Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 84310
the -M option (multiple mice) should not imply -R (repeater mode)
Last modified: 2007-04-18 12:51:13 EDT
From Bugzilla Helper: User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 Galeon/1.2.6 (X11; Linux i686; U;) Gecko/20020830 Description of problem: When multiple mice are configured in gpm, with the -M option, the repeater mode is automatically activated (i.e., -R is implied). This causes the mouse to go wild under X since gpm and X compete for mouse access. Without the repeater mode, gpm stops listening to the mouse while under graphical mode, so that X and gpm do not compete for mouse access. The -M option should not force the repeater mode, the -M and -R options should be independent. With the current gpm behaviour it is not possible to use a PS/2 mouse and a USB mouse in the console and under X, using the default config under X (i.e. USB configured as additional mouse). This is very important for laptops. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): gpm-1.19.3-23 How reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Configure a USB mouse in addition to the standard PS/2 mouse by setting OPTIONS, in /etc/sysconfig/mouse, to "-t imps2 -m /dev/input/mice -M" 2. start gpm 3. start X Actual Results: The mouse (either USB or PS/2) goes wild under X. Console mode is OK. Expected Results: Both mices work correctly under X as well as console mode. Additional info: See also related issue in mouse-config: bug #76713
Well I had a Problem with gpm concerning -M option too, and probably my workaround works for your problem too: line invokating gpm int /etc/init.d/gpm is has an error: daemon gpm $OPTIONS -t $MOUSETYPE -m $DEVICE Because the OPTIONS variable is the First parameter given to gpm the -M option comes "too early". The effect is, that you try to configure a second mouse before the first one has been conigured. I found moving the OPTION variable to the END of the line made gpm working for me again. so the section in the gpm script should look like this: if [ -n "$MOUSETYPE" ]; then daemon gpm -t $MOUSETYPE -m $DEVICE $OPTIONS else daemon gpm -m $DEVICE $OPTIONS fi Hope it works for you too.
The $OPTIONS have been moved to the end of the params in the init script. I believe the problem the original bug poster describes is unrelated. Originally, we tied the repeater in in response to an old bug. I'll test to see if the old fix is still relevant, and if necessary, unbundle it.
repeater mode is not automatically invoked with Red Hat's gpm... since 1.19.13-25
The docs ( man, --help or README ) of gpm-1.19.3-27 claims otherwise ( that -R is enabled with -M ) and I think is actualy works that way ( -R implied by -M )
$ man gpm [snip] -M Enable multiple mode. The daemon will read two different mouse devices. Any subsequent option will refer to the second device, while any preceding option will be used for the first device. In Red Hat Linux, this option DOES NOT enable the repeater (-R) option on. [snip] I think the patch to the man page came later than the repeater patch. -- hard to tell because the man page patch is bundled with the getopts parse code patch.