Mouse sometimes freezes using a KVM switch with a 2.6.x Kernel

I am using Debian Sarge with a 2.6 Kernel and Xfree86.

My mouse is a ps/2 mouse on /dev/psaux.

I have a manual 8 port keyboard, video, mouse switch.

When I throw the switch to another computer and back again, sometimes the
mouse cursor freezes and I have to reboot the computer to reactivate the mouse.

A while ago, on another computer, I used to use Debian Woody with a 2.4 Kernel
and an earlier version of Xfree86.

On that machine, when the mouse cursor hung, it was possible to kill the mouse
daemon process (moused, I think) and restart it to revive the mouse.

I do not appear to have a mouse daemon process on the machine running Debian
Sarge, so I am unable to do this.

Even if I shut down to single user mode and back into multi-user mode, the
mouse remains hung. The only way to free the mouse is to reboot the machine.

Is the mouse being driven from a kernel module or something now ? I can't find
a mouse daemon.

This problem is really annoying.

I do not wish to replace my KVM switch since it is big and expensive and a
replacement 8 way electronic switch would also be expensive.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

This annoyance has been recorded at:

[url]http://markhobley.yi.org/linux/annoyances/lin05.html[/url]

Regards,

Mark.

--
Mark Hobley
393 Quinton Road West
QUINTON
Birmingham
B32 1QE

Telephone: (0121) 247 1596
International: 0044 121 247 1596

Email: markhobley at hotpop dot do_not_type_this_bit com

[url]http://markhobley.yi.org/[/url]

Up spake Mark Hobley:[color=blue]
> I am using Debian Sarge with a 2.6 Kernel and Xfree86.
>
> My mouse is a ps/2 mouse on /dev/psaux.
>
> I have a manual 8 port keyboard, video, mouse switch.
>
> When I throw the switch to another computer and back again, sometimes the
> mouse cursor freezes and I have to reboot the computer to reactivate the mouse.[/color]

For USB, at least, you can often fix this by switching to a console and
back (C-M-F1, C-M-F6). If that doesn't work, try killing X and
restarting it (rather than the whole machine). That's bound to
C-M-Backspace.
[color=blue]
> Even if I shut down to single user mode and back into multi-user mode, the
> mouse remains hung. The only way to free the mouse is to reboot the machine.[/color]

The reason KVMs seem so ridiculously overpriced is because they have
magic inside them to make all the machines think the I/O devices (mouse,
keyboard, monitor) are continously attached.

If you paid less than, say, US$40 for the KVM + cables, it might be a
mechanical one (i.e. without the magic). Or it could be a faulty KVM,
or a faulty cable, or a faulty mouse. Have you tried replacing each of
those in turn? At worst it will conclusively prove that they are *not*
the cause.
[color=blue]
> Is the mouse being driven from a kernel module or something now ? I can't find
> a mouse daemon.[/color]

Sorry, I don't know. I don't use mice, but I imagine it's controlled by
the XFree86 process. Try killing it off (see above).

Note also that

- under the console, the mouse daemon is called "gpm".

- PS/2 mice aren't supposed to be hot-pluggable; some motherboards /
BIOS / whatever will need to be power-cycled to re-detect the mouse.

(I *think* the latter point is correct; I can't be bothered to look it up.)
[color=blue]
> This problem is really annoying.[/color]

No kidding.
[color=blue]
> I do not wish to replace my KVM switch since it is big and expensive and a
> replacement 8 way electronic switch would also be expensive.[/color]

No kidding.

--
-trent
We're the technical experts. We were hired so that management could
ignore our recommendations and tell us how to do our jobs.
-- Mike Andrews

In alt.comp.linux Trent Buck <geragohpx@tznvy.pbz> wrote:[color=blue]
>
> For USB, at least, you can often fix this by switching to a console and
> back (C-M-F1, C-M-F6). If that doesn't work, try killing X and
> restarting it (rather than the whole machine). That's bound to
> C-M-Backspace.[/color]

Mine is a ps/2 mouse, its not USB. If I switch to console and back, the mouse
cursor is still frozen. If I kill X and restart it, the problem still occurs.
Like I say I have taken the whole system down to single user mode, which kills all
the daemons. This does not allow me to reset the mouse.
[color=blue]
> The reason KVMs seem so ridiculously overpriced is because they have
> magic inside them to make all the machines think the I/O devices (mouse,
> keyboard, monitor) are continously attached.[/color]
[color=blue]
> If you paid less than, say, US$40 for the KVM + cables, it might be a
> mechanical one (i.e. without the magic).[/color]

Mine was about £120 UKP for a mechanical one. An electronic one would have
cost lots more.
[color=blue]
> It could be a faulty KVM[/color]

I think that some of the wires are common wired across each of the ports. Not
everything is cut dead.
[color=blue]
> or a faulty cable, or a faulty mouse.[/color]

I've swapped cables and mouse. I know its not those.[color=blue]
>
> - under the console, the mouse daemon is called "gpm".[/color]

Its not the gpm daemon. I know about this already. I am not using gpm here at
the moment.

