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evdev crashes X

X

xtknight

Elite Member
I want to get the extra buttons on my Logitech MX518 to work, so several guides mentioned using the 'evdev' module, of which I had not had currently loaded. Instead I was using 'mouse'.

Here's exactly what happened as to eliminate any uncertainty. I have OpenSUSE 10.

I didn't think I had the evdev driver, so I did an rpm --install on a SUSE 10 rpm for the latest version of it. Then it said package already installed. Well, OK.

(/etc/X11/xorg.conf)
So here's the before:

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "mouse"
Identifier "Mouse[1]"
Option "Buttons" "5"
Option "Name" "Logitech MX310"
Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
Option "Vendor" "Logitech"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

And the after:

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "evdev"
Identifier "Mouse[1]"
# Option "Buttons" "5"
Option "Name" "Logitech MX518"
# Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
# Option "Vendor" "Logitech"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "6 7"
EndSection

When I change it to the 'after', my X crashes on startup. Here's what I mean: I boot Linux just like normal, and when it comes time to start XWindows, it loads a screen that says 'NVIDIA' with a logo on it, which is just my video driver starting. Then it completely freezes there. I cannot access any consoles (ctrl+alt+fN), and ctrl+alt+backspace does not shut down X. All I can do is reset.

I also have Fedora Core 4, which I used to repair my SUSE. Obviously with X broken and X always starting up, I had no choice but to go in to something else any modify the config file. X loaded about the same time the consoles did, so I had no time to type root, my password, and even just rename my config file before X started so I could stop it. I mounted my SUSE 10 drive and then used vim to change SUSE's config from Fedora. This time I used the 'vesa' driver instead of 'nvidia'. I reboot, and now all I get is the same thing, except it's just a black screen. So now I know it must be the 'evdev' module causing issues. I go into Fedora again and I change SUSE's xorg.config mouse driver back to 'mouse'. Then it's fine.

My question is, why is it completely freezing up? Is the evdev module corrupted or something? I mean it seems like it would give me an error and not just completely freeze my whole machine right?

Is there any way I can get an old X server log? I'll reproduce the problem now and get a current log and report back soon as possible.

And also something else. Why when I do 'sudo lsusb' it says cannot find, but when I go 'su', enter password, then 'lsusb' it works?

I did all the commands attached under root mode in a Xwindows console so nothing was omitted, but otherwise I am running under 'andy' right now for the normal desktop.
 
OK here are my log files:

/var/log/Xorg.0.log
/var/log/XFree86.0.log

BTW, I changed the video driver to 'vesa' this time because of a kernel update. The NVIDIA driver doesn't like new kernels so I have to recompile it. It ran with the 'vesa' driver with 'mouse' so I don't think that's the problem. I just left in load dri , glx etc which the vesa didn't have so that's where those warnings came from.
 
Originally posted by: xtknight
Yeah what does 'no device specified' mean? Do I need a Protocol and Vendor in there?
Click to expand...

Post your Xconfig. I think it's asking you for the device your mouse shows up at, like /dev/mouse or whatever.
 
Ya.. your problaby going off of the tutorial from linux-gamers.net.. They have it wrong. They got the driver and the protocol messed up.

Here is my evdev entry for my trackball..
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "dev Name" "Kensington *"
Option "Buttons" "14"
Option "Protocol" "evdev"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

BTW.. for other people for the name part of the config you can find this information at
/proc/bus/input/devices

Also other entries then Name can be used to identify the device.
 
Ohhhh....heh...no wonder. Yeah I was going off of linux-gamers.net tutorial.

Let me go try that.
Thanks guys.

Edit: Sweet, it works. Thanks again.
 
Oh...

Another thing if you want to use mouse bindings and such... Don't use Metacity or the XFCE window manager.

Both of these suck in unknown capacity were I couldn't use xbindkeys or whatnot to intercept mouse events.

If you want more advanced windowing features in Gnome or whatnot then I strongly suggest checking out:
http://icculus.org/openbox/

OpenBox rocks. It integrates well as a Meta city replacement
To replace metacity go:
openbox --replace

The documentation is good also. There are no mouse or keyboard bindings that are hard-coded into the window manager.. everything is configurable thru (easily read also!) xml files.
Mine are located in ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml

All supported events and windowing manipulation are documented on the website.

I've been very happy with it.
 
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