[CLUE-Tech] Mousing Around: gpm trouble, swap?

[Jed S. Baer]

Various mouse things here.

I just made this really obnoxious discovery about XFree86 4.x, and as a
result, I've made some changes, which for the most part have resulted in
faster video performance, getting the mousewheel to work, etc. All nifty
stuff.

Problem is, now, when I exit X, or switch to a different (non X) console,
gpm is wildly confused. It's as if having run X, the mouse signals are
madly scrambled for the console. The pointer doesn't move, and moving the
mouse results in erratic button-click events. Doing a gpm restart doesn't
clear it up. So, after googling for a while without finding anything, does
anyone have any idea why this would be happening?

Also, not really related. My mouse is experiencing, um, movement lags and
hangs. You know, I move the mouse, but the pointer stops in mid-traverse.
I've cleaned the little wheels, but that doesn't really help. I'm assuming
some strange hardware problem, or maybe just inconsistent pickups.
Whatever. So, if anyone has a Logitech MouseMan+ WheelMouse / PS2 in good
condition, I'd be happy to swap for something. Hmmm. I'll have to look
through the hardware pile and see what's available -  maybe an STB video
card, a Linksys 10MB BNC/rj45, a Logitech Wingman, a Logitech Trackman
Marble (the thumball one). I have piles of fans, and, for you vintage
collectors, a 1988 (or so) vintage IDS joystick (which I would almost hate
to part with, it's so, so ... _retro_ ;-). Or, maybe recommendations for a
good mouse? Last time I looked around, all the good ones seem to have gone
"gizmo" happy, or have strange shapes. The IBM mice look maybe OK, but the
only place I've seen them, they don't have demo models out where you can
get a feel for them. I'm pretty picky about mice. The old Logitech
MouseMan+ is almost perfect for me, ergonomically - but they don't make it
anymore.

Later,
jed

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