Re: PS/2 Intellimouse Patch
Michael Funk (root@uncc.campus.mci.net)
Mon, 28 Jul 1997 05:31:31 -0400 (EDT)
On Mon, 28 Jul 1997, [ISO-8859-1] Johan Myréen wrote:
> On Sat, 26 Jul 1997, Michael Funk wrote:
>
> > It might be stated that this monstrosity :) doesn't deserve kernel code,
> > but consider the reason I wrote it. I was helping the admin at my school
> > set up a new CS lab, all Linux boxes. We were stuck with 40 Gateway
> > machines that shipped with these mice, and had to use AccelX for support
> > of the graphics boards they came with. Buying 40 new mice wasn't an
> > option. I'm sure there are others in similar situations.
>
> Hmm, there is one thing I don't understand. Why would you have
> had to have all the 40 mice replaced? You said they behave as
> standard PS/2 mice, except that the wheel doesn't do anything.
> Then you write a patch to enable the wheel, which screws up the
> protocol, so AccelX doesn't grok it anymore. Therefore you undo
> the whole thing by stripping off the wheel information byte in
> aux_interrupt(), thus making the mouse behave like a standard
> two-button PS/2 mouse again... Huh?
Oops, I mispoke. After the modification to aux_interrupt(), clicking
the wheel is just like a middle-button click, but turning the wheel
does nothing. It's emulating a standard 3-button PS/2 mouse, not
going back to the 2-button state. That would be a silly hack indeed.
The admin I was helping out had a heavily customized X setup that he
wanted to use on the machines, that would be severely lobotomized
if we were forced to make do with 2-button mice, hence the need for
either a new driver or new mice. To be honest, the driver was written
more out of obstinance and irritation at Gateway and Microsoft than
anything else. Sometimes there is no better motivator than sheer
grumpiness. :)
Mike