DamnSmall mouse doesn't work

Newbie2Linux

I have almost sucessfully booted DAMN SMALL LINUX from the live CD using the
bootfloppy image. I get all the way to the DSL desktop. But I'm only able
to use my up and down arrow keys to scroll up and down in the DILLO window.
My mouse does not work.

I have a 2-button serial mouse.

I tried rebooting. When I get to the DSL boot screen I choose F2. Then I
run dsl xsetup.

I rebooted many times to try all of the com ports--COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4.
None of them seem to work. I get the same result as before--I can scroll but
not use my mouse.

I choose the correct screen resolution, color depth and keyboard. And I get
the same looking DSL desktop as before. But no mouse.

I rebooted using Windows 95 instead of DSL to test my mouse and mouse
connection. It works fine in Win95.

What can I do to get the mouse to work in DAMN SMALL LINUX? Any
suggestions?

Jerry McBride

Newbie2Linux wrote:

> I have almost sucessfully booted DAMN SMALL LINUX from the live CD using
> the
> bootfloppy image. I get all the way to the DSL desktop. But I'm only
> able to use my up and down arrow keys to scroll up and down in the DILLO
> window. My mouse does not work.
>
> I have a 2-button serial mouse.
>

----snip----

A serial mouse needs the serial drivers... The serial interface is getting
quite old, are the serial drivers even available on the boot floppy? Are
you loading them? Have you configed X to use a serial mouse pointing
device? Seems to be, it'd be better to find either a cheap PS2 or USB
mouse...


--

Jerry McBride ()

Roby

Newbie2Linux wrote:

> I have almost sucessfully booted DAMN SMALL LINUX from the live CD using
> the
> bootfloppy image. I get all the way to the DSL desktop. But I'm only
> able to use my up and down arrow keys to scroll up and down in the DILLO
> window. My mouse does not work.
>
> I have a 2-button serial mouse.
>
> I tried rebooting. When I get to the DSL boot screen I choose F2. Then I
> run dsl xsetup.
>
> I rebooted many times to try all of the com ports--COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4.
> None of them seem to work. I get the same result as before--I can scroll
> but not use my mouse.
>
> I choose the correct screen resolution, color depth and keyboard. And I
> get the same looking DSL desktop as before. But no mouse.
>
> I rebooted using Windows 95 instead of DSL to test my mouse and mouse
> connection. It works fine in Win95.
>
> What can I do to get the mouse to work in DAMN SMALL LINUX? Any
> suggestions?

I have found myself in exactly that situation several times. Frustrating
isn't it?

I found a CD with DSL version 2.4 and tried running it as a live CD on an
old AT box having only serial ports. Of course, it started up with a fully
functional mouse! I had the no-mouse problem on this machine when I
installed Ubuntu; fixed it there by opening a text console and editting
/etc/X11/xorg.conf. I poked around in /etc/X11 on DSL, couldn't find
xorg.conf.

I haven't installed via the boot floppy method. With a CD, I was offered
various boot options. The "failsafe" option bypasses most of the automatic
configuration in favor of prompting you for the details... including mouse
stuff. Try that route if you can. Tell it you've got a serial mouse. The
port translations are these:

COM1 = /dev/ttyS0
COM2 = /dev/ttyS1

If there's a modem sharing one of these ports (as COM3 or 4), it's best to
temporarily remove that card to avoid any possible sharing problems.

I recently installed Puppy Linux on another old machine. Same problem
with the serial mouse. Fix was to edit xorg.conf. Something like this:

Section "Input Device"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Device" "/dev/ttyS0"
Option "Protocol" "Microsoft"
EndSection

Experiment a bit. You'll get it working.