Mouse speed/acceleration

[Grobbendonk]

Hi, I'm looking for a bit of guidance on how to reconfigure the mouse on this machine.

I've got a pretty standard 3 button USB wheelmouse connected. The machine is dual boot - w2k and Mandrake 9.0/KDE3. Both GUIs are being run at the same resolution.

Under w2k, the mouse provides a smooth, accurate and responsive cursor. It's set towards the "fast" end of the speed scale (about 3/4 of the way along) and with medium acceleration. This is what I'm comfortable with.

Under KDE, I just can't get it to work properly. It's plainly responding to the changes I make, but it doesn't matter what combination of pointer acceleration and threshold I use, the cursor is either far too unresponsive, or it jumps around all over the place.

I hate to say it, but this is a really serious problem and is forcing me to go back to using windows - I suffer from mild RSI and I can't afford to make it worse by having to fight with my mouse.

ANY help would be very much appreciated!

Thanks, Nic

[BigFatJoe]

how are you trying to change the responsiveness under linux?

one way is to open a terminal and enter:

xset m <acceleration> <threshold>

then, the mouse will <accelerate> so much, after you have moved your mouse over the necessary <threshold>. This allows for precision, when not moved over the threshold, and acceleration of the mouse when it has moved over the threshold. Am I going in circles? hpe you understood that....

if that's what you're looking for, find a setting you like and add it a startup script for X (for example, your .xsession if you use one)

[Hayl]

i know you said that you have a USB mouse but ... do you (by any chance) have it plugged into a ps/2 port with an adapter? i have noticed that USB mice work really crappy if you do it that way.

[Grobbendonk]

> xset m <acceleration> <threshold>

Thanks, but I was using the control panel, which does the same (but slower cos it's gui). I've spent a while playing with the settings, so I'd sort of grasped what the two settings do. Nice to have confirmation though!

However, xset has helped a lot. Basically, if I muck around using the control panel, xset q shows "acceleration: 6/1 threshold: 1" or "acceleration: 9/1 threshold: 3" etc.

BUT xset lets me change the acceleration to something like 7/2, which seems a lot better. It's still not usable as much as w2k, but it's a lot better. Thanks.

[BigFatJoe]

Maybe its a problem with your /etc/X11/XF86Config-4. You should check how the mouse is setup there, and do a goole search for you're usb mouse (or usb mouse in general)....maybe there are better sets of options you can use.

*shrug*
sorry i could not be more helpful...I'm still using a PS/2 :D