Mouse isn't working

[Darrell Allen]

Hi everyone,

I've just installed Red Hat 7.2 on an older Pentium based PC. The mouse and keyboard worked during the installation but does not after I boot. The KDE login screen appears but is unresponsive (mouse pointer doesn't move nor does it appear the keyboard is responding). The keyboard does respond at the GRUB screen.

I presume I have the wrong mouse configured (it's a generic P/S 2, 2-button mouse) and apparantly the wrong keyboard. So, how do I access the box if the mouse and keyboard don't seem to be responding at the KDE login screen? Can I boot into single-user mode? Then, how do I change the config for the mouse and / or keyboard?

It's obvious I'm new to Linux isn't it?

Thanks,
Darrell

[Mark Fenton]

Darrell,

Try this:

Boot to single user mode (boot -s)
run Xconfigurator and change the settings for keyboard and mouse there (SAVE your old Xconfiguration first!)

[Wodisch]

Hello Darell,

try moving your mouse while booting.
Then it sends "mickeys" to the computer and can be indentified - older mice sometimes did not respond properly to the detection when not moved...

HTH,
Wodisch

[Darrell Allen]

Tried moving the mouse - it didn't help.

I didn't figure out how to get to a point to enter "boot -s". I can interact with GRUB and get a "command line" in GRUB. Keyboard works fine there. When I continue the boot I see a prompt to enter "I" to interact. The keyboard also works during that. But when I let it boot up to KDE the keyboard is un-responsive.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Darrell

[Paulo A G Fessel]

As to make a single-user boot with Grub, take a look at this link:

http://www.tek-tips.com/gviewthread.cfm/lev2/3/lev3/20/pid/54/qid/174649

Within single user mode, vi /etc/inittab and change the line

id:5:initdefault:

to

id:3:initdefault:

This will prevent kdm from loading, and hopefully you will be able to login from console in text mode. To do this, issue an "init 3" after changing the file.

Next, check /etc/X11/XF86Config (or XF86Config-4 if you're using XFree86 4.x). Look for "mouse" inside this file and change it to the desired protocol. See the file "README.mouse" in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/doc for details.

Hope it helps,

Paulo Fessel

[Darrell Allen]

Paulo, you got me to single-user mode. Thanks. At least now I can get into the system.

I had no luck with Xconfigurator nor could I tell at first glance what may be wrong with /etc/X11/XF86Config (or should it be XF86Config-4?).

I need to study it some more but am out of time for now.

BTW, how do I know if I'm running XFree86 4.x? I am running Red Hat 7.2.

Darrell

[Paulo A G Fessel]

Darrell,

Please attach your XF86Config-4 file for I can take a look on it.

What is the layout of the keyboard you're using? I advise you to try a simpler keyboard design (103/104 keys) and later you'd try to activate advanced features of the keyboard. Also, be sure to use XKB extensions or chances are that your keyboard won't work.

Paulo

[Mark Fenton]

which version you are using can be determined by

# X -version

which in the case of a RH 7.1.93 (the beta version of 7.2) for my setup yields:

XFree86 Version 4.1.0 (Red Hat Linux release: 4.1.0-0.9.4) / X Window System
(protocol Version 11, revision 0, vendor release 6510)
Release Date: 2 June 2001
If the server is older than 6-12 months, or if your card is
newer than the above date, look for a newer version before
reporting problems. (See http://www.XFree86.Org/FAQ)
Build Operating System: Linux 2.4.6-3enterprise i686 [ELF]
Module Loader present

As for which mouse protocol etc to use -- when in console mode (init 3) check to see whether gpm is running
# ps wx |grep gpm
2318 ? S 0:00 gpm -t ms -m /dev/mouse

and look at which special file /dev/mouse points to see the mouse type:
# ll /dev/mouse
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 5 Sep 22 19:27 /dev/mouse -> ttyS0

(so I have a serial mouse attached to serial port 1)

hth.

[Darrell Allen]

Paulo and Mark, I appreciate your help. This is a play machine at home that I just haven't had the time to spend on it that I'd like.

I've reload RH 7.2 to no avail. I've tried a different mouse. My keyboard is a generic 101 keyboard. I'll post my XF86Config-4 file later (seems I have a network problem with my PC also). Sheesh!

As an aside, I had loaded RH 6.0 on this machine in the past and used Gnome without problem. My experience with Linux is quite limited though.

I'll look at the XFree site and continue researching. Meanwhile, any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Darrell

[Volker Borowski]

Hi Darrel,

is the keyboard really not working at all.
Did you try Shift+Alt + "1" to get to the first virtual terminal.

Another thing that may be helpfull is to configure a real serial console, that might be accessd from a second pc via hyperterm or so.

I had a bit help from the forum on this, but in general it was no real problem.

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0xc95c0b0717d1d5118ff40090279cd0f9,00.html

Volker