This will keep gpm from starting at bootup: update-rc.d -f gpm remove
If you want it back do: update-rc.d gpm defaults
Note that Debian based distros put the startuplinks back when a package gets upgraded so if you don't want to do the remove every time do: apt-get --purge remove gpm

For this: Option "Protocol" "auto"
You could also try: Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"

If you for some reason want to use gpm try "dpkg-reconfigure gpm" and "/usr/sbin/gpm-mouse-test" and check /etc/gpm.conf

I just asked on #kanotix and the vmware modules can't be included due to the license but you can compile them against the kanotix kernel after getting the source with ./install-kernel-source-vanilla.sh