Re: psaux port and 2.6 kernels - Mouse doesn't work?

From: Dances With Crows (danSPANceswitTRAPhcrows_at_gmail.com)
Date: 11/03/05 

Date: Thu, 03 Nov 2005 09:13:24 -0600

["Followup-To:" header set to comp.os.linux.hardware.]
On Wed, 2 Nov 2005 07:18:05 -0500, Fred staggered into the Black Sun and
said:

Please don't top-post, and *trim* your posts. Message rearranged and
trimmed for easier reading comprehension:

> "Dances With Crows" <danSPANceswitTRAPhcrows@gmail.com> wrote
>> On Mon, 31 Oct 2005 07:13:36 -0500, Fred staggered into the Black Sun
>> and said:
>> > Everything works now but the PS/2 style mouse. I have
>> > CONFIG_INPUT_MOUSEDEV=y
>> > CONFIG_INPUT_MOUSEDEV_PSAUX=y
>> OK, PS/2 mouse built-in. What protocol does this mouse speak? Most
>> mice with wheels speak imps or exps. Only in rare cases (really old
>> hardware, or some IBM Thinkpads) will you use the bare PS/2 protocol.
> I added 'append="psmouse.proto=bare"' to the line in my lilo.conf
> pointing to the bzImage file containing the kernel image.

"Only in rare cases" means "you probably don't want to do this". Did
you make sure to rerun LILO after changing /etc/lilo.conf ? (Remember
that you don't have to do that with GRUB.)

> no reference to changes in mice configuration.

...other than the 2.4->2.6 upgrade info says "put the right thing in for
psmouse.proto=". That parameter is listed in
/usr/src/linux/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt as well.

>> > The mouse works fine under the 2.4 kernels and windoze xppro.
>> kernel /boot/2.6.14 root=/dev/hda6 psmouse.proto=exps

>> Your mouse is probably not using the PS/2 protocol. Adjust the
>> kernel command line for IMPS/2 or EXPS/2, depending on whether your
>> mouse has more than 5 buttons or not. This change to mouse handling
>> is only one of many little differences between 2.4 and 2.6, so make
> The mouse is a 4-button Logitech MouseMan connected to the mouse port
> on the motherboard through a Belkin KVM switch.

4 buttons? Weird. Usually, it breaks down like so:

1 button (Apple only, obsolete, useless)
2 buttons (obsolete)
3 buttons (usable, but obsolete--found on older Thinkpads, etc.)
5 buttons (standard 2 buttons + wheel)
6+buttons (2 buttons + wheel + other buttons, usually exps protocol)

...so are you sure you should be using "bare"? imps is a de facto
standard, and more and more mice are supporting exps, because more and
more mice have more buttons than the typical 5 these days. (Eventually,
there will be a mouse with a miniature QWERTY keyboard on it, to satisfy
the 31337 g4m3rz.) What's your xorg.conf use as its protocol? I'm
betting it's IMPS/2 or EXPS/2, and you should switch the kernel command
line parameter to match.

KVMs sometimes screw things up. Look in the kernel-parameters.txt file
for additional things you can feed the kernel, like the
psmouse.resetafter= thing. 

-- 
Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see
Brainbench MVP for Linux Admin /    mail: TRAP + SPAN don't belong
http://www.brainbench.com     /    "He is a rhythmic movement of the
-----------------------------/      penguins, is Tux." --MegaHAL