I've got an old machine with Fedora Core 1 running on it, I use it as a secondary/server machine and it has been running fine for the last year or so. But lately the PS/2 mouse sometimes starts to jump around and then stop working (it won't move). The 2 ways i've fixed it for awhile are 1) Restart X by logging out then logging back in. 2) Plug in a USB mouse (which works fine, but is a 1 button mouse, so less than ideal) so I can pull up a terminal to run redhat-config-mouse. Once run, this fixes the PS/2 mouse, without having to log out. I'm out in the boonies without broadband access at home for at least the next 3 or 4 months, so downloading the latest Fedora Core isn't really an option on a 56k modem. Any ideas on what might be causing this? [Edited by - Will F on August 4, 2005 1:54:57 AM]

Similar to method 1, you might try switching ttys. I think that's what it's called - <ctrl><alt>F1 and <alt>F7 to go back to X, hopefully resyncing (or whatever) your mouse. If it works, it would definitely be easier than restarting X.

Also, to simplify method 2, you can create a keyboard shortcut for opening a terminal window instead of having to plug in another mouse (who needs a mouse anyway? [grin]).

Other than that.. I'm clueless as to why your mouse would stop working like that. Weird.

Quote: Original post by Arkainium
who needs a mouse anyway?

Now that I think about it, I really don't need a mouse for that computer. In fact I could probably get by without X (it basically just a file server for my LAN, and sometimes used for some rendering with yafray.

It turned out to be the mouse itself that was causing the strange behavior (installed a different linux distro and the same problem manifested itself). I bought a new mouse and everything is working fine now. Interestingly enough the mouse has a Microsoft logo on it - probably just a coincidence, but for food for thought for all you conspiracy buffs out there.

Though I still think it's odd that running redhat-config-mouse would fix it for a half hour or so.