# Please help a total idiot!  (USB Mouse, NVidia drivers)

## damageinc

Hey folks, earlier this week I decided to try out Gentoo.  I really like the idea of the Portage system and having my system configured exactly the way I want it.  However, I have been having a number of problems configuring my kernel and X.

Number one, I can't quite get my USB Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 to work in X.  USB appears to be working, since the mouse is actually autodetected when you boot from the Gentoo CD, and the mouse's tail light comes on.

However, just about everything I have tried in xf86config hasn't done a thing for me.  Is there anyone out there who has this mouse properly working?  What kernel modules should I enable?  Which ones should I have set to be modules?  I have a SiS-based chipset on my motherboard, and have a P4 1.6 GHz Northwood running at 2.2 GHz, 512 MB of PC2400 RAM, and all that, so I am guessing I need to enable OHCI, rather than UHCI in the kernel.  What else should I be enabling?

My second problem:  The NVidia 2880 kernel and glx drivers install properly, but again, I am having trouble using them in X.  I have done everything in the desktop configuration guide on this website, and I have done a number of searches on Google, NVidia's Linux forums, and many other places, but nothing seems to be working for me.  I have a 64 MB GeForce 3 Ti200 AGP card, in case anyone wants to know.  

All this is running on an MSI 645 Ultra motherboard.  I can get into X and KDE3 just fine, but the mouse never morks.  It is lit up as if it is working, but the cursor just sits there and taunts me.  Can anyone help me?  I am sorta new to Linux, as I have only toyed with beginner distributions such as Red Hat and Mandrake.  The Gentoo Forums have really been impressive as far as the amount of help people are getting.  Please folks, I just got my four wisdom teeth taken out on Friday, and these problems have been killing me all weekend.  If anyone can tell me what exactly to do with my predicaments, I would greatly appreciate it.  

Thanks a lot!

Ryan

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## klieber

 *damageinc wrote:*   

> Number one, I can't quite get my USB Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 to work in X.  USB appears to be working, since the mouse is actually autodetected when you boot from the Gentoo CD, and the mouse's tail light comes on.
> 
> 

 

Here are a few reference sites to help you get started:

Setting up USB support:

http://www.linux-usb.org/USB-guide/book1.html

Mouse configuration:

http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/mini/other-formats/html_single/XFree86-Second-Mouse.html

 *Quote:*   

> My second problem:  The NVidia 2880 kernel and glx drivers install properly, but again, I am having trouble using them in X.  I have done everything in the desktop configuration guide on this website, and I have done a number of searches on Google, NVidia's Linux forums, and many other places, but nothing seems to be working for me.  I have a 64 MB GeForce 3 Ti200 AGP card, in case anyone wants to know.  
> 
> 

 

You never say what's the problem you're having?  What about the nvidia drivers isn't working for you?

 *Quote:*   

> I can get into X and KDE3 just fine, but the mouse never morks. 

 

OK, if you can get into X and KDE3, then I think your nvidia drivers are working just fine.  Regarding your mouse problem, I think solving your USB issue will solve this issue as well.

--kurt

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## damageinc

The nVidia problem I am having is getting X to run with glx enabled, or with changing the default "nv" driver to the "nvidia" one.  If I do either of these thingsm I just get an error saying something about screen1.  (Sorry, I am not at the Linux machine at the moment.)

When I have my driver set to "nv" and glx is disabled, I can get into X.  Sorry for the confusion.

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## klieber

Have you tried the Gentoo nvidia troubleshooting guide?

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/nvidia_tsg.html

If you've tried everything there, can you please post the relevant portions of your XF86Config file so we can take a look at it?

--kurt

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## damageinc

Thanks for the links, man.  I will try those right now and get back to you about it!

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## damageinc

The mouse still isn't working.  I recompiled the kernel to include USB, HID, OHCI (SiS Mobo), Input core, and mouse input core.  They are all built-in, not used as modules.  Here is a sample from my XF86Config file...

Section "InputDevice"

     Identifier  "Mouse0"

     Driver       "mouse"

     Option      "Protocol"   "IMPS/2"

     Option      "Device"     "/dev/input/mice"

     Option      "ZAxisMapping"   "4 5"

EndSection

The serverlayout section has the following...

     InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"

Still no mouse movement, though.  Anyone?  Help!