On a 2.4 kernel, the mouse was driven by the mouse daemon "moused". I could kill
this process. I don't have "moused" on a 2.6 machine. I suspect that the kernel
is driving the mouse directly, but I am no expert on this. Maybe there is some
sort of kernel module that I can unload and reload, or maybe there is a way of
sending an instruction to the kernel to re-initialize the mouse. I don't know
for sure, that's why I am asking the question.
[color=blue]
> - PS/2 mice aren't supposed to be hot-pluggable; some motherboards /
> BIOS / whatever will need to be power-cycled to re-detect the mouse.[/color]

I don't think Linux uses BIOS routines very often. The functionality of the BIOS
routines is written into the os. Is that right ?

Regards,

Mark.

--
Mark Hobley
393 Quinton Road West
QUINTON
Birmingham
B32 1QE

Telephone: (0121) 247 1596
International: 0044 121 247 1596

Email: markhobley at hotpop dot do_not_type_this_bit com

[url]http://markhobley.yi.org/[/url]

["Followup-To:" header set to alt.os.linux.]
On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 00:08:06 GMT, Mark Hobley wrote:[color=blue]
> In alt.comp.linux Trent Buck <geragohpx@tznvy.pbz> wrote:[color=green]
>>
>> If you paid less than, say, US$40 for the KVM + cables, it might be a
>> mechanical one (i.e. without the magic).[/color]
>
> Mine was about £120 UKP for a mechanical one.[/color]


[color=blue]
> An electronic one would have cost lots more.[/color]

Whoa!
I paid less than 49 USD for mine -- just a month or two ago: IOGear.

Jonesy
--
| Marvin L Jones | jonz | W3DHJ | linux
| Gunnison, Colorado | @ | Jonesy | OS/2 __
| 7,703' -- 2,345m | config.com | DM68mn SK

Ps2 mice do NOT unplug and plug again. This could be it.

IF you run /etc/rc.d/rc.gpm AFTER you switch with the kvm then the mouse
will work again in X. Kludgey but it works.

Try making the mouse device in GPM a "repeater". read man GPM and see
if that works.

Getting a script to reinitialize the mouse after switching would be
painful wouldn't it? How would it detect the switch? A cron file
to reinitialize the mouse every 5 seconds? hmmmm... :)

EC<:-}


Sometimes mechanical KVM's cause
great sparks that ruin serial ports. ONe should stick to electronic
KVM's. But as you said GPM is working.


Mark Hobley wrote:[color=blue]
> In alt.comp.linux Trent Buck <geragohpx@tznvy.pbz> wrote:[color=green]
>>restarting it (rather than the whole machine). That's bound to
>>C-M-Backspace.[/color]
> Like I say I have taken the whole system down to single user mode, which kills all
> the daemons. This does not allow me to reset the mouse.[color=green]
>>The reason KVMs seem so ridiculously overpriced is because they have
>>magic inside them to make all the machines think the I/O devices (mouse,
>>keyboard, monitor) are continously attached.
>>If you paid less than, say, US$40 for the KVM + cables, it might be a
>>mechanical one (i.e. without the magic).[/color]
> I think that some of the wires are common wired across each of the ports. Not
> everything is cut dead.
> Its not the gpm daemon. I know about this already. I am not using gpm here at
> the moment.[color=green]
>> - PS/2 mice aren't supposed to be hot-pluggable; some motherboards /
>> BIOS / whatever will need to be power-cycled to re-detect the mouse.[/color][/color]

[ Followup-To --> alt.os.linux ]

In alt.os.linux Mark Hobley <markhobley@hotpop.deletethisbit.co.uk>:[color=blue]
> I am using Debian Sarge with a 2.6 Kernel and Xfree86.[/color]
[color=blue]
> My mouse is a ps/2 mouse on /dev/psaux.[/color]
[color=blue]
> I have a manual 8 port keyboard, video, mouse switch.[/color]

