Mouse and Keyboard freeze
Martin Hofherr
I recently installed Debian Etch with a 2.6.18-amd64 Kernel on my Dell
Dimension C521. Everything works fine except that from time to time
the keyboard and/or the mouse freeze. It is still possible to log in via
ssh but I can't restart kdm or X. Can this have to do with my Asus
wl-167g wireless-lan adaptor(ralink rt73 chipset)? Neither
/var/log/Xorg.0.log nor /var/log/messages report any error.
Thanks, Martin
Neil Ellwood
This may or even may not help but is worth a try if you don't mind re-
installing.
When you put your first disc in and restart wait until the first screen
and then press F1 - try install noapic nolapic and press enter.
HTH
--
Neil
reverse ra and delete l
Linux user 335851
MartinH
Hi Neil, thanks for your reply I'm going to try that. When I
installed I used the option acpi=off. Could this also have an
effect on this problem?
Martin
Neil Ellwood
Yes it can help - helped me. Trust Dell to do things in its own wat like
ms. As you might guess mine is a Dimension 521 as well.
martin....@googlemail.com
wrote:
I reinstalled Debian now with the parameters
noapic nolapic acpi=off
And again... after two hours the mouse suddenly froze. Only this time
I was still
able to use the keyboard.
Have you installed 64 bit or 32 bit version?
John F. Morse
> I reinstalled Debian now with the parameters
> noapic nolapic acpi=off
>
> And again... after two hours the mouse suddenly froze. Only this time
> I was still
> able to use the keyboard.
Are you using a battery-powered mouse?
--
John
No Microsoft, Apple, Intel, Trend Micro, nor Ford products were used in the preparation or transmission of this message.
The EULA sounds like it was written by a team of lawyers who want to tell me what I can't do. The GPL sounds like it was written by a human being, who wants me to know what I can do.
Neil Ellwood
64 bit. but am trying 'Ubuntu' with xfce at the moment and it doesn't
look as though I will keep it very long. Not a patch on Debian. I find
that I am not keeping the computer running as long as I used to so maybe
that is why it didn't happen to the last time I ran Debian (last week).
martin....@googlemail.com
I'd wish it was only a battery problem :-), but it's the standard
cable dell mouse.
martin....@googlemail.com
the same problem
there...
martin....@googlemail.com
Same problem again.... the mouse and keyboard hangs in fedora too.
Maybe it is an hardware bug or a problem with X.org.
John F. Morse
> On 24 Apr., 17:08, "John F. Morse" <xanadu....@example.invalid> wrote:
>
>> martin.hofh...@googlemail.com wrote:
>>
>>> I reinstalled Debian now with the parameters
>>> noapic nolapic acpi=off
>>>
>>> And again... after two hours the mouse suddenly froze. Only this time
>>> I was still
>>> able to use the keyboard.
>>>
>> Are you using a battery-powered mouse?
>>
>
> cable dell mouse.
>
I know that probably appeared as a stupid question, but you can never
tell. ;-)
My battery mice frequently die, but they come back to life if I don't
move them for a short period. That gives the batteries (actually
"cells") a short rest.
Another oddity I sometimes fight is my KVM switches will cause the mice
to become "lost" as far as the X11 is concerned. One KVM uses a
USB-PS/2 adapter, and the other KVM is all PS/2. Still, some mice, on
some distros, can become lost, requiring a plug pull and reinsertion so
the OS can again see the mouse.
I'd suggest you isolate the mouse from the PC by using a spare mouse.
See if the mouse is the problem, or something else (hardware or OS).
Also check your /etc/X11/xorg.conf for a stanza similar to one of the
following:
For a mouse on a Debian 4.0 Etch PC using xorg.conf:
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection
For a mouse on another Debian 4.0 Etch PC using xorg.conf:
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection
For various mice on a Debian 3.1 Sarge box using XF86Config-4:
Identifier "Mouse1"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
For a Logitech MouseMan Cordless on a Ubuntu 6.06.1 LTS box using xorg.conf:
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection
The important things are the "Device" and the "Protocol" arguments.
The "ZAxisMapping" "4 5" is for the scroll wheel, but as you can see,
the Debian Sarge boxes don't need this (and they work fine).
I'm not suspecting software however, since you mouse does work -- for
awhile. Maybe a heat-related thing, like the motherboard, or your hand
warming up the mouse after a couple of hours? Try using a fan to isolate
the problem: Cool the mouse and see if it starts working again.
You might tail some logs and see if there is a message generated.
tail -f /var/log/messages
tail -f /var/log/syslog
Also examine Xorg.0.log ( less /var/log/Xorg.0.log ) for anything unusual.
You can also run xev from a terminal and watch what is transpiring when
you mouse around in the xev window that opens. Use
Symantec/Adept/apt-get to install this handy discovery utility.
It is xev in the Ubuntu repositories, and in Debian's repositories it is
part of the xbase-clients package.