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## cfrogjump

I had to recompile the kernel and remove input support and add input, mousedev, keyboardev, and uhci as modules. After I did that my usb mouse started working.

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## damageinc

Hmm... thanks cfrogjump, I will try that.

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## Nitro

Have you tried reading: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=79 ?

Might help a little.  I have my Intellimouse Explorer and MS Natural Keyboard both working great in linux.

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## damageinc

Kyle, are both your devices USB?  That document was what I used to originally try to configure my mouse.  Anyway, I'll give it another go.

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## Nitro

Yes, both my devices are USB.  My mouse is plugged in to the 2 port hub on the back of my keyboard.  

```
<*> Input core support 

<*>   Keyboard support

<*>   Mouse support 

  (1024)    Horizontal screen resolution

   (768)    Vertical screen resolution

< >   Joystick support

<M>   Event interface support
```

I choose to compile my stuff in because, if I rmmod it, I will never be able to add it again anyway.  This computer is always used with USB stuff.

If you run dmesg, you will (if it is working) see some stuff about you USB mouse/keyboard mine shows:

```

usb.c: registered new driver hub

uhci.c: USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver v1.1

PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:1f.2

PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 02:0a.0

PCI: Setting latency timer of device 00:1f.2 to 64

uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0xff80, IRQ 11

usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1

hub.c: USB hub found

hub.c: 2 ports detected

PCI: Found IRQ 9 for device 00:1f.4

PCI: Setting latency timer of device 00:1f.4 to 64

uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0xff60, IRQ 9

usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2

hub.c: USB hub found

hub.c: 2 ports detected

usb.c: registered new driver hid

hid-core.c: v1.8 Andreas Gal, Vojtech Pavlik <vojtech@suse.cz>

hid-core.c: USB HID support drivers

---- break --- skipping several lines

hub.c: USB new device connect on bus1/2, assigned device number 2

hub.c: USB hub found

hub.c: 4 ports detected

hub.c: USB new device connect on bus1/2/1, assigned device number 3

input0: USB HID v1.10 Keyboard [045e:001d] on usb1:3.0

input1: USB HID v1.10 Pointer [045e:001d] on usb1:3.1

hub.c: USB new device connect on bus1/2/3, assigned device number 4

input2: USB HID v1.00 Mouse [Microsoft Microsoft IntelliMouse&#65533; Explorer] on usb1:4.0

```

Maybe some excerpts from my .config will help:

```

#

# Input core support

#

CONFIG_INPUT=y

CONFIG_INPUT_KEYBDEV=y

CONFIG_INPUT_MOUSEDEV=y

CONFIG_INPUT_MOUSEDEV_SCREEN_X=1024

CONFIG_INPUT_MOUSEDEV_SCREEN_Y=768

# CONFIG_INPUT_JOYDEV is not set

CONFIG_INPUT_EVDEV=m

#

# Mice

#

# CONFIG_BUSMOUSE is not set

CONFIG_MOUSE=y

CONFIG_PSMOUSE=y

# CONFIG_82C710_MOUSE is not set

# CONFIG_PC110_PAD is not set

#

# USB support

#

CONFIG_USB=y

# CONFIG_USB_DEBUG is not set

# CONFIG_USB_DEVICEFS is not set

# CONFIG_USB_BANDWIDTH is not set

# CONFIG_USB_LONG_TIMEOUT is not set

# CONFIG_USB_EHCI_HCD is not set

CONFIG_USB_UHCI_ALT=y

# CONFIG_USB_OHCI is not set

# CONFIG_USB_AUDIO is not set

# CONFIG_USB_BLUETOOTH is not set

# CONFIG_USB_STORAGE is not set

# CONFIG_USB_STORAGE_DEBUG is not set

# CONFIG_USB_STORAGE_DATAFAB is not set

# CONFIG_USB_STORAGE_FREECOM is not set

# CONFIG_USB_STORAGE_ISD200 is not set

# CONFIG_USB_STORAGE_DPCM is not set

# CONFIG_USB_STORAGE_HP8200e is not set

# CONFIG_USB_STORAGE_SDDR09 is not set

# CONFIG_USB_STORAGE_JUMPSHOT is not set

# CONFIG_USB_ACM is not set

# CONFIG_USB_PRINTER is not set

CONFIG_USB_HID=y

# CONFIG_USB_HIDDEV is not set

# CONFIG_USB_WACOM is not set

# CONFIG_USB_DC2XX is not set

# CONFIG_USB_MDC800 is not set

# CONFIG_USB_SCANNER is not set

# CONFIG_USB_MICROTEK is not set

# CONFIG_USB_HPUSBSCSI is not set

# CONFIG_USB_IBMCAM is not set

# CONFIG_USB_OV511 is not set

# CONFIG_USB_PWC is not set

# CONFIG_USB_SE401 is not set

# CONFIG_USB_STV680 is not set

# CONFIG_USB_VICAM is not set

# CONFIG_USB_DSBR is not set

# CONFIG_USB_DABUSB is not set

# CONFIG_USB_PEGASUS is not set

# CONFIG_USB_KAWETH is not set

# CONFIG_USB_CATC is not set

# CONFIG_USB_CDCETHER is not set

# CONFIG_USB_USBNET is not set

# CONFIG_USB_USS720 is not set

