Losing Control Of The Mouse

[beforewisdom]

Hi;

I installed Knoppix 3.1 to the hard drive of a new computer.

Its a custom built machine with a Pentium 4 CPU that came with an "Intel
Desktop Board d845PESV" motherboard ( also the name of the chipset on the
mother board ).


When I log out of a desktop/window manager(icewm,gnome,kde) and return to
a gui lilo dialog I lose control of the mouse.


No matter how much I move my mouse I can't make the caret/cursor/pointer
on the screen move.

I can temporarily fix this problem by rebooting X windows by pressing
Ctrl-Alt-Backspace.

I would like to fix this problem permanently.

Any ideas on how to do this?

Thanks in advance

Steve
( this question has been posted to the forums at knoppix.net and
comp.os.linux).

[Loper]

When I log out of a desktop/window manager(icewm,gnome,kde) and return to a gui lilo dialog I lose control of the mouse... Thanks in advance.

Is it a PS/2 mouse or USB mouse? I suspect USB; what brand? One of the problems with inexpensive mice (and even some expensive ones, I suspect) is that they are only tested under Windows. There are hardware timing issues with some peripherals -- remember, a USB mouse has a microcontroller in it and has to "shake hands" with the PC hardware on a continuing basis. It may well be "losing its grip" while in command-line interface (CLI) mode. This has happened to me.

[beforewisdom]

When I log out of a desktop/window manager(icewm,gnome,kde) and return to a gui lilo dialog I lose control of the mouse... Thanks in advance.

Is it a PS/2 mouse or USB mouse? I suspect USB; what brand? One of the problems with inexpensive mice (and even some expensive ones, I suspect) is that they are only tested under Windows. There are hardware timing issues with some peripherals -- remember, a USB mouse has a microcontroller in it and has to "shake hands" with the PC hardware on a continuing basis. It may well be "losing its grip" while in command-line interface (CLI) mode. This has happened to me.

Okay, here is where I show my hardware ignorance .

If by "USB mouse" you mean having tiny little holes for tiny little rods at the connection point, then yes, it is a "usb mouse".

It is a 5 year old microsoft mouse I got with the gateway machine I have been using ( with Suse 7.2 ) until I got my new pc this weekend.

I also noticed that the middle mouse button ( a clickable mouse wheel ) doesn't seem to work.

Steve

[Loper]

If by "USB mouse" you mean having tiny little holes for tiny little rods at the connection point... It is a 5 year old microsoft mouse...

I apologize for assuming that you knew more than you do. As a computer tech, I try to avoid that! What you have is a "PS/2" mouse, so named because that style and connector were introduced with the IBM PS/2 series of computers in 1988. The connector is known as a "mini-DIN" -- a PS/2 keyboard (the current standard) uses the same connector.

The Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a newer standard for peripherals that allows up to 127 devices to be hooked to one set of ports. One of its advantages is that it's "hot-pluggable" -- that is, devices can be connected or removed with the power on. Newer systems have 2 to 6 USB ports on-board. USB devices include mouses, scanners, printers, cameras, MP3 players, etc. The USB connector is a small, flattened rectangle. It's common, especially with newer systems, to have a PS/2 keyboard and a USB mouse, hence the assumption.

Now, on to your problem. I don't know why your mouse does not work properly. I would, in fact, try a Logitech USB mouse. All types of Linux seem to like them, and you can often find them at substantial discounts. For example, I have paid as little as $2.00 for a surplus 2-button Logitech USB mouse branded I-opener. Besides, it never hurts to have a spare.