Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[ICPUG]

I have an ancient Windows 98 PC. When I boot from the Live CD it asks for my Keyboard (UK) and then for my mouse type (Serial) and then the port (ttyS1). In brackets is what I type. It then displays the screen to select a video display mode but the mouse does not work so I cannot select one!

I have tried CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE and rm /etc/mousedevice and xwin to try all the other port options - always with the same hang up.

When I fitted a PS/2 mouse and selected PS/2 instead of serial everything worked but I would prefer to work with my serial mouse.

Any ideas as to what I am doing wrong when I have my serial mouse fitted?

Thanks

ICPUG

[Ian]

Are you sure you are using the right device name for your mouse.

Try changing it to ttyS0 and see if that has any affect.

[BarryK]

Don't type the brackets!

[Lobster]

I have a serial scroll mouse which I at some point always try with new puppys (and am dissapointed that it does not work)

Hope the brackets suggestion works for you . . .

[ICPUG]

Thanks guys.

I don't actually type the brackets. They were put in my post for convenience. Also I have tried ttyS0, even though my mouse is on COM port 2.

I have also tried moving the mouse to COM Port 1 (and using ttyS0) but still no luck. I DO have an internal modem that according to Windows is on COM3 and uses the same interrupt as COM1 and wonder if this has anything to do with the problem.

I am heartened to see Lobster has the same problem. I too have a scroll mouse. At least it is not just me. Irritating bug though.

Once again thanks for the contributions.

ICPUG

[Mechsus]

[alpreston]

I have the same problem; The system I tried Puppy on has a serial mouse on ttys0. Puppy 1.0.4 cd boots to the gui screen but doesn't seem to recognise the mouse.

I've tried following the suggested procedure of CTRL-ALT-BKSPC, rm /etc/mousedevice and xwin, and entering serial and ttys0, but the only result of that has been loss of the ps/2 keyboard as well as the serial mouse (typing in serial when prompted for mouse type, resulted in both the default ps/2 mouse driver AND the ps/2 keyboard driver being disabled).

Simply confirming the port the mouse is on (ttys0 in this case) isn't enough to correct the problem.

[alpreston]

Sorry, in my last post, I incorrectly stated the ps/2 keyboard driver was disabled. On re-examination, I see that is not the case. On one occasion I did have the keyboard freeze on me, but since then it's been no problem.

I still haven't got Puppy to recognise my serial mouse, though..

[ICPUG]

Guys - I got my serial mouse to be recognised.

Viewing other posts in this forum about other problems I saw a mention that it is good to boot into Puppy from a cold start. What I normally do quite often is to do a bit of work in Windows and then restart to boot Puppy. This is what I call a warm boot.

I tried starting Puppy immediately after turning on the PC. This time my serial mouse, now located permanently on ttyS0 in case it clashes with the modem on the other port, was recognised! At this point I did not define it as a wheel mouse just in case this caused problems.

A quick test showed that now the pup001 file had been created I could do a warm boot as well!

Whether this remains a permanent solution or just a happy accident remains to be seen, but at least it shows a serial mouse can be recognised.

ICPUG

[alpreston]

I tried the cold boot suggestion, after once again removing /dev/mousedevice and pup001. It didn't make any difference - the serial mouse is not recognised. It works fine with other live-cd's such as Knoppix, BLAG, etc.

Alastair

[ICPUG]

My serial mouse decided to not work again last night. This is with the same pup001 that worked previously! However it was an intermittent problem. I restarted my PC a few times. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it didn't.

I got the most success when I waited the 10 seconds at the boot prompt. I NEVER got it working when I pressed ENTER to start the default.

ICPUG

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