mouse not writing to device file.....

mouse not writing to device file.....

[joy]

Hi,

I just had this problem after I reinstalled woody on my system. 
previously, I had the same problem with my mouse not working on startx
but I managed to correct it though it slipped my mind somehow. anyways, 
my XF86Config file says my input devices are /dev/psaux and /dev/input/mice.
However if I cat either of the file and start clicking away, there is no 
change in the file (I tried this on a SW Live distro and it worked there.
so if my mouse is not writing to either of the two device files, what 
should I do? I also checked the other /dev/input/ mouse files and they 
say no device..

Thanks a lot in advance,
Joy.M.M

> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> A life without purpose is like a bird that never learnt to fly.......
> I am the bird that regularly flies Lufthansa


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Re: mouse not writing to device file.....

[Ray Olszewski]

At 09:15 AM 2/12/2004 +0530, joy wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I just had this problem after I reinstalled woody on my system. 
>previously, I had the same problem with my mouse not working on startx
>but I managed to correct it though it slipped my mind somehow. anyways, my 
>XF86Config file says my input devices are /dev/psaux and /dev/input/mice.
>However if I cat either of the file and start clicking away, there is no 
>change in the file (I tried this on a SW Live distro and it worked there.
>so if my mouse is not writing to either of the two device files, what 
>should I do? I also checked the other /dev/input/ mouse files and they say 
>no device..

The problem may be with your test rather than your mouse. I tried to 
duplicate it here -- testing my mouse on a Debian-Sid system -- and could 
not. That is, my mouse works fine in X, accessed through /dev/psaux ... but 
if I try either "cat /dev/psaux" or "cat </dev/psaux" and "click away", I 
too get nothing on the screen (I assume that's what you meant by "there is 
no change in the file").

I don't know *why* Debian and Slack seem to act differently with respect to 
this test, but apparently they do.

So ... you might do better by focusing directly on the X problem.

Are there any messages of interest in X's output to STDERR?

In X, what exactly does "my mouse not working" mean ... does the mouse 
pointer simply not show up at all, or does it show up but move erratically 
in response to mouse movement? Or something else?

Do you possibly have gdm (the mouse app for consoles) running? If so, kill 
it ... it often interferes with access to the mouse by X.

What happens if you eliminate the reference to /dev/input/mouse in (I 
suppose) /etc/X11/XF86Config-4? Leave just the one to /dev/psaux .

Am I correct in assuming that you have a PS/2 mouse? It normally uses the 
/dev/psaux device ... I'm not sure if /dev/input/mouse also accesses this 
physical device. If you have a different type of mouse (serial, USB), 
please tell us what it is. All my earlier suggestions assume you are using 
a PS/2 mouse.



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Re: mouse not writing to device file.....

[joy]

Ray Olszewski wrote:

>
> The problem may be with your test rather than your mouse. I tried to 
> duplicate it here -- testing my mouse on a Debian-Sid system -- and 
> could not. That is, my mouse works fine in X, accessed through 
> /dev/psaux ... but if I try either "cat /dev/psaux" or "cat 
> </dev/psaux" and "click away", I too get nothing on the screen (I 
> assume that's what you meant by "there is no change in the file").
>
> I don't know *why* Debian and Slack seem to act differently with 
> respect to this test, but apparently they do.
>
> So ... you might do better by focusing directly on the X problem.
>
> Are there any messages of interest in X's output to STDERR?

No, there are none, the mouse detection and initialization is fine. the 
mouse pointer appears too, but does not move ( got the server o/p using 
the man page command startx >$HOME/log 2>&1)

>
> In X, what exactly does "my mouse not working" mean ... does the mouse 
> pointer simply not show up at all, or does it show up but move 
> erratically in response to mouse movement? Or something else?
>
> Do you possibly have gdm (the mouse app for consoles) running? If so, 
> kill it ... it often interferes with access to the mouse by X.

never used gdm..........

>
>
> What happens if you eliminate the reference to /dev/input/mouse in (I 
> suppose) /etc/X11/XF86Config-4? Leave just the one to /dev/psaux .

tried that too, changing both to /input/mice and both to /psaux . but 
didn't work.

