mouse problems....

Polytropon freebsd at edvax.de
Wed Oct 13 20:44:49 UTC 2010


On Wed, 13 Oct 2010 09:03:21 -0600 (MDT), Warren Block <wblock at wonkity.com> wrote:
> I've followed only parts of this thread, and there are multiple 
> problems.  First is installing X on a server. 

And first + one half is running X as root. :-) As it is only
for testing, no big deal, but I did want to just mention it.



> Second is a KVM switch, 
> many of which are problematic. 

That's true. The key problem is the switching from / to a particular
machine, and how it handles this process. On the early models where
wires were switched "purely electrically", this caused the system to
lose a device. Some more modern KVM switches seem to provide a "dummy"
signal so the device isn't lost (as in the view of the system), but
I doubt this is a standard method.



> Next is that the KVM converts USB to 
> PS/2, which... well, maybe it's fine. 

Erm, no. As far as I understood now, the KVM switch is USB only, or
to be more precise: At least the mouse is USB - no PS/2 handling in
between.



> Finally, a "jumpy mouse" problem 
> with moused on console screams that it's the KVM, not moused or USB or 
> xorg config.

I'm not 100% sure about that. Your article located at
http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/docs/html/aei.html states:

	Other times, particularly if hald is running, typed
	characters don't show up on the screen until the
	mouse is moved, and mouse movement itself is jerky
	and doesn't react smoothly.

I thought about something like that.



> My suggestion would be to *not* install X on a server. 

And this would eliminate the problem, as the keyboard (the main
input method for console-driven dialog) seems to work as inteded
through the KVM switch.



> If it's really 
> required, use an actual keyboard and monitor on that server for those 
> times when ssh -X/-Y aren't enough, and avoid the KVM.

Often the best solution, at least im ny experience. I have used
KVM switches in the past, but found them often problematic (as
shown in this thread), so my first choice is networked access,
and if neccessary, "hardware access". In some cases, a serial
line with a terminal (or an old laptop resembling a terminal,
using DOS and the KERMIT terminal emulator) is fully sufficient,
and VERY well supported by FreeBSD.



> USB mice cause moused to be run anyway, but there are differences.  If 
> you want switching between X and console to be fast, enable moused.

And this is possible in combination with devd that "remote-contols"
moused for USB mice? And does moused handle "disappearing" and
"reappearing" devices properly?



-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...


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