linksys kvm usb ps2 adaptors and wild mouse pointer

[John McBride]

Some of our kvms, notably linksys, started having real problems with FC2 
as soon as people started plugging in wireless mice (usually the 
Microsoft Explorer  wireless mouse). They are using the little usb to 
ps2 adapters to do this. The mouse just goes crazy in console/gpm 
(runlevel 3) or X, jumping all over the screen, issuing wild text 
commands to the command prompt, etc.

I found the fix over on linuxquestions.org. There is a kernel option to 
add to /etc/grub.conf:
psmouse.proto=imps
(also "bare" or "exps", possibly others).

 From what I can see:
"bare" provides a generic 2 button mouse, with 3rd button emulation.
"imps" lets the explorer wheel act like a third button.
"exps" should enable the wheel, but actually left the thing hosed (as 
before).

On a couple machines, after adding this boot option, I had to run 
system-config-mouse to set up the mouse, then move the 
/etc/X11/xorg.conf and run system-config-display under X to get 
everything cleaned up. Console mode (runlevel 3) was very useful for 
testing though.

While I was fooling around with the boot options on one FC2 box, I used 
Windows 2K on another port. This was a little interesting--the green 
light on the wireless mouse receiver blinks when changing ports, and 
also when W2K was just about to launch the greeter, during bootup, right 
when the display blanks. They are resetting the mouse, I think, while 
going graphical.

I've noticed the green light blinks when linux boots, once, but very 
early on. Right around the first ACPI probes. The mouse driver must be 
setting up for "exps" and that's borked somehow--exps breaks the 
explorer mouse, at least with this hardware configuration. If the mouse 
is plugged directly into the ps2 port, it is fine, so it's a 
combination/stack of hw causing this.

Restarting gpm does not blink the light, and I didn't see it blink while 
starting or running X either. I wonder...is there a way to reset the 
mouse in FC2, such that the light blinks? I ask because after switching 
between ports for 20 minutes or so, trying to debug this while doing web 
searches, I saw the mouse freeze under W2K for a second, and then then 
the receiver light blinked. Could it be that somehow MS is detecting 
that the mouse is haywire, freezing the cursor by ignoring it, and then 
resetting the mouse? What an awful thing for software to go through, but 
with this particular hw stack maybe such a thing is necessary?

Regards,
John