Laptop pointing device 1

[skiflyer]

I installed Mandrake 9.1 on my Toshiba 3000-S304 cause I'm playing around with different distros... and my pointing device worked fine, but then I tried to use my USB mouse, but apparently my USB ports are fried... so it doesn't work.

On reboot, I know have no pointing device at all, and the way I got to the place I went to change it is not accesible through keyboard commands. Very frustrating... can anyone tell me how to get to that selection menu without needing a mouse, or which config files to change to restore my pointing device?

Thank you,
Rob

 

[manarth]

if it's booting to a gui client, iot'll still normally run multiple virtual workstations, which normally boot to a command prompt: try Alt-F1 / Alt-F2 etc (or Shift-Alt-F1, etc) to switch to a different virtual terminal, then you can proceed to login and edit the config files (hope you're up to speed on vi! I had to use vi today and managed to royally stuff up some files by 'pressing the wrong key'...if you're not familiar with vi, I suggest you backup first!)

<marc> i wonder what will happen if i press this...[ul][li]please give feedback on what works / what doesn't[/li][li]need some help? how to get a better answer: faq581-3339[/li][/ul]

 

[skiflyer]

I have no problem getting to terminals and running emacs, I just have no idea which config files to mess with for a pointing device, my previous choice was &quot;generic mouse&quot;

-Rob

 

[manarth]

hi skiflyer - sorry, I read the post but neglected to look at who was asking the question!

I take it you were (successfully) using the laptop's touchpad before:
&quot;Toshiba touchpad:
Alps Electric Pointing Device (PS/2)
W-Specification: IRQ 12&quot; (from Toshiba's site)

which means, I guess, treat the touchpad as a ps/2 mouse...

you should (hopefully!) find the mouse config under /etc/X11/XF86Config
(basically, the config dir for x-windows)

you'll want something along the lines of:
[tt]

Section &quot;InputDevice&quot;
Identifier &quot;Mouse0&quot;
Driver &quot;mouse&quot;
Option &quot;Protocol&quot; &quot;PS/2&quot;
Option &quot;Device&quot; &quot;/dev/psaux&quot;
Option &quot;ZAxisMapping&quot; &quot;4 5&quot;
Option &quot;Emulate3Buttons&quot; &quot;no&quot;
EndSection

[/tt]

I haven't got a way to check these settings, but it shouldn't do any harm to try - let us know how you get on.

<marc> i wonder what will happen if i press this...[ul][li]please give feedback on what works / what doesn't[/li][li]need some help? how to get a better answer: faq581-3339[/li][/ul]

 

[skiflyer]

See, shows my newbiness in this realm, I didn't even realize the pointer was specifically part of X... anyway... I have my pointing device back, and what you posted totally helped me, but I'm not sure it was my final answer... but then again, I could've just been starting it back wrong with startx... I dunno.

In case anyone else has a similar problem I'd like to point out two things...

Apparently Mandrake uses
XFree86Config-4
as the default... and

XFdrake help me too, not sure what it did though, lol... I'll get this linux thing yet... though I'm pretty sure after I play for awhile I'm going back to debian.

Thanks again

-Rob
Man the differences between using something and administering it sometimes...