Tips on working with Mice devices on Debian Linux:

Oops, my mouse doesn't work in gpm or X?

Before trying out anything else, you can first check whether you are trying out on the right device. Do a cat on the device say '/dev/psaux' or /dev/mouse' or '/dev/input/mice' and then move your mouse. If you see bizarre looking characters on the screen, you got the right device. Now, relook at your configuration files and make any changes.

How do I get my USB mouse work?

Preferably, use the 2.4.x kernel. You first need to configure your kernel for the USB mouse support. Turn on the 'USB Human Interface Device (HID)" in the USB support and 'Mouse Support" in the Input Core support. Make sure you do NOT turn on the HIDBP mouse support. The HIDBP (boot protocol) way is intended for embedded systems with resource constraints and is inferior for normal desktop systems. Do "insmod input; insmod usbcore; insmod usb-uhci; insmod hid"

Look for bootup messages (dmesg or /proc/bus/usb/devices) for see if the USB mouse got recognised. Do 'mkdir /dev/input' and 'mknod /dev/input/mice c 13 63'. The directory is to later allow addition of multiple USB input devices (mice, touch pad,...)

How do I configure USB mouse in XFree86-4.0?

Add these lines in /etc/X11/XF86Config-4

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier    "Intelli Mouse"
    Driver        "mouse"
    Option        "AlwaysCore"
    Option        "CorePointer"
    Option        "Protocol"      "IMPS/2"
    Option        "Device"        "/dev/input/mice"
EndSection

How do I add a USB mouse and a touch pad like GlidePoint, under XFree86-4.0?

These lines in /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 will do the purpose

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier    "Intelli Mouse"
    Driver        "mouse"
    Option        "AlwaysCore"
    Option        "CorePointer"
    Option        "Protocol"      "IMPS/2"
    Option        "Device"        "/dev/input/mice"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier    "GlidePoint Mouse"
    Driver        "mouse"
    Option        "SendCoreEvents"    "true"
    Option        "Device"        "/dev/mouse"
    Option        "Protocol"      "GlidePointPS/2"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Default Layout"
    Screen         "Default Screen"
    InputDevice    "Generic Keyboard"
    InputDevice    "Intelli Mouse"
    InputDevice    "GlidePoint Mouse"
EndSection

How do I add a USB mouse and a touch pad like GlidePoint, in gpm?

gpm -m /dev/input/mice -t imps2 -M -m /dev/psaux -t ps2 -R imps2

Last Updated: Apr' 2002
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