I am having a problem getting a mouse to work on an old machine, which I
intend to use as an X-terminal. When I did the network install, I could use
the graphical install, but the mouse wouldn't work. At the time I thought
that poerhaps the serial cable between the 9 pin port and the motherboard
was on incorrectly - quite possible as I did not have a motherboard manual
to check that cables were all set up properly.
Having completed the installation I tried to get the mouse working (played
around with the cables on the motherboard, BIOS settings etc). In the end I
decided bugger it, and added in an old ISA I/O card that I knew had a
working serial port.
Dmesg indicates that the kernel is seeing the serial ports (ISA card has
ttyS0 & 1, while the onbord are now ttyS2 & 3), but I am still not getting
any mouse activity in X. I've checked and played around with XF86Config-4
- in case my understanding of the port numbers was wrong and ensured that
there is no hardware fault with the serial mouse (standard 2 button serial).
I'm starting to think that perhaps the kernel isn't loading the necessary
module to use the mouse (standard 2 button serial Microsoft mouse). I do
know that I did insmod generic_serial.o (I think that is how it was spelt)
and the module loaded (it didn't say already loaded). I am assuming that
this module is the kernel driver for serial ports (but I could be wrong).
Is there a kernel module for using serial mice?
Otherwise, are there any diagnostic tools I might be able to use to see if
it is possible to communicate in any way with the serial port, or mouse?
Any help would be appreciated.
In all other respects the machine works fine, X runs without incident - but
given it will become a dedicated X-terminal, the mouse problem is somewhat
of an issue!!!
Aaron
