ps/2 mouse on laptop

Hi everyone. Linux newbie here.
I'm running KNOPPIX 3.8.2 live cd on my Presario laptop as a solution since the hard disk died.
Excellent solution, but...
My problem is that I can't use a ps2 mouse on it (wheel or no-wheel).
It forces the touchpad. I tried all the cheatcodes but no result.
It also happens with OpenSUSE's latest Live cd (with KDE).
No problem with SLAX 6 (both work fine touchpad and ps2).
Could it be KDE?
Any solution? I really need to use the ps2 mouse rather than the touchpad.
Thanks in advance for any help.

It could be KDE...or not. I would try a newer version of Knoppix than 3.8.2 and see if that resolves the issue. You may also be able to disable the touchpad in the bios if they have that option available. In any event, 3.8.2 is rather dated and I'm sure many issues have been corrected since then. There used to be a cheatcode for some systems with a bios issue: "pci=irqmask=0x0e98". Look at the cheatcodes and see if one resolves your issue. http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Cheat_Codes

Thanks ckamin.
I had tried the pci=irqmask=0x0e98 and other cheatcodes without solving.
Thanks to a post in this forum (unfortunately I can't remember who posted) about mouse issues on laptops I tried
"psmouse.proto=imps" at the boot prompt and it worked perfectly.
I'll download the latest version and use it though. Thanks.

It was brakerm19's helpful suggestion for "psmouse.proto=imps" command in the No mouse on Koppix 511 with Virtual PC 2007 post. http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26939

cardinal

I originally had thought that the solution you mentioned was mainly for a VM environment. I'll put this one on the list and look at it a bit closer at some point.

I'm glad to see that your issue was resolved!

Thanks for posting your solution.