>
> Am I correct in assuming that you have a PS/2 mouse? It normally uses 
> the /dev/psaux device ... I'm not sure if /dev/input/mouse also 
> accesses this physical device. If you have a different type of mouse 
> (serial, USB), please tell us what it is. All my earlier suggestions 
> assume you are using a PS/2 mouse.

I have a USB mouse , but it used to work fine froom the same usb port 
before the reinstall.....

I do have a PS/2 adapter for the mouse, but I really would like to know 
what went wrong before I chicken out and use that....

Thanks,
Joy.

>
>
>
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Re: mouse not writing to device file.....

[Ray Olszewski]

At 09:37 AM 2/13/2004 +0530, joy wrote:
[...]
>>Do you possibly have gdm (the mouse app for consoles) running? If so, 
>>kill it ... it often interferes with access to the mouse by X.
>
>never used gdm..........

Sorry; that was a typo. I meant to write gpm (gdm is an X login manager, 
like xdm, and not what I meant to refer to).


>>Am I correct in assuming that you have a PS/2 mouse? It normally uses the 
>>/dev/psaux device ... I'm not sure if /dev/input/mouse also accesses this 
>>physical device. If you have a different type of mouse (serial, USB), 
>>please tell us what it is. All my earlier suggestions assume you are 
>>using a PS/2 mouse.
>
>I have a USB mouse , but it used to work fine froom the same usb port 
>before the reinstall.....

Do you mean it previously worked with Debian-Woody, or that it worked with 
Slackware? Or something else? Were you using a stock kernel or one you 
compiled? I don't use a USB mouse here, but I wouldn't count on a stock 
Debian kernel supporting one ... though someone else here, someone who uses 
a USB mouse with Debian, would be a better source of advice at this point.


>I do have a PS/2 adapter for the mouse, but I really would like to know 
>what went wrong before I chicken out and use that....

My immediate thought is that the Woody kernel you installed does not 
support USB mice. But I offer that as no more than a guess.

I haven't used a stock Linux kernel (aside from the early stage of an 
install) for years, so I don't recall what they include either compiled in 
or as modules ... both USB mouse support and Input Core mouse support 
appear to be available as modules, so modprobe'ing them (or adding them to 
/etc/modules) may be the prior fix you've forgotten. Just a guess, though, 
as I say.






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Re: mouse not writing to device file.....

[joy]

Ray Olszewski wrote:

>>
>> I have a USB mouse , but it used to work fine froom the same usb port 
>> before the reinstall.....
>
>
> Do you mean it previously worked with Debian-Woody, or that it worked 
> with Slackware? Or something else? Were you using a stock kernel or 
> one you compiled? I don't use a USB mouse here, but I wouldn't count 
> on a stock Debian kernel supporting one ... though someone else here, 
> someone who uses a USB mouse with Debian, would be a better source of 
> advice at this point.

used to use a 2.6.1 now 2.6.2.

> I haven't used a stock Linux kernel (aside from the early stage of an 
> install) for years, so I don't recall what they include either 
> compiled in or as modules ... both USB mouse support and Input Core 
> mouse support appear to be available as modules, so modprobe'ing them 
> (or adding them to /etc/modules) may be the prior fix you've 
> forgotten. Just a guess, though, as I say.

The clincher so to say. after reading this I saw my previous kernel 
conf, and voila, HID support was configured as a module (was built into 
my older kernel). just added a modprobe into my startup scripts
and the mouse is working fine!!!

also Ray, about that trick I tried (cat /dev/psaux ..... ), I tried it 
again. the mouse is not unresponsive, I get a newline for a right click 
and scroll wheel click, ie , it is writing whitespaces atleast......

>
>
>
>
>
>
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Re: mouse not writing to device file.....

[James Miller]

On Thu, 12 Feb 2004, Ray Olszewski wrote:

> At 09:37 AM 2/13/2004 +0530, joy wrote:
> [...]
> >>Do you possibly have gdm (the mouse app for consoles) running? If so,
> >>kill it ... it often interferes with access to the mouse by X.
> >
> >never used gdm..........
>
> Sorry; that was a typo. I meant to write gpm (gdm is an X login manager,
> like xdm, and not what I meant to refer to).

