /dev/mice"
But I'm not (yet) a linux expert, especially not on devices.
COuld you tell me how to link /dev/ttyS0 to /dev/mouse ?

Posted by TyphoonMentat on Feb. 19 2004,09:48

Simple:
rm -f /dev/mouse
ln -s /dev/ttyS0 /dev/mouse

Posted by bas on Feb. 19 2004,15:16

TyphoonMentat: thanks, this works!