Mouse pointer wont appear in linux

[Chobits]

Hello im currently using mandrake 9.0 and for some odd reason using X i cannot get my mouse pointer to work regardless of whether i load up gnome kdr or black box or anythign like that. i want to know if u guys know any way to fix this. my motherboard is an Nforce 2. the mouse pointer does appear but its stuck in the very top left of the screen. if i move the mouse it does nothing, when i highlight a icon that normally caue the mouse pointer to change it will also change but it remains in the top left. im stuck in 800*600 even though my monitor can easily go higher.

 

[cleverhandle]

Originally posted by: Chobits
Hello im currently using mandrake 9.0 and for some odd reason using X i cannot get my mouse pointer to work regardless of whether i load up gnome kdr or black box or anythign like that. i want to know if u guys know any way to fix this. my motherboard is an Nforce 2. the mouse pointer does appear but its stuck in the very top left of the screen. if i move the mouse it does nothing, when i highlight a icon that normally caue the mouse pointer to change it will also change but it remains in the top left.

This is almost certainly a problem with the protocol (driver, basically) that your mouse is trying to use. If you can get to Drake's X configuration via keyboard, try some different mouse models and see if something else works better. I'm sure there's a command line tool you could use at a console as well, but I'm not familiar with Mandrake. Or edit /etc/X11/XF86Config directly. Google "<your mouse model> linux" to get some leads as to which protocol works well.

im stuck in 800*600 even though my monitor can easily go higher.

Which means your probably using the generic VESA driver and not something better suited to your video card. Post your vid card model, and some people can probably help you out.

 

[magomago]

hey its me - that username is on my brother's computer b/c Anandtech gives out some funky passwords and my password was on my pc which at the time was not functioning...

Anyway I somehow switched to XFree 3.X (something like 3.3?) from 4.2(well...4.X I think tht X was 2) and I rebooted and it got to shell and i noticed I could move my mouse so I was excited!

But then I couldn't load X. Each time I did I got some error (All I did after logging in was type "X")

I had installed the latest Nvidia drivers for the videocard and motherboard earlier

rig is in the sig

Thanks again Cleverhandle

 

[cleverhandle]

Originally posted by: magomago
hey its me - that username is on my brother's computer b/c Anandtech gives out some funky passwords and my password was on my pc which at the time was not functioning...

You do know that you can change your password, right? Though I guess it was too late in this case.

Anyway I somehow switched to XFree 3.X (something like 3.3?) from 4.2(well...4.X I think tht X was 2) and I rebooted and it got to shell and i noticed I could move my mouse so I was excited!

The mouse in the shell (gpm) is totally separate from the mouse in X, so don't get too worked up. In any event, you certainly don't want to be using XFree 3.x - that's completely ancient, and you won't get the nvidia vid card working in that very well, if at all.

But then I couldn't load X. Each time I did I got some error (All I did after logging in was type "X")

I had installed the latest Nvidia drivers for the videocard and motherboard earlier

Like I said, there's no way you want 3.x. And the fact that you had 4.x, installed the nvidia drivers, and then switched after that is probably not a good thing. In theory, RPM should keep track of everything, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to reinstall in order to get the system into a known state. Leave the video card details for later - if you can 800x600 on it, that's good enough to get the basics (like a mouse!) worked out first.

rig is in the sig

Doesn't mention your mouse, though...

 

[magomago]

Oh really about the password? Thanks - I'm going to change it to something beyond "XaDsseS"


Mouse is a logitech USB w/ ps2 adapter...

From the Bottom:

Optical Mouse
M/N: M-BJ58
P/N: 830524-0000


in a nutshell it has two click buttons, has a scroll wheel thing, is corded and optical...

I'll look for its product link and edit the thing


Oh yeah about Xfree - but when I had Xfree 4.X I did'nt have a mouse in the shell so I thought that there might've been a connection...

And how would I switch back to Xfree 4.X from 3.3?

Thanks Clever



EDIT:


http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm?page=products/details&CRID=3&CONTENTID=4988&countryid=19&languageid=1 <---Thar she is - the exact same one

 

[cleverhandle]

Originally posted by: magomago
Mouse is a logitech USB w/ ps2 adapter...

From the Bottom:

Optical Mouse
M/N: M-BJ58
P/N: 830524-0000

No kiddin'? I'm using exactly that model right now. Is your's blue too? Here's my mouse portion of /etc/X11/XF86Config (may be XF86Config-4 for you):

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Logitech USB Wheel Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Buttons" "5"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "CorePointer"
EndSection

Since that should certainly work (in 4.x), I'd forego spiffy GUI configuration tools, edit the file by hand (get a console with Ctrl-Alt-F1), and restart X or reboot. Change your "Identifier" to match up with whatever is used elsewhere in the file - probably "Mouse0" or something similar.

Oh yeah about Xfree - but when I had Xfree 4.X I did'nt have a mouse in the shell so I thought that there might've been a connection...

Reasonable inference, but there's not really a connection there. At a guess, I suspect that the old framebuffer in 3.x pulled in gpm, which probably wasn't installed originally. The old framebuffer was the precursor to the current "generic" VESA driver in 4.x. However, it was kind of clunky in that it required the text console to also run in framebuffer mode, rather than generic VGA mode. That, perhaps, requires gpm. Don't know for sure - never played around with the framebuffer back in 3.x days.

And how would I switch back to Xfree 4.X from 3.3?

Well, like I said, you probably wouldn't (or shouldn't). Correct me if I'm wrong, but this install sounds fairly "fresh out of the box" if you haven't configured X on Mandrake yet. It might be OK just to install 4.x from the RPM's. Or it might not, and cause odd problems that are difficult to diagnose via forum. Wouldn't it be nicer to keep things simple and reinstall?

 

[magomago]

Actually mine is just plain white 4.95 AR at Bestbuy

The only problem with reinstalling is I spent something like 2 hours just installing that junk (I'm seroius too! And I have no idea why it takes forever - probably because I select full install on everything save for the stuff like FTP since I already like having everything installed...maybe i'll just to scratch install and then later add packages)

Well I'll try to edit the config file - but once I edit it I need to get back to Xfree 4.X to see if it works -how do i get out of Xfree 3.X? Is a reinstall the easiest way?

EDIT:

You are right about the fresh install. I had Redhat 9.0 and I LOVEd it but I could never get my modem working (Even using official intel drivers and following it to the "letter of the law" on the instructions and doing it out of X...) and I had to keep enabling sound over and over so I gave up after a few months (though the GUI is absolutely fantastic...) - also I didn't like how it didn't come with a lot of things- while I ended up on my own grabbing the ntfs, mp3 and other various precompiled kernels I like how mandrake just tosses a bunch at you (though I understand the counter arguement of having at the bare minimum)