On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 11:41 AM, Sarfaraz Kazi <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi!
>
> I recently installed FC10 on my desktop PC. Everything's running fine
> expect for my logitech 3-button serial mouse which is not getting
> recognised under FC10.
>
> In earlier versions, it used to work by manually editing the xorg.conf
> file as below:
>
> Section "InputDevice"
> Identifier "Configured Mouse"
> Driver "mouse"
> Option "CorePointer"
> Option "Device" "/dev/ttyS0"
> Option "Protocol" "auto"
> Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
> EndSection
>
> However, in FC10 there is no xorg.conf file by default. So, as per
> instructions that I found on the net, I created xorg.conf file by
> giving the below command:
>
> Xorg -configure :1
>
> and manually edited the mouse section accordingly. But still no luck.
>
> Then I tried using the system-config-display utility but there is no
> mouse section in it. Uncle Google also has thrown his hands up! Please
> help!
>

Dear Sarfaraz,

The Default in fedora 10 is to use a completely autodetected mechanism
of handling hardware. This works for most hardware because they are
designed to be probed and identify themselves correctly. Sadly, serial
mice are not among these devices, and linux isnt the only os to have
issues with detection of serial mice and other serial
devices(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/283063).

That being said, there is a workaround to specify to the Kernel Input
Subsystem(that is autoprobed) that there is a mouse available. The
command used for it is '/usr/sbin/inputattach' , which is part of the
'gpm' package, installed by default. Note that this command has to be
run before X starts up and does it's autoprobing, therefore it should
be included as part of the system startup( The ideal/recommended
location for this is in /etc/rc.d/rc.local ).

For example, if you have a 3 button Logitech serial mouse with a
scroll wheel connected on COM1, this is the line i would add in
rc.local
"/usr/sbin/inputattach --mmwheel /dev/ttyS0"

I understand that this is a bit irregular, but it's the only way of
ensuring that other serial hardware does not get mistaken for a mouse.
Remember, the serial port and most serial protocols are over 20+ years
old, long before people even considered that a computer would be
intelligent enough to ask a device to identify itself :D (Reminds me
of my society's watchman).

Regards
R. K. Rajeev

> Regards,
> Sarfaraz
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>
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