slowing_down a super_fast mouse

[spellberg_robert]

howdy , folks ---

i hope that everyone is well .



in anticipation of installing 10.3 , i have been buying new hardware
   [ probably , intel "skylake" and "z170" , of some kind ] .
this new mechanical keyboard , "daskeyboard" ,
   with the cherry "blue" switches , is really nice ,
   much like that which came with my compaq 486dx , twenty years ago ,
   [ which --still-- works and is in use !!! ] ,
   even if the manufacturer --is-- too cheap to
   put legends on the keycaps
   [ before i did any editing , this post looked like
       traudl junge's first effort for her new boss ,
       in that scene in "downfall" , at the beginning of the film
   ] .

let me start with the

         9.3/amd64/syscons/ps2

   box ;
   i have not , as yet , installed any new equipment on the

         10.2/i386/vt/ps2

   box .
if i can identify the solution for these two boxen ,
   then all of the others should be "variations on a theme" .

the ps2 keyboards and mice actually have usb interfaces ,
   with usb/ps2 adapters , plugged into ps2 ports .
from what i read on wikipedia ,
   these should look like ps2 devices to the ps2 ports .
the six_years_old moboes --do-- have usb ports of some kind ,
   but this is my first usb equipment ,
   therefore , i have no usb experience .

my question is about
   cursor_on_screen distance versus mouse_on_pad distance .
the old mice [ mitsumi "roller_ball" ] were kinda slow
   [ lotsa pad for little screen ; just fine , otherwise ] ,
   but not so much as to be worth whining about .
with this new mouse [ cherry model m-5400/01 optical ] ,
   the cursor goes flying , if i just breathe on the mouse .

you know how it goes : power_down , swap kb & m , power_up ;
   then , see what's different .

so i start reading [ man_pages , handbook , et_cetera ] ;
   eventually , i find the man_page about "/boot/device.hints" .
i find words like "flags" , "resolution" and "acceleration" .
i find an example for "psm0" .
this looks promising .
i check my boot messages ;

	psm0: <PS/2 Mouse> irq 12 on atkbdc0
	psm0: [GIANT-LOCKED]
	psm0: model Intellimouse, device ID 3

these are the same messages as those for
   the old mitsumi mouse on the 10.2 box ;
   i get the impression that all ps2 mice are pretty much the same .

i note that there are no "flags" ; so i try that .
i "guess" that flags of "0x01" and "0x04" will
   disable "acceleration" and
   set "resolution" to either extreme , one way or the other .
if this works ,
   then i should observe a 8:1 ratio for cursor distance ;
   all that i have to do is to pick a "comfortable" setting .

well , that was the plan .
it failed .

let me emphasize : the new hardware --works-- .
it is just that the cursor goes flying across the screen ,
   for a small mouse_on_pad motion .
positioning --is-- challenging .

the flags --are-- recognized ; they appear in the boot messages ;
   for example ,

	psm0: <PS/2 Mouse> flags 0x1 irq 12 on atkbdc0

   but the behavior does not change on either the console or the xterm .

maybe the mouse has hardware limitations .
maybe i have mis_identified the correct software module to tweak .
maybe there is some "buzzword" , of which i am unaware .
   which ignorance prevents further research by me .

should i be trying to effect this change in "rc.conf" ?

should i be trying to effect this change in "X" ?

[ in re_reading the above , before i send this ,
     the thought occurs to me that ,
     even if the mouse has only one motion_size ,
     scaling --could-- be effected in software , --somewhere-- .
   this entire post can be summarized into three words :
     "possible" , "where" and "how" .
]

i ask , before i try "something" , because ,
   even with all drives backed_up ,
   onto drives on --different-- machines ,
   none_the_less , i wish to avoid
   finding myself in the position of
   having to recover from some hardware problem by
   turning off the power supply .
although this works , most of the time ,
   i --have-- lost a hard_drive this way .
i prefer to not_repeat the experience .



does anyone have any thoughts ?
maybe , someone knows the right leading question to ask me .



tia

rob



ps --- does anyone know how to
   turn_off this narrow 65_column auto_wrap
   in the "thunderbird" editor ?