[Pkg-gpm-devel] Bug#307638: gpm: upgrading from 1.19.6-12 to 1.19.6-19 mouse doesn't work in X

[Peter Samuelson]

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Thanks for the quick response.

[Eric Van Buggenhaut]
>     Option "Protocol"   "auto"
>     Option "ZAxisMapping"   "4 5"
>     Option "Device"     "/dev/psaux"

Aha.

Your configuration is difficult to support properly, and probably
results in a short delay when switching between X and console, since
doing so involves reinitialising the mouse.  That's because, with both
gpm and X having direct control of the mouse, they defensively have to
make sure the mouse is in a known state, every time.  This approach
does work, modulo bugs in XFree86 or gpm; I've just never been
comfortable with it.


> > The other thing to check, if possible - did gpm 1.19.6-19 pick up your
> > /etc/gpm.conf settings and write them back correctly?=20
>=20
> No, it didn't. More specifically, it added 2 lines:
>=20
> repeat_type=3Dms3
> append=3D''

Yeah, repeat_type is the culprit.  The upgrade noticed that it was not
set, so it used the default.  In your case you're relying on gpm's
behavior when the repeater is disabled.

Fix / workaround:

  repeat_type=3Dnone

You can either edit gpm.conf directly, or via 'dpkg-reconfigure gpm'.
Please let us know whether this fixes your problem.  (repeat_type=3D''
would work too, but that would cause the same problem on the next
upgrade, until we figure out the right way to handle this case.)

Incidentally, the other workaround is to boot any kernel 2.6, whose
input layer prevents this type of problem from occurring in the first
place, by virtualising /dev/psaux entirely.  If you do that, you'll
need to ensure that the 'mousedev' and 'psmouse' kernel modules get
loaded.

Thanks again,
Peter

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