I am brand new to Debian and spent the weekend trying to get it to work.

I must admit that I am incredibly impressed with the quality of the code 
and general ease of install. I have preformed two installations now, the 
first also had the same mouse problem that I have after the second install. 
The basic system is running, several network applications are running and 
X-Windows is working, albeit via keyboard keys. While the code and 
installation procedures are very complete and functional, the documentation 
is a little understated at the present time. At least it is for a newbie.

The problem is that the mouse does not work in X-Windows. It didn't work 
during the install process either. The mouse hardware is functional. The 
system that I am using was running WindowsNT Server until Saturday morning 
without any hardware problems or history of problems.

The mouse is a LogiTech model with only 2 buttons. I have seen several 
references to pull-down menus used to select the mouse type, but I have 
failed to find any of these.

In my research I have found many references to mouse/pointer configuration 
problems. One test that was suggested was to test the hardware from a 
console window. A "cat /dev/ttyS0" did nothing as I moved the mouse. A "cat 
/dev/psaux" echoed characters on the screen in reaction to mouse movements. 
I assumed that meant the hardware was working an the correct device is 
/dev/psaux.

Several people have mentioned in other helpful posts that the file 
XF86Config-4 needs to be changed. Currently, the configuration is as follows:

Section "InputDevice"
         Identifier      "Configured Mouse"
         Driver          "mouse"
         Option          "CorePointer"
         Option          "Device"                "/dev/psaux"
         Option          "Protocol"              "ImPS/2"
         Option          "Emulate3Buttons"       "true"
         Option          "ZAxisMapping"          "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
         Identifier      "Generic Mouse"
         Driver          "mouse"
         Option          "SendCoreEvents"        "true"
#       Option          "Device"                "/dev/input/mice"
         Option          "Device"                "/dev/psaux"
         Option          "Protocol"              "ImPS/2"
         Option          "Emulate3Buttons"       "true"
         Option          "ZAxisMapping"          "4 5"
EndSection

Obviously, I like others, questioned why there was two mouse entries and 
how they should differ. In any case, the file defines the mouse as above. I 
commented out the /dev/input/mice entry since that device does not exist.

My first installation defaulted to the KDE environment and I changed the 
second installation to use Gnome. Both seem useable and I don't really care 
which is used. (My reason for doing this entire exercise is to get a more 
stable OpenSSL Apache server - it is available for WindowsNT but not 
supported and I have experienced crashes frequently - something that Apache 
generally does not do on any of our WindowsNT Servers.)

Several people have indicated that the solution for a problem like mine is 
to be had via:

"make your mouse device in XF86Config-4 /dev/gpmdata, and in /etc/gpm.conf 
make sure that repeat_type=raw"

This is all very well, except, I have no idea what gpm is or where to find 
it. I do have gDm running and I have even created a file /etc/gdm.conf but 
that does not solve my problem. There is no process called gpm running on 
the system, although there is a process called gdm.

I am sure I am doing something very silly or I am being very stupid, but I 
can't fathom how a complicated system as I have just installed all seems to 
work mostly without flaw (at least nothing I can see) and yet a very basic 
function that has been child's play on almost every Windows system since 
1994 fails on this software so miserably. My mind could cope with this 
working and the more complicated functions (I have been web surfing with 
Mozilla - using a keyboard only - without any problems) having problems.

Please help me find my way. Two days have been lost on this.

(While I am new at Debian and Linux, I have 36 years of working computer 
background that includes IBM MFT/MVS, IBM VM/CMS and UNIX III up to UNIX 
Sys V (ATT) and some BSD and SUN/OS. The solution is not clear.)

Thank you in advance for your consideration and assistance.



----------
Michael Burke
Cordova Bay Entertainment Group, Inc
5159 Beckton Road                                       250-658-0336 - Tel
Victoria, British Columbia                             250-658-0593 - Fax
Canada  V8Y 2C2                                           www.cordovabay.com


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