The Linux Busmouse HOWTO
Chris Bagwell, cbagwell@sprynet.com
v2.0, 14 Feb 2000
This document describes how to install, configure and use a busmouse
under Linux. It lists the supported busmice and attempts to answer
the most frequently asked questions with regards to busmice. It also
contains some pointers for serial mice as well.
______________________________________________________________________
Table of Contents
1. Introduction.
1.1 Copyright and Disclaimer.
1.2 Feedback.
1.3 Acknowledgements.
2. Determining your mouse type.
2.1 Hardware interfaces.
2.1.1 Inport mice.
2.1.2 Logitech mice.
2.1.3 PS/2 mice.
2.1.4 ATI combo video/mice.
2.1.5 IBM PC110 palmtop digitizer.
2.1.6 Apple Desktop Mouse
2.1.7 Hybrid Mice
2.2 Mouse protocols.
3. Getting your mouse working.
3.1 Setting the mouse interrupt.
3.1.1 Common IRQ usage. In most cases IRQ4 is used for the first serial port (
3.1.2 Inport and Logitech mice.
3.1.3 ATI-XL mice.
3.1.4 PS/2 mice.
3.2 Configuring the kernel.
3.2.1 Compiling the kernel.
3.2.2 Changing interrupts with newer kernels.
3.3 The mouse devices.
4. Using your mouse.
4.1 Configuring Applications
4.1.1 Redhat
4.1.2 Other configurations
4.2 gpm.
4.3 XFree86.
4.4 XFree86 and gpm.
5. Still can't get your mouse going?
5.1 Other resources
5.1.1 3-Button Mouse HOWTO.
5.1.2 Laptop-HOWTO.
5.1.3 Wacom Tablet HOWTO The
______________________________________________________________________
1. Introduction.
This document is a guide to getting your busmouse working with Linux.
With the more advanced distributions available today setting up your
busmouse is generally easy but when you do run into problems this
document will help give you a better understanding of how to manually
setup your busmouse hardware and software.
Busmouse support has been in the kernel for as long as I can remember,
and hasn't changed much in a long time, so this document should be
relevant to any version of Linux you're likely to have.
1.1. Copyright and Disclaimer.
This document is Copyright (c) 2000 by Chris Bagwell. This document
may be distributed under the terms set forth in the Linux
Documentation Project License at http://linuxdoc.org/copyright.html.
Please contact the author if you are unable to get the license.
The author disclaims all warranties with regard to this document,
including all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a
certain purpose; in no event shall the author be liable for any
special, indirect or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever
resulting from loss of use, data or profits, whether in an action of
contract, negligence or other tortious action, arising out of or in
connection with the use of this document.
1.2. Feedback.
If you find any mistakes in this document, have any comments about its
contents or an update or addition, send them to me at the address
listed at the top of this howto.
1.3. Acknowledgements.
This howto has been, in the spirit of Linux, a community effort.
Thanks goes out to Mike Battersby, mib@post.com as he started this
FAQ. Any errors are most likely added by me.
Many thanks go to Johan Myreen for the sections on the PS/2 mice,
Robert T. Harris for help on the ATI-XL sections and Reuben Sumner for
miscellaneous info and constructive criticism.
Thanks also to the multitudes of people who have sent me mouse
information, fixes or words of encouragement.
2. Determining your mouse type.
There are two separate but important characteristics you will need to
know about your mouse before you go on: what hardware interface it
uses and what mouse protocol it uses.
The hardware interface is the hardware aspect of the mouse, taking
into account things like which i/o ports it uses and how to check if
it is installed. This is the part which the kernel is concerned with
so that it knows how to read data from the mouse. For serial mice
users, this part of the story is easy since their interface is always
the serial port device drivers.
The mouse protocol is the software aspect of the mouse. Applications
need to know the protocol to interpret the raw mouse data they receive
from the kernel device driver.
2.1. Hardware interfaces.
The Linux kernel up to the 2.2 series supports four different kinds of
busmouse hardware interface : Inport (Microsoft), Logitech, PS/2 and
ATI-XL.
The 2.4 series of kernel also includes support for several new busmice
including an IBM PC110 digitizer pad and Apple Desktop mouse. It also
contains drivers for USB mice which are sometimes discussed with
busmice since they fall outside the more common serial driver
interface.
There is no sure-fire way of determining your hardware interface. For
those that have Windows 9x install, it sometimes helps to go to the
Systems screen under the control panel and look for devices
controlling your mouse. This screen will often tell you the interface
type and what I/O ports and interrupts this hardware uses.
