bizarre mouse problems under XFree86 4.2.0

inukshuk

hi -

i have this strange problem with my mouse under X (x11-base/xfree-4.2.0-r12.ebuild): the mouse pointer will randomly warp/jump and mouse clicks (including buttons 4&5 for the scroll wheel) will be issued, also randomly. this behaviour varies in intesity, making it almost impossible to use the mouse pointer for anything useful on the desktop.

when i do not touch the mouse, the cursor will just sit there, though, as it should, i.e. there are only problems when i actually move or click the mouse.

i also have debian installed on this computer and i have no problems there .

interestingly enough, i connected different mice, but all of them are affected.

has anybody had a similar problem? could this have to do anything with devfs?

i am currently using a logitech travel mate mouse, connected through the ps/2 port, and this is the configuration i use at the moment:

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "myXFree86Layout"
Screen "myDefaultScreen"
InputDevice "ps2Mouse"
InputDevice "logitechKeyboard" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

[...]

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "logitechKeyboard"
Driver "keyboard"

Option "XkbRules" "xfree86"
Option "XkbLayout" "de"
Option "XkbVariant" "nodeadkeys"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "ps2Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

any suggestions for me?

gentoo is great -- i'm having a lot of fun with the new system -- thanks a lot!

inukshuk
;

wilho · Apprentice Joined: 22 Jul 2002 Posts: 169

For me those have been related to "Protocol"... Have you compared you're XF86Config settings between Gentoo and debian? Propably you have but anyway...

pilla · Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2002 5:00 pm Post subject:

My InputDevice in Server session is slightly different

inukshuk · Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2002 5:03 pm Post subject:

yes, i've been thinking the same thing. i did use the same protocol in both debian & gentoo.

actually i wanted to play around with it a little bit, checked the man page for a list of possible protocols, but didn't find any. do you know what protocol values there are? i tried "IMPS/2" and "PS/2", using a logitech travel mate mouse right now.

thanks!

inukshuk · Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2002 5:10 pm Post subject:

inukshuk · Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2002 5:45 pm Post subject:

okay, XF86Config man page mentions a different man page for device specific options (like protocol) but i do not know what this other man page is supposed to be.

meanwhile i tried the following protocol options:

"PS/2" -- the mouse cursor warped to the bottom left corner of the screen and disappeared.

"logitech" -- the cursor didn't move at all.

i'm back to "IMPS/2" now -- could anybody tell me some other valid options?

Wedge_ · Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2002 6:08 pm Post subject:

I don't know if it'll work but try "ExplorerPS/2"

inukshuk · Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2002 6:18 pm Post subject:

thanks Wedge_ -- i also found a list of additional protocols in the mouse in X mini how-to, nothing worked though... some didn't work at all, some others did work but the mouse pointer would still warp around on my screen. here is a list of protocols i've tried so far:

"IMPS/2" "PS/2" "ExplorerPS/2" "Logitech" "BusMouse" "Microsoft"

it just won't work :-(

Niek · Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2002 6:50 pm Post subject:

Hi,

I've _exactly_ the same weird problem. First, I thought it was a (hardware) mouse problem, but in Debian I've no problems at all. My mouse-section in XF86Config looks like this:

inukshuk · Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2002 7:04 pm Post subject:

it is slowly driving me crazy... using the mouse has become increasingly difficult these past few days.

anyways, maybe it does have something to do with the devfs... because other than the version of X this is the big differnce between my current debian and gentoo systems. now, i do not know anything about the devfs really so i may be wrong... what do you think?

primitive_code · n00b Joined: 08 Aug 2002 Posts: 11

I once had the same problem, long time ago.
i think it had something to do whit the /dev/mouse change it to /dev/psaux

just give it a try. on that system /dev/mouse was pointing to something other dont know what, but it wasent psaux.
just try it. and i also had Mouse0 but not CorePointer.

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "PS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"

inukshuk · Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2002 7:35 pm Post subject:

yes, i've already tried that, but to no avail.