This sounds a little like a problem I had recently (and never solved) that
was somehow related to the 2.6.x kernel.  Does your install perhaps use a
2.6.x kernel?  When I tried adding the 2.6.x kernel from Debian as a boot
option, each time I would boot using that kernel, I would not be able to
control the mouse in X.  The cursor would appear on the screen, but moving
the mouse would have no effect on it.  I did get error messages though -
something to the effect of "pointing device not found"  (don't recall
precisely, since my resolution was to put the matter on the back burner
and go back to a 2.4.x kernel, under which the mouse works fine).  Don't
know if these comments will aid the discussion or help in troubleshooting.

James
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Re: mouse not writing to device file.....

[joy]

James Miller wrote:

 >On Thu, 12 Feb 2004, Ray Olszewski wrote:
 >
 >
 >
 >>At 09:37 AM 2/13/2004 +0530, joy wrote:
 >>[...]
 >>
 >>
 >>>>Do you possibly have gdm (the mouse app for consoles) running? If so,
 >>>>kill it ... it often interferes with access to the mouse by X.
 >>>>
 >>>>
 >>>never used gdm..........
 >>>
 >>>
 >>Sorry; that was a typo. I meant to write gpm (gdm is an X login manager,
 >>like xdm, and not what I meant to refer to).
 >>
 >>
 >
 >This sounds a little like a problem I had recently (and never solved) that
 >was somehow related to the 2.6.x kernel.  Does your install perhaps use a
 >2.6.x kernel?  When I tried adding the 2.6.x kernel from Debian as a boot
 >
 >
a brand new ,top of the line 2.6.2!!

 >option, each time I would boot using that kernel, I would not be able to
 >control the mouse in X.  The cursor would appear on the screen, but moving
 >the mouse would have no effect on it.  I did get error messages though -
 >something to the effect of "pointing device not found"  (don't recall
 >precisely, since my resolution was to put the matter on the back burner
 >
 >
No no no, after checking out the speed of the 2.6, with KDE loading in
quarte the time,how did you ever get the heart to go back?
I suggest you do the same as  I did -- check the config .If yours too is
a USB mouse, then with the HID support built in or as a module
the mouse will still use psaux. Also disable support for anything called
APIC in the kernel.
according to NVIDIA 's  helpfile this affects performance on the X
server (mine used to hang every 3.5 (approx.,) minutes)


 >and go back to a 2.4.x kernel, under which the mouse works fine).  Don't
 >know if these comments will aid the discussion or help in troubleshooting.
 >
 >
 >James
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 >To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-newbie" in
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 >
 >
 >




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Re: mouse not writing to device file.....

[James Miller]

On Fri, 13 Feb 2004, joy wrote:

> James Miller wrote:
>
>  >option, each time I would boot using that kernel, I would not be able to
>  >control the mouse in X.  The cursor would appear on the screen, but moving
>  >the mouse would have no effect on it.  I did get error messages though -
>  >something to the effect of "pointing device not found"  (don't recall
>  >precisely, since my resolution was to put the matter on the back burner
>  >
>  >
> No no no, after checking out the speed of the 2.6, with KDE loading in
> quarte the time,how did you ever get the heart to go back?

I don't use that bloated monstrosity of a desktop :) (fluxbox is my choice
of late), so the difference was not as immediately noticeable.  In fact, I
spent enough time trying to figure out why such a simple thing as a mouse
wouldn't work using this kernel, that any speed advantages that might have
been there were entirely lost.  I never really even got to use my usual
desktop since, once I logged in, all I could really do was
ctrl-alt-backspace to get back to a command prompt where I could actually
interact with the computer.

> I suggest you do the same as  I did -- check the config .If yours too is
> a USB mouse, then with the HID support built in or as a module
> the mouse will still use psaux. Also disable support for anything called
> APIC in the kernel.
> according to NVIDIA 's  helpfile this affects performance on the X
> server (mine used to hang every 3.5 (approx.,) minutes)

No, not a USB mouse.  Mine's just a plain old ps2 - nothing fancy.  I'll
keep the APIC thing in mind for whenever I'll be able to get back again to
troubleshooting the problem.

James
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