2.1.1. Inport mice.
Inport mice include most of the old style Microsoft mice which are
shaped like a bar of dove soap. Inport mice generally connect to an
interface card which plugs into the bus on your motherboard. If the
plug which connects your mouse cord to the interface card is round,
has 9 pins, and a notch in one side you likely have an Inport mouse.
ATI currently claims that all ATI VGA + Busmouse combo cards used the
Microsoft Inport hardware and thus owners of these cards should first
attempt using the Microsoft Busmouse driver.
The ATI-XL VGA+Busmouse card technically is compatible with the
Microsoft Inport mouse driver but has slightly different provisioning
for interrupts and therefore has a specific driver for it. Avoid this
driver if possible since its not supported very well.
2.1.2. Logitech mice.
Logitech mice in general appear almost exactly the same as Inport
mice. They too connect to an interface card via a 9 pin mini-din
connector. Hopefully, it will have come in a Logitech box or have
``Logitech'' printed on the connector card so that you can tell it
actually is a Logitech mouse.
2.1.3. PS/2 mice.
The PS/2 mouse interface is not on an expansion card, the mouse is
connected to the PS/2 port on the keyboard controller. This is
sometimes located on the keyboard or more often as a extra port
somehow connected directly to the computer case.
A PS/2 port uses a 6-pin mini DIN connector, similar to the keyboard
connector. Many laptops also use this kind of interface to their
trackballs or touchpads; in this case the mouse is internally
connected to the PS/2 port and needs no connector.
2.1.4. ATI combo video/mice.
ATI-XL mice are a variant of Inport mice, with some slight differences
in interrupt setup. They come on the ATI-XL combined video
adaptor/mouse card. Unless you know you have an ATI-XL card (and thus
an ATI-XL mouse), you probably don't have one of these. It is possible
for ATI-XL mice to use either the ATI-XL or Inport kernel drivers,
although the ATI-XL driver should give better results.
There is also an older ATI video adaptor/mouse card called either ATI
VGA1024 or ATI VGA Wonder. These cards are setup the same as the ATI-
XL but use the Logitech mouse protocol. For these mice the hardware
drivers are setup the same as for the ATI-XL but you setup the
software the same as the Logitech mice.
2.1.5. IBM PC110 palmtop digitizer.
The IBM PC110 palmtop contains a digitizer pad that can be used to
emulate a mouse using the PS/2 mouse protocol. In this case, you set
up the hardware interface using the IBM PC110 device driver and setup
software as you would a PS/2 mouse.
2.1.6. Apple Desktop Mouse
This bus mouse is common on Macintoshes and uses a 4 pin connector.
The hardware is controled by the kernel but application software will
need to be aware of its unique mouse protocol. I am currently unaware
of what protocols this mouse uses.
2.1.7. Hybrid Mice
The period of time that busmouse were popular, the hardware companies
were experementing alot and cross-licensing each others designs.
Therefore, you could have a ATI mouse that uses the Logitech hardware
interface or a Logitech that uses the Inport interface. If you know
you have a busmouse but can't get it working with the standard
interface/protocol setups, try experementing by using different
interface device drivers with different mouse protocols.
2.2. Mouse protocols.
The PC world is full of different and conflicting mouse protocols.
Fortunately, the choice for bus mice is considerable smaller than that
for serial mice. Most Inport, Logitech and ATI-XL mice use the
``BusMouse'' protocol, although there are some ancient Logitech mice
which use the ``MouseSystems'' protocol, and some even older Microsoft
mice which use the ''Logitech'' protocol. PS/2 mice will always use
the ``PS/2'' protocol.
3. Getting your mouse working.
Once you have figured out your mouse interface and protocol types,
you're ready to proceed.
3.1. Setting the mouse interrupt.
Now that you've found out what hardware interface your mouse uses
you'll need to know which interrupt number your mouse is using, and
make sure it doesn't conflict with any other peripherals you have
installed. That last part deserves to be repeated! Make sure that it
does not conflict with any other peripherals you have installed!
You should make sure that your mouse is not trying to use the same
interrupt as any of your other devices --- it is not possible for the
mouse to share an interrupt under Linux, even though it may work fine
under other operating systems. Check the documentation for all your
peripherals to see which interrupt they use.
Under Linux, busmice don't register which IRQ they are using until
after they have been opened by an application that makes use of them.
Plug-n-Play hardware often registers their interrupts during bootup.
