Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Fri, 9 Sep 2005 17:23:32 -0700 (PDT)
From:      Dan Strick <strick@covad.net>
To:        freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org
Subject:   4D+ Mouse
Message-ID:  <200509100023.j8A0NWtT001004@mist.nodomain>

next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Fearing that 3-button mice might soon become extinct, I just bought a
bunch of cheap ones for my inventory.  They were advertised as "LOGITECH"
but are labeled "Labtec".  During the bootstrap configuration monologue,
the psm driver reports "psm0: model 4D+ Mouse, device ID 8".

I tried two of these mice with FreeBSD 5.4 and neither worked with moused.
The console went crazy when I moved the mouse.  Moused worked a little
better if I specified the "ps/2" protocol instead of "auto", but it still
jerked the cursor around a bit anyway.  I discovered that if I booted the
system with a working ps/2 mouse attached and then connected the Labtec
mouse in place of the working mouse, then the Labtec mouse worked just
fine even with the "auto" protocol.

I added this line:
	hint.psm.0.flags="0x200"
to /boot/device.hints.  This is the NOIDPROBE bit.  It apparently tells
the psm driver to ignore whatever the mouse says about itself and assume
it is a generic ps/2 mouse.  The psm driver now reports:
	psm0: model Generic PS/2 mouse, device ID 0
during bootstrap and the Labtec mice seem to work ok.

I looked in the psm driver.  It seems to think it knows something special
about A4 Tech 4D+ mice.  I didn't study the details or even verify that
this is what it thinks my Labtec mice are.

Can someone shed some light on this problem?  Is choosing an off-brand
ps/2 mouse something of a crapshoot?  I never had such a problem before.

(P.S. This problem may be specific to FreeBSD.  RH FC4 Linux has no
problem with the mouse.  I bet that MS windows doesn't either.  Does this
count as a bug in the FreeBSD 5.4 psm driver or is it just a fact of life?)

Dan Strick



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200509100023.j8A0NWtT001004>