External mouse on laptop, SusE 10.0

[tyc]

With Susse v10.0, where can I find the coding which directs the software system to recognize that there is an external mouse attached to the laptop?

I want to have a look at the software, which may need correction, as there have been times now (and too often at that) when booting up, the system fails to recognize that there is a USB external mouse attached. Sometimes I have to shut down and re-boot as much as three or four times in order to the system to "pick up" the fact that there is an external mouse attached.

Any and all help would be appreciated.

[Jonathan183]

Have you tried just unplugging & plugging in the USB mouse again? I find the USB mouse stops working on various versions of Linux but disconnecting and reconnecting the mouse usually makes it work. You should not need to restart the PC for this to work.

[tyc]

Yes, I've tried that. Didn't work. For some reason, at times, after booting up, there's no power to the external mouse. At this point I'm guessing that, and for whatever reason, when booting up, the software is "skipping over" the fact that a USB mouse is present and somewhere in that Suse boot up sofrware is the coding which I might be able to correct - if only I knew about where to find it.

But thanks for the interest, it's appreciated.

tyc

[gogalthorp]

The pointing devices are defined in the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file

Mice are only defined in the Xwindows system. So it is when X starts up that the mouse is initialized.

You might try a generic mouse

[neognomic]

I cannot speak for SUSE 10 as I have been using openSUSE since 10. (and, will add, a few others since '99 ...)
There seems to be two issues. One is that the USB port appears to be being shutdown or not recognized with a pointing device attached; it should not do that but it may be a power saving issue you can correct or there maybe other solutions(below).
The other is that xorg.conf configuration file for the X window system must have an input device section for each input device. One will be the "core pointer" and the other secondary, in your case, however there can be many input devices.
YAST2 should be able to configure the mice with SAX but since I have not tried that with multiple 'mouse' devices, all I can suggest is that you use YAST first(as root) to find out. It(SAX) will (re)configure xorg.conf appropriately.

With Susse v10.0, where can I find the coding which directs the software system to recognize that there is an external mouse attached to the laptop?

HAL, once the system is up and running, has domain|control on hardware ups and downs ...interface to kernel, of course.
Using

hwinfo --mouse

or for more general & detailed output

hwinfo --usb

at a command prompt (su to root first) will provide details, many details, about the USB devices and any mouse connected to the system.

Note that similar info' is available from the KDE Info program(kinfocenter) generally found in the Menu->System->Monitor( here, with 10.3, anyway). AND YAST has a System->Hardware Information widget that will collect all information and present it in a page you can peruse ... it is quite detailed(same info' as from using hwinfo at the CLI).

I want to have a look at the software, which may need correction, as there have been times now (and too often at that) when booting up, the system fails to recognize that there is a USB external mouse attached.

Just in general, this should not occur. I have not had any issues with USB ports for years. I suggest that it may be something peculiar to the laptop USB port(s) that is making Linux burp. SUSE is not in (direct) control of that function. That is kernel land ... the general suggestion here is to upgrade the kernel but before doing that, google-around to see if there is something about your laptop's USB ports that is odd.
IIRC, usbhid is the kernel driver|module that would need 'fixing' if indeed it has anything to do with the kernel module.

Sometimes I have to shut down and re-boot as much as three or four times in order to the system to "pick up" the fact that there is an external mouse attached.

This is very odd.
Have you tried a different mouse? Not all pointing devices are equal. If you have a USB flash drive, try it in the port and see if the Linux OS reacts properly( as a test of the port ).
Also, there are often conflicts in the BIOS which have to be resolved before two or more of the same devices can be used. E.g., embedded sound usually has to be turned off before an addon audio card will function properly; ditto for video. So be sure the BIOS is set properly for use of two pointing devices. Linux cannot read the mind of the user and must, generally, use what the BIOS presents.
Are you using the most recent BIOS for your laptop? Updates to more recent versions are often useful to resolve such issues (but should generally, IMO, be avoided unless needed). If other solutions are not successful, perhaps a BIOS update w/b.

Any and all help would be appreciated.

In the end, one of the better solutions is to upgrade the OS to a newer version. openSUSE 10.3 is, by far, better than 10.0(although admittedly not nearly perfect).

I would check the BIOS setting first before spending a lot of time on other things, even if they are good to do anyway, .

hth... not so gnomic today, iguess, .