This creates a possibility for a Plug-n-Play peice of hardware to
steal the IRQ away from your mouse. Bear in mind that other operating
systems may be initialzing the P-n-P cards to an IRQ that is not in
conflict with your busmouse but things may not work out as nicely
under Linux. It is up to you to make sure there are no IRQ conflicts
between all of your equipment.
3.1.1. In most cases IRQ4 is used for the first serial port (
/dev/ttyS0 ), IRQ3 for the second ( /dev/ttyS1 ) (these are assuming
you actually have such devices --- if you don't you can happily use
their IRQ's), IRQ5 for some SCSI adaptors, and IRQ12 for some network
cards. Having a other card use IRQ12 is a big problem for machines
with PS/2 ports as you are forced to use IRQ12 only for the PS/2 port.
For ATI-XL, Inport and Logitech mice the kernel default is to use
IRQ5, so if you are stuck with a pre-compiled kernel (eg, CD-ROM
users) you will have to use that. If you are using an Inport or Log-
itech mice with a newer kernel you may be able to pass a command line
option to the kernel to tell it what interrupt to use without recom-
piling. Common IRQ usage.
3.1.2. Inport and Logitech mice.
If you open up your computer's case and look at the card which your
mouse plugs into, you should notice a block of jumpers on the card
(hopefully labeled ``INTERRUPT'') with positions for interrupt
(otherwise known as IRQ) numbers 2,3,4 and 5. To change the interrupt
simply move the jumper from its current position onto the correct pair
of pins.
*** MAKE SURE YOUR COMPUTER IS TURNED OFF ***
*** BEFORE CHANGING THE JUMPERS AROUND!! ***
3.1.3. ATI-XL mice.
ATI-XL and a few other ATI busmice have a software selectable IRQ -
you should have received with your mouse a MS-DOS program (VSETUP.EXE)
to set the IRQ. In order to do so you must (temporarily) boot MS-DOS
and run this program. Note that the VSETUP program takes an optional
parameter ``/70'' to increase the vertical refresh rate (which results
in less flicker). The VSETUP program also allows you to select either
the primary or secondary mouse address - you should set this to the
primary address or the kernel will not be able to detect your mouse.
Once VSETUP has been run you must perform a hard reset for the new
configuration to take effect.
3.1.4. PS/2 mice.
The PS/2 mouse always uses IRQ12 -- there is no way of changing this
(except with a soldering gun.) In the rare case that some other
device is using IRQ12, you'll have to rejumper that peripheral to use
another IRQ number.
3.2. Configuring the kernel.
In order for your busmouse to operate correctly you will need to
configure your kernel to compile in busmouse support. If you are
using a pre-compiled kernel then it often comes with support for all
three busmouse included. This may still not be enough. The kernel
could be trying to use the wrong interrupt or the detection can get
confused and treat your mouse as the wrong type.
In pre-2.4 series kernel there is no support for auto-detection of the
IRQ that a busmouse is using. Therefore, if your card is set to
anything but the kernel default value of IRQ 5 then you will need to
let the kernel know what IRQ to use instead. This can be done in one
of two ways. The easiest is to pass command line options to the
kernel during the bootup process. Please read thru the "Compiling the
kernel" section for reference but attempt the directions in "Changing
interrupts with newer kernels" first. Also of great help in this area
is the Bootprompt-HOWTO, avaliable at most sites that carry this
HOWTO.
3.2.1. Compiling the kernel.
Change to your kernel directory (here assumed to be (/usr/src/linux)
and do a
make config
If you are unsure as to your mouse type, the first time you recompile
the kernel you may wish to enable all of the busmouse options in the
hope that the kernel will autodetect your mouse properly. People have
mixed success with this: it doesn't always work, but on the other hand
it might save you any further compiles.
Answer ``y'' or ''m'' to the question pertaining to your type of
busmouse interface and ``n'' to all the other busmouse questions. Use
the ''m'' option if you have your system setup to support loading
kernel modules if you do not or do not know what that means then it
will be safe to always answer ''y'' to have the support directly
compiled into your kernel.
As an example, if you have an Inport mouse you should answer ``y'' to
Microsoft busmouse support
and ``n'' to all other busmouse questions. Answer the non-mouse
related questions as you usually would.
To compile the kernel with PS/2 mouse support answer ``y'' to the
question.
PS/2 mouse (aka "auxiliary device") support
The PS/2 mouse driver actually supports two kinds of devices: the
standard PS/2 Auxiliary Device controller and a special PS/2 mouse
interface chip from Chips & Technologies which is used in the Texas
Instruments Travelmate and Gateway Nomad laptops. To compile in
support for the trackballs on these computers, answer ``y'' to the
C&T 82C710 mouse port support (as on TI Travelmate)
question. Note that you will still have to answer ``y'' to the
question about the standard PS/2 driver to even get a chance to answer
this question, since the 82C710 driver is actually an add-on to the
standard PS/2 mouse driver.
