Linux Mouse Trouble

Howdy.

I'm running a pretty full install of RH 8, and haven't had any problems except for this one. While I was messing around with The GIMP, the program crashed for an unknown reason, and froze up the computer. I reboot, let it check the file system integrity and all that, no problems. I log back in, no problem. But then once I'm back in GNOME, I have no mouse response whatsoever. Using my uber-rad keyboard shortcut skills, I open up the Mouse Settings dialog, and confirm that the correct mouse is selected on the correct port. But still no mouse response.

I log out of my account and log back in under another username: still the same trouble. I kick open kppp to connect to the internet to post a thread here seeking help (using my Windows box at the moment), but instead of initializing the modem, it seemed to initialize the mouse... or something. I've got an external US Robotics 56k modem, so I get to watch the pretty blinking lights... they didn't blink. Instead, the mouse pointer jumped on the screen to the upper left hand corner and displayed the popup menu that you usually get when you right-click. The mouse still didn't work. I rebooted once more, and now, here I am, humbly seeking help.

If you have even the slightest help to offer, please do!

Thank you much!

--PhirePhreak

im not sure what the problem is but when i installed Mandrake my keyboard and Mouse didnt respond ...i tried rebooting and all that l337 ;) stuff ..didnt work ..then i connected the mous and keyboard to different USB ports and it worked ...you can try that ..i cant offer anymore help since i dont know that much about linux distributions ...

sounds like to me you kicked out the plug.

You did not say what type of mouse you are using, or what type connection. Also, you said your "windows box": are you running multiple boxes with a shared keyboard, mouse, etc. ??

Or is it a duel boot system ??

ztill sounds like a hardware problem to me.

Nope, plug's in there. It's in the serial port (this computer is a modified old 486, so I don't really have any accessible USB ports), COM1 under DOS. The mouse is a Kensington with 2-buttons.

My Windows box is not actually mine, it's the family computer, and in no way related to my Linux baby.

Also, I think it's interesting to note that I only had this trouble after rebooting... maybe some configuration settings got changed that only take effect on startup? And also, before this, I've had an uptime of around 25 days, so I could've accidently knocked something out of line in those 3+ weeks. I'm not above admitting that I goofed. I know I did. When something goes wrong with a computer, especially running a stable OS like Linux, it's not the computer at fault, but rather the user. Computers don't stop working just to piss us off (though it may seem that way at times).

Anyhoo, like I said, thanks for the help!

--PhirePhreak

Have you only got COM1
or Com1 and COM2 if so check you havent inverted thes two ports in modem/mouse conf

I have not changed any of the hardware since... since I installed Linux, basically. It's been working fine up until now.

I do have several COM ports, but I haven't switched any of them around...

Depending on what type of mouse you are using, you can check the /dev file to see if ther is any input from the mouse, or if it somehow has been eaten.

Post what you have, and I'll tell you what file to check.

I forget if RH8 is still using cua stuff, so I'll post both options once you tell me.

also, you can simply check what /dev/mouse if it has been linked correctly, etc.

for instance:
ls -laF /dev | grep mouse

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 5 Jan 27 2003 mouse -> psaux

means that the mouse is using a PS2 port.

you will also see a bunch of other stuff, but this is the one you want.

IF you are using a USB mouse, ther are other things that need to be included.

you need to check on the input device support and such, which handles the USB stuff before it gets to the mouse level.

post here what you have.

Whups... I see that you posted that it is a serial mouse.

In which case, /dev/mouse should be linked to cua0 or ttyS0.

Have fun.

After checking many things, Turing_Machine's advice helped the most, so thanks bud. Turns out that by checking the mouse and modem entries in /dev, I found that they were symbolically linked to the wrong terminal port. Modem was on ttyS0, mouse on ttyS1. I switched those around, rebooted, and it all works beautifully!

Once again, thanks guys. I feel much happier now that I'm back and thriving in my comfortable little Linux environment.

--PhirePhreak

Actually, a friend of mine who uses RH7 recently had a similar problem with her mouse. There was no response from her PS/2 mouse. I told her to remove the /etc/sysconfig/mouse file, then rerun /usr/sbin/mouseconfig (as root), and then reboot. It worked.

In the future, you might give that a shot too. But let us hope you will not need to do so!

Linux is fun.