197 lines
8.5 KiB
Text
197 lines
8.5 KiB
Text
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This file tries to summarize the questions that I've been responding over
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and over. It is meant to save some time to both you and me :)
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If your problem with gpm isn't described here, feel free to ask me by
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Email.
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--
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__ o La forza dei forti sta nel traversare le traversie con occhio sereno
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_`\<, (Paperino)
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__( )/( )__ rubini@prosa.it +39-382-529554
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1. Installation / Compiling
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2. Running problems
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3. other questions
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===========================================================================
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1. Installation / Compiling
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===========================================================================
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Q: Compilation fails with
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yacc gpm-root.y
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make: /usr/bin/make: cannot execute binary file
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make: *** [gpm-root.c] Error 126
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A: This is a typical error (I've got several of them reported), though
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not related to gpm.
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It looks like you have an old slackware installation, like mine, or
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another faulty setup. I've been reported that slackware-3 is wrong
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as well.
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The 'yacc' executable is a shell script that calls bison, and it
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lacks the '#!/bin/sh' line (or has it incorrect, missing the
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'!'). I don't remember the details, but while it runs under your
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shell, it can't be executed under make. I looked in the binfmt
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sources in the kernel, and /bin/sh doesn't appear explicitly, so
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you must fix the first line in the 'yacc' script, and everything
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should go fine.
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Note however that the server has already been compiles. Only the
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gpm-root client, written with yacc, is affected by this problem.
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===========================================================================
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2. Running problems
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===========================================================================
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Q: My serial mouse works in X with ms protocol, but behaves erratically
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with gpm on the text console, and I get involuntary pastes.
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A: Many ms protocol mice equipped with three buttons use an extension
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to the protocol, which consists in repeating events (thus with no
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effect under the normal protocol) to signal a change in the middle
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button. Unfortunately, some old true-ms protocol mice do repeat
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events, thus triggering the middle-button in gpm.
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If you're running your mouse with ``-t ms'', you'd better try ``-t
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bare'', which is the unadorned ms protocol of the old days. My
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choice to use the third-button extension as the default, was taken
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because a true ms protocol doesn't repeat event notification, and
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because many three button mice feature the extension.
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Q: I have a serial mouse. It works fine except that when I try to drag
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the mouse with the middle button pressed, gpm assumes that the middle
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button has been released. Dragging with the other buttons works just
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fine.
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A: You are probably running your mouse with ``-t ms''. In this mode
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dragging with the middle button has been deliberately disabled in
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order to prevent problems with faulty mice that fail to report
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middle-button events during mouse motion.
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Try using ``-t ms+'' or ``-t ms+lr'' instead.
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Q: My mouse gets into a state where it thinks the middle button is up
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when it's down and vice versa.
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A: Your mouse uses an extension to the m$ protocol in order to report
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the middle button. It sends empty events (i.e., no-motion &
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no-button-change) in order to report a change in the status of the
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middle button.
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Unfortunately many devices that report middle-button events in this
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way often fail miserably to report them correctly during mouse
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motion. Since the protocol does not distinguish between the button
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going up and the button going down it can easily get out of step
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with reality.
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There are two solutions: either use ``-t ms'', which disallows
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dragging with the middle button, so you can get back to normal
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simply by moving the mouse without any buttons pressed; or (probably
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better) use ``-t ms+lr'', which allows you to reset the state of
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the middle button by pressing the other two buttons together. (If
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you want you can also deliberately get gpm out of step with reality
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by pressing the left and right buttons while holding the middle
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button!)
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Note that there are many more faulty mice in the world than
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non-faulty ones so you will probably will have to use ``-t ms+lr''
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rather than ``-t ms+''.
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Note also that most 3-button mice that use the microsoft protocol can
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be made to use the MouseSystems protocol instead. You might want to
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read about this in the ``3 Button Serial Mouse mini-HOWTO''.
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Q: My mouse doesn't sense the middle button in X, while it works with
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gpm.
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A: Gpm uses a different decoder (see the previous two answers). You
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can use the ``-R'' option to repeat mouse data to X (look at the man
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page).
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Q: I have a busmouse, and I have the single-open problem. Is there any
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way around it?
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A: Try the -R option of gpm (look at the man page)
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Q: I run "-t ms", and I get double-paste when I press the middle button.
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Is there any workaround?
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A: Try "-t mman" instead.
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Q: I have one of the new devices of old dear Bill, and gpm doesn't work any
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more. What can I do?
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A: Bill chose to use its own Plug-and-Pray specification, which finally
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managed to break what worked painlessly for ages. The decoder for
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any gpm up to 1.12 (and also any X version being used at the time)
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is unable to deal with the new devices, which claim to be designed
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to work with older drivers. Try to use "-t pnp" instead of "-t ms"
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and see if it works with this gpm version. Actually, this version
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might even work with "-t ms" or "-t bare", but I'm not sure about
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it. If the version of X you run has problems, while gpm now works,
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try passing the "-R" option to gpm (see the man page). Note that
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"-t pnp" is strongly discouraged, as any time the serial port is
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opened (for example when switching from X to text mode if "-R" is
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not active) it will take several seconds to be initialized -- a
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design misfeature of pnp. If either "-t ms" or "-t bare" work use
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them instead.
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If you are in the software field, you can enjoy the inaccuracies of
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the specs and design bugs directly from the originators:
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http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/download/pnpcom.exe. You'll find the
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following, and more:
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- no support for real multitasking (the mouse driver must be able
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to keep hold of processor time for at least 1 second).
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- no pnp vendor will be able to support three buttons any more (no
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more mouse protocols, all mice must behave the same).
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- similary, only 1200 baud devices (any serial device) are supported,
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because the initialization string of pnp devices only tells
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the vendor and release, with no information about required
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port configuration.
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- people with UPS will have great troubles with ms software
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because the pnp probing sequence plays with DTR, and w95
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probes all serial ports. This funny idea might turn off
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the UPS connected with your computer just after booting w95.
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Don't despair. They will manage to make worse designs later on.
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Q: I have an old 386 computer around here and gpm is _really_ slow. Is there
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any way I can make it faster ?
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A: Go into src/headers/gpmCfg.h and look for DEF_CLUSTER. Change its values from
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0 to 10.
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Q: gpm.conf is not accepted / does not work, but gpm works from command line.
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A: gpm.conf is not from gpm itself. Please contact your distrubtion support
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to clearify whats wrong.
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===========================================================================
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3. other questions
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===========================================================================
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Q: I am gonna buy computer X, do I have any chance getting gpm running on it?
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A:
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a) If it does not work, you could at least try to port it ;)
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b) As report by a friend, gpm currently runs on Linux on
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- i386 - Alpha - ARM - PA-RISC - ia64 (Itanium) - PPC - m68k - MIPS - SPARC
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It's possible that you need some patches for some architecture.
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