```

See if that helps get you anywhere, if not, tell us what you found and we can work from there.  To test your mouse run 'cat /dev/input/mouse0' and move your mouse.  It should just dump a bunch of wierd letters on the screen.  If nothing happens, or it crashes (ahh!), looks like we will have to look somewhere else.

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## damageinc

Kyel, thanks for all that input.  I tried recompiling the kernel last night with everything as modules instead of built-in.  Then, of course, I loaded all the modules, and the mouse works!  Why it wouldn't operate when built into the kernel is beyond me.  Anyway, thanks to everyone that's helped!

However, the NVidia driver problem is still baffling me.  I will work on it some more today, as my teeth still hurt.     :Embarassed: 

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## lk42pro

i have almost the same exact config as you except i have athlon 1600+...it took me like 3 or 4 days to figure out how to get my usb intellimouse explorer to work under debian...i had it to work under builit kernel support too..not as modeles...most everything i learned from www.linux-usb.org. it tells u what to enable in the kernel etc...yes its frustrating to get the usb intellimouse explorer to work in  debian as well....i hope gentoo devs will see to it and get it to work in the default distro

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## klieber

 *lk42pro wrote:*   

> i hope gentoo devs will see to it and get it to work in the default distro

 

Well, it requires a specially-configured kernel, so you'll always have to muck around with it at least somewhat.

That said, it would be nice if Gentoo had a fancy auto-X configuration like RedHat & Mandrake do.  Maybe you should post a suggestion to bugs.gentoo.org?

--kurt

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## Nedo

I have configured my kernel acording to nitros sugestions but I still can't get the usb mouse to work and I don't get as far as beeing able to read from the device the kernel doesn't even start up. Compiling with uhci as a module and having the mouse plugged into the usb port makes me able to puch about 20 enters before the computer dies if I don't have the mouse plugged in I can get my Creative cam to work. But as fast as I plug the mouse in the computer stops.

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## Nedo

I have configured my kernel acording to nitros sugestions but I still can't get the usb mouse to work and I don't get as far as beeing able to read from the device the kernel doesn't even start up. Compiling with uhci as a module and having the mouse plugged into the usb port makes me able to puch about 20 enters before the computer dies if I don't have the mouse plugged in I can get my Creative cam to work. But as fast as I plug the mouse in the computer stops.

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## mb

@damageinc

just a long shot:

have you re-emerged the nvidia-kernel after updating vour kernel modules ???

a make modules_install will imho delete the NVDriver.o

#mb

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## mb

@ Nedo

is USB verbose debug messages enabled ??? if not check it and watch your logs...

#mb

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## Nedo

No I don't use nvidia kernel and the usb logging doesn't give me much atleast nothing that I saw I recompiled the kernel with mounting the devfs before the init script and then it accepts it and continues when I don't have the mouse plugged into ( the back of the keyboard ) I moved the mouse so that it's in the back of the computer and then it works to have it in while your using the computer. But I can't read from /dev/input/mice then it dies

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## Nedo

btw I'm not the one at the start that had the problem just that I had about the same problems I thought and this was the most extensive post about it

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## BradN

Just so you know, I think you need to use the nvidia kernel module if you want glx to work (using nvidia's driver at least).

I have a question... is there a way to get glx support on an nvidia card without using nvidia's drivers?  I'm not a huge fan of their drivers because it's more difficult to get it to run at 1152x864 on my monitor (using X's driver it works fine, but with nvidia's, there's some nice rolling waves through the screen).

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