On Sat, Sep 04, 2004 at 10:36:09PM +0100, Paul Hailey wrote: > snip > If you haven't looked at the XFree86 log file in /var/log do so - it shows > if the mouse bits are > loading correctly or not at the end of it. > > In my case I think I may have to hold a mouse button down as the 'gdm' > system starts up, > it hangs until the mouse is moved about - but at least an 'Auto' mouse > protocol setting on the XFree86 > setup ( dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86 ) works my ancient serial mouse, > > -- but note, > it looks like when that dpkg prog. is run, it puts in an assumed symlink > setting (e.g to ttyS0) as > something like '/dev/input/mice' which is not much use, as everyone's > advising us to > use a symlink '/dev/mouse' ... so either change the XF86Config-4 config > file (in /etc/X11) > manually (which means not using the dpkg-reconfigure mode again) -- or make > the symlink by command, to match the XF86Config-4 entry. > > I'm not that good at symlink but the command is > ln -s /dev/ttyS0 /dev/mouse (for /dev/mouse on ==Com1 !) > > Would be useful if someone can tell me how to 'undo' a symlink!
A symlink is a just special kind of file. It contains a file name, and (almost) any attempt to access it goes to the target. ~ %% ln -s does-not-exist foosym ~ %% ls -l foosym lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 14 Sep 4 2004 foosym -> does-not-exist ~ %% cat foosym cat: foosym: No such file or directory ~ %% ed textfile textfile: No such file or directory a foo . w 4 q ~ %% ln -s textfile anothername ~ %% cat anothername foo ~ %% rm anothername ~ %% cat textfile foo ~ %% ln -s textfile anothername ~ %% rm textfile ~ %% cat anothername cat: anothername: No such file or directory ~ %% rm anothername > The only other thing I messed around with was the 3 (or so) mouse > modules - if that's what they are - in the kernel config file settings list > (in /boot) ... but I'm unsure exactly which parts were essential. > Leave that until final exhaustion of possibility. /boot/config-<VERSION>? Editing that file shouldn't make a difference (and shouldn't be done). To change modules edit /etc/modules. > And finally, I use 'ee' (apt-get install ee) editor, I like to minimise > Debian pains... Don't say that! You might start a holy war! > Any comments appreciated, and apologies for any typo's or duff info. > Hope this gets some other newbie Debian v3 users out of a jam and avoid > that trip to get the ps2 mouse. What's wrong with the PS/2 mouse? I had one and it worked "out of the box" with Woody. (I still use it, I just removed the USB->PS/2 converter.) -- The world's most effective spam filter: ln -sf /dev/full /var/mail/$USER -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]