[lug] Mad Mice and X Windows

[Michael J. Pedersen]

On Tue, Feb 08, 2000 at 06:16:26PM -0700, Bonnell, Doug wrote:
> 	1. Most Linux systems have the concept of a "runlevel".

No problems here.  But, for those who don't have the info, a more detailed
explanation of what a runlevel is would be good.

> 	2. If you are doing any kind of tinkering with X, find a 

While good and useful ideas, it is not necessary to do this.

> 	    You will have to tell X to start, and this gives you the power
> 	    to stop it as you see fit.

While true, there are other, easier ways to deal with X.  And I'll be
explaining it below in a second.

> OK, so much for preventing being stuck forever in X windows with a
> mad mouse. But, how do you handle the situation where you messed
> up the mouse configuration or the mouse just died?
> 
> You will need to bootup a rescue diskette (you did make one, didn't you?).

I'm sorry, but no, a startup disk is absolutely unnecessary to fix X at this
point, and would only frustrate most people to no end.  Unlike Windows, you do
NOT have to reboot to fix minor problems (and sometimes, even major ones can
be fixed without rebooting).

> You can test different settings in XF86Config by starting X ( with xstart ).
> If the X server can't come up, you will return to your shell and see the
> error
> messages. If the mouse is mad, you can exit X with Ctrl-Alt-BackSpace
> and you will return to your shell.

All of this is true, and a workable way to fix the problems.  However, here's
a method which will work, be easier, and require no reboots of the system.
----------
So your mouse has gone mad under XWindows, and you don't know how to fix it.

Step 1: We're going to need to kill XWindows.  Press Control-Alt-F1. This will
        take you to a console login prompt.  Login as root.
Step 2: You will need to use the appropriate system utility to kill XWindows.
        Under RedHat, use 'init 3'. Under Debian, use '/etc/init.d/xdm stop'.
		Under other varieties, you may use a similar command to Debian, most
		likely.
Step 3: Fix the mouse information using your appropriate system tool. For
        instance, under Debian, use XF86Setup. This tool should be available
		under most distributions of Linux.
Step 4: In addition, make sure that gpm is not running.  I have usually
        uninstalled it, due to the amount of frustration it has caused me when
		working with XWindows.
Step 5: Restart XWindows, and test.  Under RedHat, use 'init 5'. Under Debian,
        use '/etc/init.d/xdm start'.
Step 6: If everything is working fine, you are done.  If not, go back to step
        1.

-- 
Michael J. Pedersen
WhoDP: whodp://earth.activerse.com/pedersen
Check out Ding! at http://www.activerse.com
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