When configured both for a standard PS/2 mouse device and the 82C710
device, the driver first tries to locate a 82C710 chip at boot time.
Failing this, the standard driver is used instead, so using a kernel
configured for both types of interface on a machine with a standard
PS/2 mouse port should work too. However, there has been one report
of a falsely detected 82C710 chip, so to be on the safe side do not
configure in support for the 82C710 if you don't need it.
You will now need to tell the kernel what interrupt your mouse uses.
You can skip this step if your using a PS/2 mouse as it always uses
IRQ 12.
If you have a Logitech, Inport mouse, or an ATI mouse that uses the
Logitech protocol, edit the file
/usr/src/linux/include/linux/busmouse.h and change the line which says
#define MOUSE_IRQ 5
to reflect the interrupt number for your mouse (see the section
``Setting the mouse interrupt'' for details on finding your interrupt
number).
If you have an ATI-XL mouse, edit the file
/usr/src/linux/drivers/char/atixlmouse.c and change the line which
says
#define ATIXL_MOUSE_IRQ 5
to reflect your mouse's interrupt number.
Due to the vagaries of the PC architecture, if you have set your mouse
to use interrupt 2, you must set the #define to use interrupt 9.
Examples
For a mouse on interrupt 3, you should change the line to read
#define MOUSE_IRQ 3
For a mouse on interrupt 2, you should change the line to read
#define MOUSE_IRQ 9
Next, compile your kernel as per the instructions which come with it,
and boot from the new kernel. You should now have the busmouse
support correctly compiled in.
3.2.2. Changing interrupts with newer kernels.
The steps to compile into the kernel what interrupt it uses works with
any version of the kernel to date. Newer kernels (starting somewhere
in the 2.x.x's) allow you to pass arguments to the kernel during load
time using something like LILO or LOADLIN to specify the interrupt
number for Logitech and Microsoft Inport mice. This can be a real time
saver as you do not need to recompiler your kernel (or know how to).
If you've configured your kernel to load the mouse drivers as modules
then you will need to pass this information when loading the module.
You can add the following options to your boot line in LILO to change
interrupt:
bmouse=3 (Logitech Busmice)
msmouse=3 (for Microsoft Inport mice)
Substitute the 3 with your mouse's actual interrupt. An example of
using this with lilo is:
LILO:linux msmouse=3
You can consult your LILO or LOADLIN docs to see how to add this type
information to their configuration files so that you do not need to
type it.
If your system uses kerneld to auto load modules, you can edit your
/etc/conf.modules or /etc/modules.conf file, which ever your system
uses, and add one of the following lines.
options msbusmouse mouse_irq=3
options busmouse mouse_irq=3
3.3. The mouse devices.
Mice under Linux are accessed via the devices in the /dev directory.
The following table gives a list of interface types and which device
you should use.
INTERFACE DEVICE MAJOR MINOR
---------------------------------------------
Logitech /dev/logibm 10 0
PS/2 /dev/psaux 10 1
Inport /dev/inportbm 10 2
ATI-XL /dev/atibm 10 3
Note: If you are using your ATI-XL mouse with the Inport driver, you
should use the inportbm device, not the /dev/atibm device.
The major and minor entries are the device numbers for that particular
device.
If you find that you do not have these devices, you should create them
first. To do so, execute the following as root.
mknod /dev/logimm c 10 0
mknod /dev/psaux c 10 1
mknod /dev/inportbm c 10 2
mknod /dev/atibm c 10 3
Note: Some time in the (progressively less) recent history of Linux
the names for the busmouse devices have changed. The following device
names have been superceded by those above and should be removed:
bmousems, bmouseps2, bmouseatixl, and bmouselogitech..
Many people like to create a symbolic link from their mouse device to
/dev/mouse so that they don't have to remember which device they need
to be using. If you have one of the current Linux distributions you
will almost certainly find that you have such a link. If you have
such a link, or create one, you should make sure that it is pointing
to the correct device for your mouse.
4. Using your mouse.
This section deals with the general use of your mouse with various
applications.
4.1. Configuring Applications
Most Linux Distributions will prompt you for what type of mouse you
have during installation and then setup both gpm and X windows for
you. If you do not select the correct mouse protocol or install new
mouse hardware you can usually run a command line program that will
reconfigure both gpm and X windows to use the new protocol.
