Novice has psm0 problems on a laptop

[dknapp at calpoly.edu]

I have a Compaq Presario 1220 laptop (Cyrix 200Mhz - woot!), and I can't
seem to get the touchpad to work.  

I've read the laptop/mobile computing info, searched the mailing list,
and gone to a couple of linux laptop sites - and from what I gather,
there is really nothing special about a touchpad - it should just work
as a psm0 device.  I've tried installing 4.7 -RELEASE and 5.0-RELEASE
thinking that perhaps that would make a difference - but it didn't.  

In 4.7 (which is currently running) psm0 isn't detected or at least
isn't listed on dmesg (same thing?).  When I did the preliminary
configuration, I made sure that psm0 was enabled/listed.  

I found another post where someone was having problems with their
touchpad - 
I tried moused -p /dev/psm0 -t auto
Moused: unable to open /dev/psm0: device not configured.

So, I'm thinking that perhaps my next step is to force psm0 to be
configured?
Am I screwed if it isn't detected at boot - any way to fix that?

There is also an external port that has a mouse/keyboard picture - I've
tried plugging in an external ps/2 mouse, and it doesn't seem to work
either.  All of my mouse testing has been done by running
/stand/sysinstall - mouse configuration 

The most aggravating thing is that I was able to run /stand/sysinstall
at one point, and I had it working!  However, I have now tried all the
mouse configuration options under post installation configuration, and
none of them have worked.

At various points I've been able to get X running, but to really make
the laptop usable, I need a mouse - my last resort is going to be to try
a serial mouse, but I don't have one handy.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

dbk


David Knapp
Network Analyst,
Cal Poly, SLO
dknapp at calpoly.edu
805.748.4650
"Knowing the path is not the same thing as walking the path"


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