[gentoo-user] xorg-server-1.5.3 no mouse [solved]

[Philip Webb]

For the record, in case anyone else runs into this,
following the Gentoo Upgrade Guild, I chose course (2) to deal with HAL,
ie I compiled 'USE="-hal" emerge xorg-server'.

I encountered  3  problems.
(1) xf86-video-intel-2.6.3-r1 failed to compile
with a message implying lack of a file 'xf86dri.h' :
since I'm using an Nvidia card, not the Intel chip on the mobo,
that seems not to be relevant for my needs.
(2) after rebooting & entering 'startx', I got a 'no screen' error,
which was solved by commenting out the line incl "RgbPath" in  xorg.conf .
(3) when X finally started, my mouse didn't work: oh no ! --
first, I followed the 3rd course from the Upgrade Guide
& add 'Option "AutoAddDevices" "false"' to  xorg.conf
(it shouldn't be needed if you follow course (2) above);
that didn't change anything, so I looked at my handwritten list
of the pkgs I had installed, which I had numbered as usual,
& noticed that 'xf86-input-mouse' was compiled before 'xorg-server':
had the former failed to notice '-hal' used with the latter ? --
so I recompiled the mouse module & now everything is working as it should.

Yet again, I was helped by NOT doing a blanket 'emerge world',
but compiling (groups of) pkgs individually & making a note of what I did.
Also, I could see what was going wrong & fix it much more easily,
as I don't boot straight into X , but to a raw console first.
Finally, it helps (if you use KDE) to enable keypad cursor movements,
tho' I didn't find out how to emulate a mouse click that way.

HTH & comments welcome.

-- 
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SUPPORT     ___________//___,   Philip Webb
ELECTRIC   /] [] [] [] [] []|   Cities Centre, University of Toronto
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