[vox-tech] Multiple Mice in X

[Ken Bloom]

On Mon, 4 Oct 2004 11:21:54 -0400
p at dirac.org (Peter Jay Salzman) wrote:

> On Mon 04 Oct 04,  8:13 AM, Hans W. Uhlig <deathguard at yahoo.com> said:
> > Ok Ive got a laptop with bad mice and I need to be
> > able to swap out to an external usb mouse. X doesent
> > want to see it without me booting with it in
> 
> this can't be correct.  X will work perfectly even with no mouse.
> 
> the key is what you specify here:
> 
> 
> Section "ServerLayout"
>    Identifier  "Default Layout"
>    Screen      "Default Screen"
>    InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
>    InputDevice "Generic Mouse"
> EndSection
> 
> 
> if you simply want to ignore the built in mouse, don't make reference
> to it. in your "generic mouse" inputdevice entry (or whatever you call
> it) make reference to /dev/input/mice (or whatever it is on your
> system) instead of/dev/psaux (or whatever it is on your system)
> 
> 
> > and then
> > the internal mouse go haywire(They still work on
> > occasion but they are dyeing.)
> 
> sounds like what happens when two applications read from the same
> device file.
> 
> > how can I turn off one
> > mouse and turn on another in X. Ive been looking but I
> > cant seem to find it and xsetmouse doesent seem to
> > have any function other then listing my config file.
>  
> as mentioned before, remove all reference to /dev/psaux in you
> XF86Config, and just have one inputdevice entry using driver "mouse"
> and  device"/dev/input/mice".

Isn't the kernel going to pick up from the PS/2 mouse data and put that
on /dev/input/mice as well? That's how my XFree is configured. (Kernel
2.6.7 with psmouse compiled in.) If the hardware is dying and sending
spurious events, then wouldn't /dev/input/mice get those spurious events
too?

Perhaps working with /dev/input/mouse0 or /dev/input/mouse1 will let you
select only useful mice? But I really haven't got a clue, so if someone
can explain my confusion I would appreciate it.

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