Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 71293
Please improve mouse configuration
Last modified: 2007-04-18 12:45:26 EDT
There does not seem to be a simple way to activate the mouse scroll wheel. This seems like it would be a fairly simple thing to include, perhaps in the 'Mouse' control panel, or the 'Display' panel. Yes, I know how to turn on mouse wheel support through editing XF86Config, but most new people won't have a clue how to do this. Better yet, why make this any harder than it has to be, and why not have mousewheel support on by default?
This is filed as an XFree86 bug. Scrollwheel mice work fine in XFree86, so there is no XFree86 bug here. Red Hat Linux has always configured the XF86Config config file to have: ZaxisMapping "4 5" by default, regardless of the mouse type used. The option enables scroll wheel support on most mice - if they have scroll wheels, and the proper mouse protocol is chosen during install/configuration. Most scroll wheel mice, and in fact most modern mice period use the IMPS/2 mouse protocol, however not all mice do, so it is not a safe assumption to pick. There is no way in Linux or XFree86 to currently autodetect what mouse protocol is required or supported by a given mouse. As such, end users need to manually choose their mouse type. There is no getting around this, and there wont be likely for some time, probably not until XFree86 5.0 or so. As for making a default configuration for scroll wheel mice, users should choose their mouse type from the existing list. I'm not sure how it could be made much better than it is right now, without creating a database of individual company/device/model types and tying them to a particular mouse protocol and configuration settings. Such a mouse database is not a bad idea per se. but it is also not something to be implemented overnight. This is something which could be considered for a future version of the OS and its config tools however. I'm reassigning it to our new config tool where it can be examined in a future Red Hat Linux release.
I know its not an XFree bug, I'm sorry for filing it as such. I didn't see the option for redhat-config-xfree86. I've checked my XF86Config, and the problem actually isn't ZAxismapping, its the protocol used: PS/2 instead of IMPS/2. Actually, there are two entries, looks like the first for 'Mouse0' is supposed to be for non-devfs with device /dev/psaux, and the second Mouse1 is for devfs with device /dev/input/mice (just a geuss about the reason). Mouse1 has IMPS/2 protocol, but Mouse0 does not. Once again sorry for the mis-filing.
Are you saying you have an IMPS/2, but it probed as a PS/2? What program wrote the config? The installer?
ping?
Although the setting is in the XF86Config file, this is really a redhat-config-mouse issue since that program edits the mouse section of the XF86Config file, as well as the /etc/sysconfig/mouse file for console mouse configuration. I'm changing the component to redhat-config-mouse. I have made some changes to redhat-config-mouse yesterday that should ensure that ZAxisMapping always gets written to the default pointing device. redhat-config-mouse-1.0.2-8 in Rawhide should resolve the problem, so I'm closing as Rawhide. QA, please verify.