CompuAdd Laptop Trackball
R. Sean Fulton
A friend gave me an old CompuAdd 325TX (386SX/4M RAM/80M HD) laptop and
I've succesfully installed a minimalist Linux and X on it. I know it
sounds ridiculous but yes I actually do have X running on it -- TinyX to
be precise. The only problem is that I can't get a mouse to work with it.
This laptop comes with a built in trackball. It also has an external
serial port. I've tried every imaginable configuration of mouse protocol
and dev with both the trackball and an external mouse. The only progress
I've made is that the "Microsoft" and "Mouseman" protocols will both let
me use the buttons on the mouse or trackball but not move the cursor.
Anyone know what's up with this?
The only other bit of info that might be useful is that the BIOS setup
utility only allows for configuring 2 out of 3 of the built in serial
devices (trackball/RS232/modem) at a time. Also when I had both the RS232
and Trackball active and had a mouse plugged into the RS232 I wouldn't get
any response, not even mouse clicks, at all from either device with any of
the protocols.
If anyone has any insight into getting either this trackball or an
external mouse working I'd love to hear it!
Thanks.
Sean Fulton
s f u l t o n @ p s c . e d u
Rob Clark
R. Sean Fulton <sfu...@NOSPAM.psc.edu> wrote:
>
>A friend gave me an old CompuAdd 325TX (386SX/4M RAM/80M HD) laptop and
>I've succesfully installed a minimalist Linux and X on it. I know it
>sounds ridiculous but yes I actually do have X running on it -- TinyX to
>be precise. The only problem is that I can't get a mouse to work with it.
>
>This laptop comes with a built in trackball. It also has an external
>serial port. I've tried every imaginable configuration of mouse protocol
>and dev with both the trackball and an external mouse. The only progress
>I've made is that the "Microsoft" and "Mouseman" protocols will both let
>me use the buttons on the mouse or trackball but not move the cursor.
I've got the CompuAdd Express version of this laptop, although I've never
been brave enough to install Linux on it (the serial port is burned out).
IIRC, DOS treats the trackball as a PS/2 mouse.
Hope this helps,
Rob Clark, grom...@o2.net
http://www.o2.net/~gromitkc/winmodem.html
R. Sean Fulton
Thanks for the response but unfortunately that doesn't work :( Setting the
protocol to PS/2 gets no response form the trackball at all.
I'm wondering if maybe Linux is setting up the serial port incorrectly? At
boot it reports it as a "16450". Unfortunately, I don't know much about
serial ports.
Anyone else have a clue I could borrow? I'll have to scan the docs of setserial.
Sean
In article <s_8O2.378$NQ4....@newsfeed.slurp.net>, grom...@o2.net (Rob
Nick Andrew
>The only other bit of info that might be useful is that the BIOS setup
>utility only allows for configuring 2 out of 3 of the built in serial
>devices (trackball/RS232/modem) at a time. Also when I had both the RS232
>and Trackball active and had a mouse plugged into the RS232 I wouldn't get
>any response, not even mouse clicks, at all from either device with any of
>the protocols.
My IBM Thinkpad shares hardware between the IR serial interface and the
RS232 serial interface, and so they can't be both active concurrently. It
had me stumped for a while. You might have a similar situation.
Nick.
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