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PS/2 Mouse + Synaptics Drivers?

post #1 of 4
3/6/03 at 4:05pm
Thread Starter 
OK, I grabbed and installed the synaptics driver for my machine [5660, Redhat 8.0]. Installed no problem (just copying a file and editing XF86'). However, at some point - I must have had my external PS/2 wheel mouse plugged in or NOT plugged in - X *totally bombed out*. Weird. I couldn't even get a mingetty to appear. We remotely logged into it and restored the XF86Config and all is fine now.

Now, sure, I can go get a USB mouse - not a problem. However, I want to get the wheels on my external mice to work. IMMouse (or whatever) wasn't working. Has anyone had the synaptics drivers working with an external wheel mouse?

Thanks!
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post #2 of 4
3/6/03 at 5:47pm

Opps Hot Plugging PS/2

Well i bet thats what you did, hotplugging ps/2 can crash ya for good. Bizarelly it never happens to me and i was doing it a lot. But i have heard and witness real CRASH by doing so.

Here is the main problem you are facing. The touchpad is REAL PS/2 protocol, and seen as so by X, while an externel Wheel ( ps/2 or usb ) works on the ImPS/2 or Intellimouse protocol. So you could have a start up script that detect if a mouse is plugged in, if not set the protocol of your X config accordingly. Ouchhh.

An easy workout is to set 2 mouses ( X allows upt to 4 ), and uncomment the Option "AllowMouseOpenFail" ( check man XFree86 and other relatives manual pages to get the right option with the X server version you are running ).

One will be the sysnaptic mouse, the other the external ( usb or ps/2 ).

FYOI : /dev/psaux == ps/2
/dev/input/mice0 == usb
/dev/mouse is usually a symlink
As well Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5" under the mouse device section will enable the scroll wheel
Hope that helps. There is a X multiple mouse How to on www.tdlp.org.
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post #3 of 4
3/6/03 at 5:52pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Opps Hot Plugging PS/2

Quote:
Originally posted by laclasse
Well i bet thats what you did, hotplugging ps/2 can crash ya for good. Bizarelly it never happens to me and i was doing it a lot. But i have heard and witness real CRASH by doing so.
Wow, I've never heard that before. I used to do it all the time with my Inspiron (and learned some weird things related to bios; e.g., it worked better when I cold booted it with the mouse in...).


Quote:
So you could have a start up script that detect if a mouse is plugged in, if not set the protocol of your X config accordingly. Ouchhh.
Yeah, I was trying to avoid that. One nice thing about the Dell bios, cough cough, is that it would detect and external and turn off the pad if I wanted...

Ultimately, I just grabbed a USB mouse, plugged it in, and everything works great. Oh well!

Thanks, though!
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post #4 of 4
3/7/03 at 7:59pm

lol

When, see the sager is such a desktop for me, that i am as well using external usb2.0 logithech optical wheel WIRED mouse. Wireless is a pain as i work in public spaces with it, the kensington lock was expensive enough. So my touchpad is deactivated.
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