No USB mouse in Knoppix Operator, kernel 2.4

[John4720]

I am using this OS to do network security testing at home.

I have installed the OS as a dual boot with Win XP pro.

I boot it up and the mouse does not work.

Please can someone tell me what the xf86config-4 file should look like.

And if there are any other methods to solve this problem.


I tried using cat /dev/psaux and moving the mouse - this worked.

Thanks

[bigtomrodney]

Whoa! If you're using Kernel 2.4 and XF86Config-4 I can tell you're using an old release, probably back to 2004?

Can you post the contents of your /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 here?

If at all possible though you might consider running a newer distro. Mouse drivers back then were very specific, serial, PS2, USB etc. Nowadays almost all mice are handled by a single driver and rarely require intervention.

[John4720]

Cheers for the reply.

Can I ask which parts of the file as I will have to type this out lol, I cannot even mount usb pen drives at the moment to get it over to my desktop which is on the internet lol.

I need to use this kernel for my network card.

[bigtomrodney]

Is there a section for Input or Mouse? Just the couple of lines starting there up as far as the closing [Endsection] for that part.

Unfortunately you're back using the old stuff where a lot was manual (why I'd suggest a newer release if possible). If you open a terminal directly after inserting your usb pen drive you can run these commands as root

dmesg
mkdir /mnt/USBDRIVE
mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/USBDRIVE

That is assuming your drive is formatted in FAT which is the usual setup. When you run dmesg the last lines should indicate what device your drive is - generally sda so /dev/sda1 is the first partition on it. You will then be able to access your drive in the folder /mnt/USBDRIVE.

[John4720]

I will type out what I think is relevant to this thread of the XF86Config-4 file:

Section "ServerLayout"
InputDevice "USB Mouse" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "USB Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Buttons" "5"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "Emulate3Timeout" "70"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
EndSection

Also briefly so I can transfer the whole file - any reason why a USB pendrive would not be detected?

Cheers

[bigtomrodney]

You mentioned it worked with /dev/psaux so maybe try to change it to the device that you were using earlier. Also make sure you make a copy of the file first

cd /etcX11
cp XF86Config-4 XF86Config-4.backup

Section "ServerLayout"
         InputDevice "USB Mouse" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "USB Mouse"
        Driver          "mouse"
        Option          "Protocol"              "IMPS/2" 
        Option          "ZAxisMapping"          "4 5"
        Option          "Buttons"               "5"
        Option          "Device"                "/dev/psaux"
        Option          "Emulate3Buttons"        "true"
        Option          "Emulate3Timeout"        "70"
        Option          "SendCoreEvents"        "true"     
EndSection

Also briefly so I can transfer the whole file - any reason why a USB pendrive would not be detected?

It's not so much that it's not detected as much as it is not mounting. Older Linux kernels wouldn't have udev which is responsible for mounting drives.

...Actually yours is old enough that it may not even detect it. If it's missing hotplug you may not be able to do that. Try plugging in the drive before you boot and see if that works. If it does make sure you don't remove the drive until after you shutdown. The latest kernel is 2.6.26 so you're a whole generation behind. It's like trying to run a USB stick on Windows NT4!

[John4720]

Okay mouse now works but is very fast and flickers and is not really controlable hehe.

Progress though.

Ill be posting again this weekend.

Thanks for the help

[John4720]

Well with your help it is now working.

I used the /dev/psaux that you mentioned and I changed it to ps/2 instead of imps/2 and used 3 buttons as an option instead.

Now the problem is mounting the USB drive and getting the wireless network card to work.

When I use this command as root I get (after making the directory):

mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/USBDRIVE

I get an error saying that vfat type is not recognised. Also tried fat with the same result. I know for sure that the drive is fat.

Please suggest a reason for this.

[bigtomrodney]

Well a long time ago the msdos filetype was used. I know that it's avoided like the plague now and has been replaced by vfat. Maybe that might work for you?

With regards to getting your wireless card working...I wouldn't be very hopeful. I'm not even sure if you'd have wireless support in your networking stack, let alone drivers. I hate to keep pushing this but it is out of the question to use a newer distro? You'll certainly learn a lot this way but you're swimming against the tide here.

[John4720]

Do you know any other operating systems with a 2.4 kernel? - possibly auditor?

Ill try that msdos though still.