USB trackballs on Sun Workstations

[RalphTheCow]

We have a SunBlade 1500 workstation with USB ports. The Sun USB mouse works, but a USB trackball won't. We ordered one from ITAC systems that says it works with Sun, but it works only on PCs. Any ideas?
Thanks.

 

[Steve]

How old is that Sun machine? A lot of older ones are fussy about using non-Sun equipment. You might want to check with Sun support.

 

[RalphTheCow]

It's less than a year old, but it is touchy.

 

[Steve]

May want to get in touch with ITAC too.

 

[RalphTheCow]

They're working on it - so far they are quite surprised and befuddled. Right off the bat USB is different on Sun boxes - certainly no pop-ups when inserted or removed.

 

[kpb]

Those ITAC trackballs are great. I've had one for years and thier support was great too. Had bought a used ps/2 version and it had some issues with the PC is was using it with at the time and when I called about it they said it was a known issue and sent me a brand new replacement, covered shipment for returning the old mouse and even stated the new replacement had the full waranty.

 

[RalphTheCow]

I did a power off reboot and it works that way. ITAC was very co-operative and helpful, quickly shipping a second trackball for me to try. It looks like I first tried rebooting, I just went down to single user mode and then rebooted without powering off, and that doesn't work.

This seems counter-intuitive since USB is supposed to be hot-swappable. Going from a mouse to a trackball and vice versa isn't hot-swappable, but apparently once the proper driver is in place, you can replace a device in kind without a reboot.