Serial mice and Linux

[srg_13]

Hi,

I have just aquired an old Pentium 3 box, and installed Ubuntu on it. The problem is that it only has one large DIN socket for a keyboard, and no USB or PS/2 for a mouse. I have therefore used a serial mouse, but it will not work with Ubuntu. (it does work in windows). Where can I get a driver for it, and how can I install it without the mouse?

Thanks in advance,

-Stephen

[AR]

You need serial port support built into the kernel (Don't know about Ubuntu, should be though).

Then you need to configure your X server, you need to open the config file and change the settings. I think the correct settings are changing the mouse protocol to "microsoft" and device to "/dev/tts/0" (I'm using UDEV on Gentoo though, you may have a different path to the serial port).

Assuming that a serial mouse doesn't need initalisation, you can try and find the write port using "cat" by simply typing "cat /dev/tts/0" and moving the mouse, if the mouse is attached to that port then hopefully random garbage should start appearing on the console (Press Ctrl+C to end). If not then repeat for /dev/tts/1 [COM2] and so on. If you get a 'file not found' error then try /dev/ttS0 instead.

[srg_13]

How do I go straight to the console instead of Gnome at bootup?

-Stephen

[AR]

Press Ctrl+Alt+Backspace to kill the X server, you should end up at a console login, once you login you can type "/etc/init.d/xdm stop" to terminate the GUI login.

If it keeps restarting when you Ctrl+Alt+Backspace then you'll have to try and tab to the "login mode" list thing (don't remember what it's called for GNOME) and change to "Console Login" which should drop you at the console login prompt.

[srg_13]

Yeah, it keeps restarting. I'll try putting the HDD in this computer and changing it there.

-Stephen

[JoeKayzA]

You could also press Ctrl+Alt+F1 to go to the first textmode terminal without killing the X server. This way, it will definitly not restart and pop up again...

cheers Joe

[srg_13]

I've put the mouse in another computer, but I can't find a file with the mouse settings. Where is this located? I've been looking in /usr/x11_86/librarys or includes or somethinmg like that. A friend mentioned that there was some kind of configuration application that you cann access via the terminal. What is this, and can I change the settings there?

Thanks,

Stephen

[Candy]

I've put the mouse in another computer, but I can't find a file with the mouse settings. Where is this located? I've been looking in /usr/x11_86/librarys or includes or somethinmg like that. A friend mentioned that there was some kind of configuration application that you cann access via the terminal. What is this, and can I change the settings there?

Thanks,

Stephen

Configuration is in /etc, or probably in /etc/X11. You were looking in /usr/X11R6/...

The configuration file is called "XF86Config" or for the x.org server, "xorg.conf". Both are at the same place and can be found with "locate" or "find" (in unix you don't search, you find stuff). You can add or remove terminals in /etc/inittab, which has a weird format, but you can google how to add them. /dev/tty1 is your first terminal which you can reach with ctrl-alt-f1, which is normally a text terminal.

[srg_13]

I can not get it to work, but thanks for the help anyway. I think I'll just get a $15 USB card, and a cheap optical mouse.

-Stephen