/dev/mouse and /dev/psaux both point to /dev/misc/psaux so that shouldn't make a difference?

if i do a

pilla · Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2002 7:54 pm Post subject: core pointer

The core pointer I have in my config is because I have multiple mice (notebook with ps/2 and usb mouse). Then, I also had to put "AlwaysCore" in the USB mouse section.

inukshuk · Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2002 7:59 pm Post subject:

if the "CorePointer" option is absent i think X just selects the first possible input device as the core pointer, by providing it you decide.

"AlwaysCore", i think means that the everything from other devices will be "channelled" through the core device, but i'm not sure.

Niek -- this is probably far-fetched: are you using a SMP system by any chance? because i am, and i have been wondering, maybe the second cpu somehow interferes with the mouse pointer?

primitive_code · n00b Joined: 08 Aug 2002 Posts: 11

do you have gpm?
that program or daemon, so you can have the mouse in text-mode
maybe it is on and interfering?

also if you have it, you can use it as the device instead of psaux or mouse.
it writes to /dev/gpmdata on startup of gpm use the -R option, whit that proggy you can also set the baudrate and many other options, then make the XF86Config read data from gpmdata instead off psaux...
or if it (gpm) to reads from psaux, as it does if it is enabled, then ofcourse a conflict can acour.. and couse problems as those above.

inukshuk · Posted: Sun Sep 01, 2002 10:16 am Post subject:

primitive_code, thanks for the suggestion, i did think along the same lines last night and tried to start gpm (i didn't have it running) as a last restort. what happened is that gpm crashed and rebooted the system (i did this with and without X running) -- so this makes me think, it probably hasn't anything to do with X in the first place.

on the other hand the hardware works on the debian installation. i am at a loss explaining what exactly is causing this problem. any ideas?

inukshuk · Posted: Sun Sep 01, 2002 10:28 am Post subject:

okay, my mistake, i changed MOUSE=ps2 to MOUSE=imps2 in /etc/conf.d/gpm and now gpm starts, and now comes the interesting part: the mouse cursor on the console as soon as i touch the mouse moves to the upper right corner of the screen, and will constantly move in that direction even if i try to move it back to centre.

SO... it doesn't seem to be an X problem (should i change to a different forum?)... apparently also the data gpm reads from /dev/mouse seems to be corrupted, does anybody know what could be causing this?

thanks!

inukshuk · Posted: Sun Sep 01, 2002 7:26 pm Post subject:

hey Niek, guess what -- my mouse finally works! what i did is connect through usb instead of ps2, i know it doesn't really solve the problem but it is a nice work around, so if your mouse is usb, try that. good luck!

Niek · Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2002 6:57 am Post subject:

pilla · Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2002 6:15 pm Post subject:

Aren't you using GMP? Then, maybe you should have some /dev/gmp, and then you should use it instead of /dev/mouse or /dev/psaux....

Niek · Posted: Fri Sep 06, 2002 2:03 pm Post subject:

* Sigh * I getting crazy of this very weird problem :roll:

I've compiled a kernel without SMP support, tried non-gentoo kernels, disabled preemtive patches, tried all mouse protocols descibed on http://www.xfree86.org/4.2.0/mouse6.html, etc., etc.
But... the problem is still here

I'm really sure this is _not_ a hardware problem, the mouse works OK in Debian and Windows.
I'm also quite sure that is is a XFree problem, and not something with devfs or so. I've tried GPM, and the mouse works perfect, no problems at all

But... if I configure XFree to use GPM (/dev/gpmdata), the mousewheel (ZAxisMapping 4 5) won't work anymore and GPM or XFree is crashing after 3 or 4 minutes (I have to restart XFree).
Is there anyone who knows a solution, _please_ let me know.
Thanks, Niek.
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iplayfast · Posted: Fri Sep 06, 2002 2:47 pm Post subject: Other Forums with this problem.