Debian Bug report logs - #570448
gpm fails silently

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Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: ael <law_ence.dev@ntlworld.com>

To: Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org>

Subject: gpm fails silently

Date: Thu, 18 Feb 2010 22:25:09 +0000

Package: gpm
Version: 1.20.4-3.3
Severity: important


This update to gpm has broken my mouse support. 
gpm seems to load (although initialy I saw crashes).

It seems to run as
   gpm -m /dev/input/mice -t exps2
taken from /etc/gpm.conf.  (It is hard to write this with no cut & paste)
/var/log/messages says "started gpm successfully ..."
There is, however no cursor although clicking button 1 produces inverse
video character block in centre of screen on tty. Mouse/ball movement
has no effect. Of course, there is nothing under X either.
lshal shows ImExPS2 Logitech Explorer Mouse.
/etc/init/gpm strace fails, although I can run under strace manually.

Without a mouse, can't really use X, so a rather serious bug.... :-(

Sorry that there isn't much to go on in this report thus far...


-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (990, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.33-rc8_exact-60597-gb0483e7
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages gpm depends on:
ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]     1.5.28         Debian configuration management sy
ii  debianutils               3.2.2          Miscellaneous utilities specific t
ii  dpkg                      1.15.5.6       Debian package management system
ii  install-info              4.13a.dfsg.1-5 Manage installed documentation in 
ii  libc6                     2.10.2-2       GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libgpm2                   1.20.4-3.3     General Purpose Mouse - shared lib
ii  lsb-base                  3.2-23         Linux Standard Base 3.2 init scrip
ii  ucf                       3.0025         Update Configuration File: preserv

gpm recommends no packages.

gpm suggests no packages.

-- debconf information:
* gpm/responsiveness:
* gpm/repeat_type: none
* gpm/append:
* gpm/restart: false
* gpm/sample_rate:
* gpm/device: /dev/input/mice
* gpm/type: exps2

Message #10 received at 570448@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Peter Samuelson <peter@p12n.org>

To: ael <law_ence.dev@ntlworld.com>, 570448@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#570448: gpm fails silently

Date: Thu, 18 Feb 2010 19:30:34 -0600

[ael]
> It seems to run as
>    gpm -m /dev/input/mice -t exps2
> taken from /etc/gpm.conf.  (It is hard to write this with no cut & paste)
> /var/log/messages says "started gpm successfully ..."
> There is, however no cursor although clicking button 1 produces inverse
> video character block in centre of screen on tty. Mouse/ball movement
> has no effect. Of course, there is nothing under X either.

In your configuration, X and gpm are _completely_ separate.  Which
leads me to the question of whether your mouse, and kernel driver, are
reporting correctly.  Try this:

    od -v -tx1 -Anone -w3 < /dev/input/mice

This shows mouse packets in 3-byte PS/2 format, one per line.  Move the
mouse, click the buttons, and you should see it all in real time.
Examples of what you should see:

    09 00 00      <-- left button pressed
    0c 00 00      <-- middle button pressed
    0a 00 00      <-- right button pressed
    0b 00 00      <-- left and right buttons both pressed
    08 00 00      <-- no buttons pressed

    08 01 00      <-- move to the right
    08 02 00      <-- move to the right
    08 fd 00      <-- move to the left
    08 ff 00      <-- move to the left

Given that you say the mouse doesn't work in X, that is the first thing
I would investigate.
-- 
Peter Samuelson | org-tld!p12n!peter | http://p12n.org/

Message #15 received at 570448@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: ael <law_ence.dev@ntlworld.com>

To: Peter Samuelson <peter@p12n.org>

Cc: 570448@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#570448: gpm fails silently

Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:47:31 +0000

Thanks for the quick reply. In fact, just after I had filed the report,
I decided to try a different kernel: it worked. Then I reverted to
the original kernel: again it worked.

In short, I can't reproduce the problem. Maybe I touched the mouse during 
a critical initialisation and hit a race/deadlock. Maybe the hardware 
itself latched up somehow: it certainly looks like something of that
sort.

So I suggest that this bug is closed: if it happens again, I can reopen.

ael
 

Message #20 received at 570448-done@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Peter Samuelson <peter@p12n.org>

To: 570448-done@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#570448: gpm fails silently

Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2010 08:25:56 -0600

> In short, I can't reproduce the problem. Maybe I touched the mouse
> during a critical initialisation and hit a race/deadlock. Maybe the
> hardware itself latched up somehow: it certainly looks like something
> of that sort.

OK, closing the bug now.  Thanks for the followup,
-- 
Peter Samuelson | org-tld!p12n!peter | http://p12n.org/

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