If the system is configured to start X at boot it not only fails, but goes into an endless loop of retrying. X remarks about gpm pid in /var/run and gpm having been "mysteriously murdered", system pauses at tty1 then retries X, again and again and again...... the gpm failure is: "oops() from gpm.c(968) \n /dev/mouse /n no such device" The mouse is a Microsoft Optical USB. Problem may have to do with USB setup, which is computer -> usb-switch-box -> monitor -> mouse. Probably more usb hubs than system is used to seeing. (Works fine with windows tho!)
does this problem still happen in Red Hat Linux 7?
Okay, this isn't a gpm issue, its a mouse setup issue. First, try running mouseconfig and then rebooting, and if that don't work, then: Check the value of /dev/mouse (ls -l /dev/mouse) See if it is pointing to /dev/input/mice, if not, remove the symlink, if it is there, and run: ln -s /dev/input/mice /dev/mouse