What should I do if mouse doesn't work (Mandrake 7.2)?

[Apostata]

Hello,

Recently I posted a question about finding a driver for my Logitech Wheel Mouse and (without getting into that too much) I realised that I should've asked the following (more general) question first:

I had made the mistake of switching the mouse properties in HardDrake to better suit what I had (I chose USB Wheel, which sounded more suitable). However, upon rebooting, I couldn't move the mouse anymore. I managed to tab my way into KDE again from the log-on screen, and I managed to highlight and open DrakConf by tabbing along the desktop (thankfully, there's a shortcut on the desktop). However, the new DrakConf interface didn't allow me to tab to any of the config. choices...I was stuck highlighting or not highlighting the Quit button.
Is there an easier (newbie-friendly) way to get around this in the future? I don't mind using the console, but I couldn't think of where to go from there.
As a result (and as I had just installed Mandrake 7.2) I decided to re-install the OS rather than spend my afternoon trying to figure out the key combination.

Any and all help is appreciated :)

[scott_R]

The mouse configuration program is also available in /usr/sbin as mousedrake.

I'm only using 7.1, but you should still have it available through the console. I tried it, and it seems to work ok with just the tab/enter/arrow keys. http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/smile.gif

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[Apostata]

Thanks for the tip :)

I guess one can never overestimate the value of console/filesystem know-how.

[mdwatts]

You can always visit the mouse setup section at www.xfree86.org (http://www.xfree86.org) to find out the proper setup for your mouse. Then you can manually edit /etc/XF86Config, make the changes and restart the X server.