[vox-tech] Pointer Trouble with Touchpad

[Peter Jay Salzman]

begin ME <dugan@passwall.com> 
> On Fri, 28 Jun 2002, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:
> > someone (mike simons?  mike egan?) gave explicit instructions on how to
> > set up a mouse on linux.  you may want to go back to the archives to
> > check it out.
> 
> Mike Simons did it! (pointing finger of blame for such a good description
> gpd and X with mouse config ;-)
> 
> > a rough overview is:
> > 
> >    gpm reads /dev/psaux
> >    gpm repeats on /dev/gpmdata
> >    X reads /dev/gpmdata (not /dev/psaux)
> > 
> > again, the issue is two processes reading the mouse device file will
> > interfere with each other.
> > 
> > this setup is not always necessary.  but what you just described is a
> > classic symptom of this.
> 
> Not using the gpmdata (when also using X) can lead to the exact problem
> you describe.
> 
> Using gpmdata (in present gpm AFAIK) leads to loss of being able to use
> the mouse wheel (even with gpd using RAW for repeat passing) while using
> "X".
> 
> There is a patch to gpm (dont recall where) and instructions on how to get
> mouse wheel events passed to X with gdp. However, not all applications
> support the mousewheel. (I noticed your Z-axis mapping which is why I
> mention this.) You can configure the event to act as another key or
> selection (a friend of mine set his up to have the mouse wheel depression
> act as the middle mouse button.)

mike, what's gpd?  normally i'd say it was a typo, but "d" and "m" are
pretty far away from each other.   :)

gpm doesn't need a patch to capture wheel events.  (so maybe gpd wasn't
a typo?)   :)

what IS necessary is instructions on how to send wheel events to (mostly
older) applications that don't look for wheel events.  for instance, if
you use old netscape.  there's a site that collects snippets of code to
paste into your .Xdefaults that give hints to older apps on how to use
the events.   the dude who maintains the site is something like "nicols
colas".   a search on +wheel +mouse +linux +colas should turn his site
up.

pete