Knoppix 3.7 sees mouse, 4.0.2 does not...ever

Hello Friends;

I was introduced to linux, as many of you, by way of a live CD of Knoppix. A couple years ago I was given a Cd in a copy place by a friendly enough gentleman who suggested that I try it out. I finally tried a couple years later and I love it. This was a live version of Knoppix 3.7

I have since tried ubuntu, Kubuntu, Vector Linux, Damn Small Linux, etc.

I have been using all of these on my Dell Latidtude Laptop.

Only Damn Small Linux and Knoppix 3.7 load my optical mouse. I am un-able to use even a roller ball mouse while using Knoppix 4.0.2

This is true even on my Desktop computer.

I find this puzzling because I should expect things to get better not worse with subsequent distros.

I am stuck using the older version of Knoppix 3.7 for now until a version of Knoppix comes out that remembers what they were doing right with 3.7

Is there hope?

boot in expert mode and configure your mouse from PS/2 to USB.

Well, I can't even get to the Konsole to do this without the mouse.

Also, since it is actually a PS/2 mouse, are yo sure this is what would fix it?

I am left with the question as to why 4.0.2 misses this.

Actually, 3.8 and 3.9 both can not run chromium, and 3.9 says hard drive excelleration not working at boot screen.

Why is 3.7 sooOOoo good, and subsequent distros seem to be missing something? This is like when win98 came out, and everything in between that and xp sucked (yes they all suck, not that we have that out of the way...).

I see that 56 people have viewed this thread, but no one seems to have any insight on why distros after 3.7, and why they are hobling along....


and....

if I run knoppix-installer while in the konsole (3.7 mind you), it works great, but it installs the openoffice.org apps in German!?!