Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 62687
IMPS/2 mouse works correctly in X only if gpm is running...
Last modified: 2007-04-18 12:41:40 EDT
From Bugzilla Helper: User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 Galeon/1.2.0 (X11; Linux i686; U;) Gecko/20020311 Description of problem: I have an IMPS/2 Logitech mouse. I have disabled gpm as in some cases, on some distros, it conflicts with the mouse in X, and because I had some error messages from GPM on the console. I have then eliminated GPM from startup services through ntsysv, then I have rebooted; after the reboot and startx, mouse behaves very strangely, with the pointer jumping here and there and clicking by its own; some other times, all freezed and a hardware reset was needed. Things work correctly only now that I have reenabled the gpm service...this seems strange to me, conflicts should be normal when gpm is turned on, not when it's turned off :( Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): How reproducible: Didn't try Steps to Reproduce: 1.configure the IMPS/2 mouse through mouseconfig and let the XFree86 config files to be accordingly updated 2.eliminate gpm from the startup services through ntsysv and reboot 3.startx, use the mouse Expected Results: IMPS/2 mouse correctly working in X with gpm turned off. Additional info:
Absence of gpm triggering a problem can hardly be considered a gpm bug ;)
I agree... but I need to submit the bug... and I don't know which is the component to be fixed... I was not able to understand this, sorry :( I can only say you that the problem manifests itself only if gpm is off, while it does not manifest if gpm is on. If you need further infos about the computer hardware and conf files, please ask me, I am at your disposal.
Out of curiousity, what happens if you disable the kudzu service on startup?
It is already disabled... it is among the first things I disable after a Red Hat installation, also to speed up the OS startup; I launch it only from a root shell when really needed. If you need further info, please ask me.
When mouse problems occur after configuration, it can be due to various different issues. One major issue which comes up, is a user not really knowing how to properly configure the mouse in the first place, and then guessing different settings until the right one is found. While this sometimes works for some mice, with other mice what happens is choosing the wrong protocol, can end up confusing the actual hardware itself. Further configuration even using the correct protocol, can end up not working due to the hardware being messed up. I have all logitech mice here, and all of them work perfectly with X when configured properly. I can use the mouseman protocol, however I use the IMPS/2 protocol as it is pretty much the defacto standard protocol in use now, and it works great with all my mice. I've yet to run into any problems with mice that were not able to be resolved by changing mouse protocols and physically rebooting and thus hardware resetting the mouse hardware. I consider this to be misconfiguration issue, and not an XFree86 mouse driver bug. Even though bugzilla is not a technical support forum, I will offer the following suggestions: Number one - disable GPM entirely. XFree86 does not need GPM, and GPM can in fact cause conflicts with XFree86. Removing GPM out of the equation allows X to use the mouse unhindered. Once X is working, then one can fiddle with GPM if one desires to use GPM. If X works without GPM, and does not work when GPM is used, it is NOT an X bug. Configure your mouse as follows in /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Mouse0" Driver "mouse" Option "Device" "/dev/mouse" Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2" Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5" EndSection Save the file, and physically reboot the computer. This configuration should work with almost all modern PS/2 and serial mice that are compatible with the IMPS/2 protocol, which includes all modern Logitech devices. It also should work I believe with most if not all USB pointing devices, only the device line needs to be changed to point to the USB device, or else the /dev/mouse symlink needs to be changed to point to the USB device. It is very important after disabling GPM via ntsysv so it does not start at boot, that you reboot the machine to ensure 100% that the hardware is physically reset. If it does not work after this, I strongly recommend trying each mouse protocol one at a time, and rebooting the computer in between each attempt to ensure the hardware is reset properly.
This mouse is driving me crazy!!! The same mouse, with the same mouse configuration, works correcly and lovely well on other two computers with RH 7.2 and RH 7.2.93, both with and without gpm, and I remark that on the computer with RH 7.2 I am also using just the same video card!!! Moreover, on the computer where it does not want to work, I have no problems with an old, non Logitech mouse providing a wheel. I should try on the same computer with other mouses, but I'm getting convinced that this is a very weird problem and that it would be *very* difficult to understand the causes; I'm becoming convinced that this problem is really specific of *this* computer with *this* mouse... ARGH!!!
Closing bug WONTFIX as it seems hardware related. Even if it turns out to be a software bug, which I am doubting highly at this point, there is practically zero chance that anyone can even look into it at all without being able to reproduce it. Your best bet at this point, is to join the xpert@xfree86.org mailing list, and ask for help with this problem there. Perhaps someone there knows what the problem is, and if it is indeed a hardware problem, perhaps there is a workaround you can use.