John F. Morse
X.org is not the "same" in both distros. Also, software rarely acts up
after a certain length of time.
I suspect hardware. Try another mouse to see if it is the mouse, or the
mouse port. Hopefully is is a cheap mouse, and probably dieing from heat.
You can also use a serial mouse if you want to go that route for
testing, but if you do, you will have switched both the mouse and the
port hardware, so isolation is not likely.
s. keeling
> On Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:19:53 +0200, Martin Hofherr wrote:
> >
> > I recently installed Debian Etch with a 2.6.18-amd64 Kernel on my Dell
> > Dimension C521. Everything works fine except that from time to time the
> > keyboard and/or the mouse freeze. It is still possible to log in via ssh
> > but I can't restart kdm or X. Can this have to do with my Asus wl-167g
> > wireless-lan adaptor(ralink rt73 chipset)? Neither /var/log/Xorg.0.log
> > nor /var/log/messages report any error.
>
> installing.
Reinstalling? Why? Just reboot and supply it as a boot param. If it
works, add it to your grub config to make it automatic.
> When you put your first disc in and restart wait until the first screen
> and then press F1 - try install noapic nolapic and press enter.
--
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(*) http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html Linux Counter #80292
- - http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1855.html Please, don't Cc: me.
Neil Ellwood
I have tried another mouse and because I preferred it to the Dell one I
have stuck to it (Technika from Tesco) but still didn't cure the problem.
My belief is that it is a Dell set up problem but cannot find where. :-(
martin....@googlemail.com
wrote:
I guess that John is right. It must be a hardware issue. I found an
biosupdate at the
dell homepage for the dimension c521 series. I installed it yesterday
evening but
haven't had the time yet to keep my box running for some time to check
if the
error occours again. Maybe it helps... at least it promises enchanged
compatibility
for usb devices...
http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R164017&SystemID=DIM_P4_C521&servicetag=&os=BIOSA&osl=en&deviceid=308&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=6&catid=-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=1&libid=1&fileid=220153
martin....@googlemail.com
There is another change in the mouse and keyboard story....
The biosupdate didn't help much, the mouse an keyboard froze again.
But then I stumbeled
eventually over this:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/196902
And until now it worked fine. Since I plugged an usb-hub at the rear
usb-slots an connected
the mouse to the hub it didn' t freeze anymore. Let's see how long it
lasts...
John F. Morse
> There is another change in the mouse and keyboard story....
> The biosupdate didn't help much, the mouse an keyboard froze again.
> But then I stumbeled
> eventually over this:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/196902
>
> And until now it worked fine. Since I plugged an usb-hub at the rear
> usb-slots an connected
> the mouse to the hub it didn' t freeze anymore. Let's see how long it
> lasts...
>
Maybe I missed it, but I didn't see where they found any solution.
USB is funny -- I have a PC with two ports in the rear, and two in the
front. The front ones work fine for a digital camera, but they won't
work for a thumb drive. It needs to be plugged into a rear port to work.
I'm curious if it might me some problem (or omission) with USB supplied
power, maybe not getting through, or provided by, an internal USB "hub"
that feeds the front connectors.
I've always just worked around it, but may investigate it further some day.
That is something you might consider too: move your USB keyboard and
mouse to a USB port on the other end of the PC.
Of course using a PS/2 or serial mouse for a test would determine if it
is the USB port(s) or something else.
martin....@googlemail.com
wrote:
Sorry, I posted the wrong link. This is the right one:
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=82640
Sorry.
Until now it works, but you never know..
I've had the same problems with digtial cameras too, only vice versa:
Thumb drives
where detected but the flash-card reader wasn't. I haven't tried yet,
if it works now,
after I installed Debian (before it was gentoo...) Maybe some module
was missing in the
kernel.
Unfortunately I can't try a PS/2 or serial mouse, because the
dimension c521 doesn't
have neither a serial nor a PS/2 port. But I guess that it has
something to do with the
usb ports or the nvidia chipset.
Wandering
There is a fundamental difference between front and rear usb2 ports on
most machines, if not all. The front ports often split the power
available, and they are often on an internal hub. The result is that many
devices that require high throughput will not run properly on front
ports. This often includes external hard drives and scanners and
sometimes printers.
Jacob Tranholm
A year or two ago I played around with an Asus wl-167g wireless-lan
USB-adaptor. And this can very well be a major part of the problem. I
have not followed the development of the drivers, but back when I used
this adapter the keyboard and mouse froze whenever I unplugged the
adapter. And if your USB connection in any way has minor stability
problems, the keyboard and mouse can very well freeze even though the
adaptor is still plugged in. I chose to buy a PCMCIA card instead...
--
Best regards Jacob Tranholm <http://jtranholm.dk/>
Karl R. Popper: Observation statements and statements of experimental
results are always interpretations of the facts observed.