[..]
[color=blue]
> I do not wish to replace my KVM switch since it is big and expensive and a
> replacement 8 way electronic switch would also be expensive.[/color]

My condolences, having used kvm switches some times, but never
used something as crappy as kvm. It was a pain in the ass
installing a bunch of system through them. A serial/LAN
connection to the mobo through a console server works much
better. Unsure why you need a mouse at all? Tend to run server in
runlevel 3 without X even installed, mostly no need and any
package that isn't installed doesn't need to be upgraded.;)

--
Michael Heiming (X-PGP-Sig > GPG-Key ID: EDD27B94)
mail: echo [email]zvpunry@urvzvat.qr[/email] | perl -pe 'y/a-z/n-za-m/'
#bofh excuse 168: le0: no carrier: transceiver cable problem?

<snip>
I have experienced similar behavior using a Belkin rackmounted KVM switch.
however it was with a FreeBSD server. The rack also had a Novell server and
4 Windows 2K servers.
The real problem was the way all the computers went to sleep. If you switch
away from the BSD machine to one of the Windows machines, and let the
windows machine put the screen to sleep then press the KVM button manually
to the BSD machine the mouse would be dead. it made no difference to the
Novell server as that thing was CLI only. To fix the issue on the BSD
machine you either had to restart moused or swich to any windows machine
and move the mouse around to wake up the GUI, at that point switching back
to the FreeBSD server would unfreeze the mouse. I know that this is nothing
concrete but perhaps it may help.


--
WINDOWS: "Where do you want to go today?"
LINUX: "Where do you want to go tommorow?"
BSD: "Are you guys coming or what?"

In alt.comp.linux Mark Hobley <markhobley@hotpop.deletethisbit.co.uk> wrote:
[color=blue]
> I am using Debian Sarge with a 2.6 Kernel and Xfree86.
>
> When I throw the switch to another computer and back again, sometimes the
> mouse cursor freezes and I have to reboot the computer to reactivate the mouse.[/color]

While installing a test machine today, the following observations were made:

Errors occured on a system which was undergoing reinstallation and had no X
components installed, since these had not yet been installed for the first
time.

atkbd.c spurious ACK on isa0060/serio0
input AT Translated Set 2 keyboard on isa0060/serio0

psmouse.c baddata from KBC - timeout

This installation was from a minimal debian sarge installation cd, and dselect
was downloading packages for the first time.

By identifying the utilization of "psmouse.c" it might be possible to
develop an application or patch to enable the mouse to be reset.

Regards,

Mark.

--
Mark Hobley
393 Quinton Road West
QUINTON
Birmingham
B32 1QE

Telephone: (0121) 247 1596
International: 0044 121 247 1596

Email: markhobley at hotpop dot donottypethisbit com

[url]http://markhobley.yi.org/[/url]

On Sun, 6 Mar 2005, Mark Hobley wrote:
[color=blue]
> In alt.comp.linux Mark Hobley <markhobley@hotpop.deletethisbit.co.uk> wrote:
>[color=green]
> > I am using Debian Sarge with a 2.6 Kernel and Xfree86.
> >
> > When I throw the switch to another computer and back again, sometimes the
> > mouse cursor freezes and I have to reboot the computer to reactivate the mouse.[/color][/color]

You need a KVM that has a mouse reset function like the cybex autoview
commander.

[color=blue]
>
> While installing a test machine today, the following observations were made:
>
> Errors occured on a system which was undergoing reinstallation and had no X
> components installed, since these had not yet been installed for the first
> time.
>
> atkbd.c spurious ACK on isa0060/serio0
> input AT Translated Set 2 keyboard on isa0060/serio0
>
> psmouse.c baddata from KBC - timeout
>
> This installation was from a minimal debian sarge installation cd, and dselect
> was downloading packages for the first time.
>
> By identifying the utilization of "psmouse.c" it might be possible to
> develop an application or patch to enable the mouse to be reset.
>
> Regards,
>
> Mark.
>
>[/color]

In alt.comp.linux Sir Jackery <root@jackery.com> wrote:[color=blue]
>
> You need a KVM that has a mouse reset function like the cybex autoview
> commander.
>[/color]

I don't have one of these.

--
Mark Hobley
393 Quinton Road West
QUINTON
Birmingham
B32 1QE

Telephone: (0121) 247 1596
International: 0044 121 247 1596

Email: markhobley at hotpop dot donottypethisbit com

[url]http://markhobley.yi.org/[/url]