[Techtalk] Window manager help!!

[mc]

At 07:07 AM 8/8/2002, Kathryn Andersen wrote:
>As a last resort, you may have to (gasp) edit a config file.  Your X11
>config file, as it happens.
>
>This file is in the /etc/X11 directory, and you need to be root to edit
>it.  Seeing as you have RH7.3, I expect you are using a more modern
>version of XFree86, so the file is probably called "XF86Config-4"
>
>If you are certain you're going to be using only the trackball when you
>use the machine, what you need to do is remove the conflicting mouse
>information from the config file, and put in the information just
>relating to your trackball.  But SAVE a copy of the config file FIRST,
>just in case the changes don't work.
>
>Aside: You do know how to work in a console window, don't you?  Because
>if X won't start or work properly, then you can do things like edit
>files from one or more console windows.  Go Ctrl-Alt-F1 if you are in
>the windowing environment, and that will get you to the first console
>login (there are about six I think).  Once you're in "console mode",
>then you can go Alt-F1 through to Alt-F6 to get to the different console
>windows.  Alt-F7 should get you back to X-Windows.
>
>Anyway, this is what I have in my XF86Config-4 file about my MS
>Trackball.  (Note, however, that I'm using Debian, so the
>filename/setup may not be exactly the same)  I'm also assuming that your
>mouse is plugged into the PS/2 port as mine is.
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Section "InputDevice"
>         Identifier      "Mouse0"
>         Driver          "mouse"
>         Option          "CorePointer"
>         Option          "Device"                "/dev/psaux"
>         Option          "Protocol"              "ImPS/2"
>         Option          "Emulate3Buttons"       "true"
>         Option          "ZAxisMapping"          "4 5"
>EndSection
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Then, further down, you will find...
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Section "ServerLayout"
>         Identifier      "Default Layout"
>         Screen          "Default Screen"
>         InputDevice     "Generic Keyboard"
>         InputDevice     "Mouse0"
>EndSection
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Just make sure that you only have one "mouse" listed as an input device,
>and that it's the entry about your trackball.
>
>Then you'll need to restart X to see if your change worked.  I'm not
>sure how you'd do that with your setup, since the way I do it is that I
>have kdm as the login manager, and it has an option menu which includes
>"restart the X server" as one of its options.

Apologies to Kathryn for sending my reply to her instead of the list 
yesterday.  And many thanks for this info on X setups and mouse config for 
the laptop.  I was able to get the laptop up and running and I am a lot 
better armed to fix this myself if it ever happens again!

Thanks!

mc