Optical mouse under LINUX?

[Bluga]

does it work under linux?

 

[BOFH]

Why not? Its ps2/usb right?

 

[ddiccico]

yeah, they work.

 

[MGMorden]

My logitech optical wheel works fine in linux (in PS/2 or USB mode). Just in case ya'll were wondering it works under BeOS fine too, though much better in PS/2 than it does in USB.

 

[Hawken]

Yep. My Microsoft IntelliMouse Optical works just fine with my Linux using USB
M$ does make some decent stuff after all

 

[20_MuleTeam_Borax]

Yep, I'm using a logitech optical mouse as we speak.

 

[jsbush]

My Microsoft Intellimouse explorer works just fine even if pluged into the USB under linux redhat 7.0

 

[lemarr]

I am new too Linux and just installed Linux Mandrake. How do you get the Microsoft Optical mouse to work?

 

[MGMorden]

If it's PS/2 then just configure it like a regular PS/2 intellimouse. If it's USB-only (or if that's the only way you want to use it), then um, well, I don't feel like explaining it . . . but I guess I'll try. Make sure your kernel has USB HID support and mouse support. You'll then need to create a new node under /dev/ (check out docs on how to do this) for the mouse and then edit you XF86Config file to point to that device, or you could create a symlink from /dev/psaux (or /dev/mouse) to the new USB-mouse node.

 

[grendelkhan]

MS Intellimouse Explorer works just fine and dandy in Mandrake 7.2, just need to make sure that you DON'T let kudzu run during startup, it proceeds to trash everything that Mandrake's installer worked so hard to set up (like my USB mouse, CD-R, etc.)

 

[kw3i]

yea mine works fine

 

[Escalade]

I've been wondering about this too

Do you actually have access to all the Intellimouse buttons/scroll wheel in linux? Can you configure and change the associate functions on them like under Windows?

TIA

 

[MGMorden]

You'll have acess to the scrool wheel (requires a bit of tweaking) but I'm not sure about the extra buttons though.

 

[Escalade]

Okay.

So now we're getting somewhere

It works fine as a basic mouse (i.e. left-click, right-click), but you don't have access to the 'thumb' buttons, and you have to 'tweak it' to get the scroll wheel to work... guess you don't have the push-button on the scroll wheel either.

Guess I'll stay with a mouse that has BALLS

 

[MGMorden]

The fact that it's optical has nothing to do with having to tweak it. You have to tweak your XF86Config for ANY wheel mouse to get wheel support (ball or optical). These optical mice just use the standard Intellimouse protocol. Under normal circumstances the OS (be it Linux or Windows) doesn't even know you've got an optical mouse. You also get that wheel button too.

And the only thing the tweak consists of is adding the following lines under the pointers section in XF86config:

Option "Buttons" "5"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"

 

[MGMorden]

2x post

 

[Damaged]

Uhh, well those and:

Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"

 

[MGMorden]

That too but those of who have done this before already selected PS/2 Intellimouse from xf86config's menus.

 

[ArkAoss]

yeah, beos recognized my usb lazer, without a hiccup, but not the scroll of it or its ps2 balled brethren. also Now that i've got my router up, I'm begining to see beos. weakness of not being able to network, Wish i could simultaneosly run 2 os's and be able to shift between them, on one machine.

 

[Damaged]

Well hopefully that's what it put in there. I'm not a big fan of xf86config, especially for newbies using XFree86 V.4. I prefer xf86cfg --text. Nice little curses interface and works like a charm. I haven't been successful in getting that little utility to work in the graphical mode at all, so that's why I suggest the --text switch on that one.