4.1.1. Redhat
Under RedHat you can run /usr/sbin/mouseconfig.
4.1.2. Other configurations
Consult your installation documents for what to run under other
distributions.
4.2. gpm.
Gpm is a program which allows you to do mouse based 'cut- and-paste'
between Linux virtual consoles, much like you can under X, and is a
good way of testing your mouse out. The most current version of gpm
can be found at ftp://ftp.prosa.it/pub/gpm. Most Linux distributions
come with a precompiled gpm binary.
When invoking gpm, use the -t switch to indicate which protocol your
mouse is using and the -m option to indicate which mouse device you
are using. Three protocols useful for most busmice are logi, bm, and
ps2. The default for mouse device is to use /dev/mouse, so you can
omit the -m option if you have the appropriate symbolic link. An
example for a Microsoft Inport mouse is:
gpm -t bm
or if you use the PS/2 protocol:
gpm -t ps2
You should then be able move your mouse and see a block move around
the screen and also be able to cut and paste text between virtual
consoles using the mouse buttons. Read the documentation with gpm, or
do a ``man gpm'' for more information on how to operate it.
4.3. XFree86.
To use your busmouse under XFree86, you will need to set your mouse
protocol type in your Xconfig file. If you have a BusMouse protocol
mouse, your Xconfig should contain (including the quotes)
Section "Pointer"
Protocol "Busmouse"
Device "/dev/mouse"
# Any other options such as Emulate3Buttons
EndSection
For PS/2 mice change the protocol line to:
Protocol "PS/2"
If you have a two button mouse, it should also contain the line
Emulate3Buttons
which will allow you to emulate the use of the middle mouse button by
pressing both mouse buttons simultaneously. All other mouse related
lines, such as ``BaudRate'' and ``SampleRate'' should be commented
out, as these have no effect on bus mice.
4.4. XFree86 and gpm.
For a long period of the kernel developement, it was not possible to
share busmice between processes. Because of this it was hard to run
both XFree86 and gpm at the same time. If you try to run X with gpm
running and you get errors like the following then you know you are
using one of these older kernels.
Fatal server error:
Cannot open mouse (Device or resource busy)
There are two meathods of getting gpm working with XFree86 with these
kernels. The first is to kill any copy of gpm you have running before
you start up XFree86. The second is to use gpm's "repeater" option
(it takes mouse data and repeats the information to multiple
applications).
I would recommend upgrading your kernel if possible so that you can
share busmice between processes. For this document, I will only
explain the simplest meathod of using XFree86 and gpm together with
older kernels. Please see gpm's documentation if you would like to
use the repeater meathod.
Gpm allows you to terminate running copies of itself by executing:
gpm -k
This should be done before starting up X11. Take whatever script you
use to start up your X session, such as startx, and add the above
command to the top of the script so that gpm is shut down
automatically. You may wish to also put a command that restarts gpm
at the bottom of the script so that it restarts upon exiting your X
session.
5. Still can't get your mouse going?
So you've read through this howto a dozen times, done everything
exactly as you think you should have, and your mouse still doesn't
work? The best advice I can give you is this: experiment. Sure, it's
a pain in the posterior, but in the end the only way to find out what
is going to work with your mouse is to try all of the alternatives
until you have success.
As always, if there is something you don't understand, try reading the
manual page first and see if that helps. If you have a specific
question, or a problem you think I might be able to help with, feel
free to contact me at the address listed at the top of this howto, and
I'll see if I can help you out or point you to someone who can.
The comp.os.linux.setup newsgroup or comp.os.linux.hardware is the
appropriate forum for discussion and/or questions regarding setup ---
please don't post questions to other groups, and especially don't
crosspost questions to two or more of the Linux groups, they are more
than cluttered enough as it is! When posting, you will get a much
better response (and much fewer flames) if you use appropriate
Subject: and Keywords: lines. For example:
Subject: BUSMICE - Gateway 2000 mouse wont work.
Keywords: mouse busmouse gateway
5.1. Other resources
The following are useful resources for information regarding Linux and
Mice.
5.1.1. 3-Button Mouse HOWTO.
The 3-Button Mouse HOWTO is of great use if you have a combination
3-Button Serial/PS2 mouse. It gives pointers on how to get the middle
button working.
5.1.2. Laptop-HOWTO.
The Linux Laptop-HOWTO gives pointers on getting external mice working
along with your built in mouse.
5.1.3. TheWacom Tablet HOWTO gives pointers on using the Wacom Tabel
as a mouse. Wacom Tablet HOWTO