HH + different monitor = mouse working differently?

[przxqgl]

i have a microsoft mouse with 4 buttons and a wheel. i used to be able to just select some text, and then hit the left-side mouse button to paste the selected text anywhere i clicked. it was a functionality that i first became aware of when i was running mandrake, and it was one of the aspects of kubuntu that i had really gotten to like (it saved a lot of time, not having to hit ctrl+c to copy, and then ctrl+v to paste). it quickly became one of the reasons i liked kubuntu A LOT. i have used this functionality CONSTANTLY since before i first installed dapper, about a year ago. when i upgraded to hardy, the functionality came along for the ride, which suited me fine.

i got a new monitor (of all things) recently. both monitors are made by sony (although the new one has a "Dell" logo on the front) and they both say "trinitron" on the case. the only difference is that the old monitor is 17" and the new one is 21". when i installed it, i didn't do anything to change the mouse settings at all. however, when i plugged the new monitor in, and turned it on, instead of doing the "copy and paste" function, the left-side mouse button does nothing... except in firefox, where, despite the fact that i have "Mouse Navigation" turned OFF in firefox, the left-side button takes me back to the previous page, which i definitely DO NOT like - or use - under most circumstances.

i had the functionality i wanted using HH (w/KDE 3.5.9) with the previous monitor, but not with the current monitor.

i looked under "System Settings" -> "Keyboard & Mouse" and didn't find anything that looked remotely close. also, i checked "klipper" -> "configure klipper" in the systray and didn't find it there, either...

i checked with a more knowledgable kubuntu-user, and he suggested that it might be the xorg.conf file that was rewritten when i installed my new monitor, but i didn't do anything with the monitor other than plug it in and turn it on (maybe this was a mistake, but i don't know) but when i tried to do

sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

i got an error message that said

FATAL: Error inserting battery (/lib/modules/2.6.24-16-generic/kernel/drivers/acpi/battery.ko): No such device

i don't even have a battery... this is a desktop computer, not a laptop... and i made it out of bits and pieces of several other computers, none of which had batteries... 8/

i'm concerned that more than just my mouse has been changed, but until i can reconfigure my xorg.conf file, i'm outta luck... any suggestions?

[Snowhog]

Re: HH + different monitor = mouse working differently?

Hmm. If you re-run the configuration for the xserver, using:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

You will be presented with the questions about your system and hardware that you answer. Using the -phigh option doesn't present you with all of the configuration questions.

[przxqgl]

Re: HH + different monitor = mouse working differently?

i ran

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

and it started to reconfigure my keyboard and mouse(! which is more than it has done previously), but then it asked me if i wanted to emulate a 3-button mouse, when i said "yes", the reconfigurator crashed, with an error message that said:

xserver-xorg postinst warning: overwriting possibly-customised configuratiion file; backup in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.2008072112753
FATAL: Error inserting battery (/lib/modules/2.6.24-19-generic/kernel/drivers/acpi/battery.ko): No such device

what do i do now?

[Snowhog]

Re: HH + different monitor = mouse working differently?

If I was experiencing this, I'd do the following:

1) reboot into recovery mode (second boot item in the Grub menu)
2) at the prompt (you will be 'root') I'd move the battery.ko file to a safe place (my /home directory):

mv /lib/modules/2.6.24-19-generic/kernel/drivers/acpi/battery.ko /home/your_user_name/battery.ko

(replace your_user_name with your real user login name)
3) reboot by typing:

shutdown -r now

4) after logged back in, open a console and try reconfiguring the xserver again (without the -phigh option)

[przxqgl]

Re: HH + different monitor = mouse working differently?

i rebooted into recovery mode, and moved battery.ko to my home directory, and rebooted again.

i then logged back in and did sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

as before, the reconfigurator crashed after asking me if i wanted to emulate a 3-button mouse, with an error message that said:

xserver-xorg postinst warning: overwriting possibly-customised configuratiion file; backup in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.20080721140727
FATAL: Error inserting battery (/lib/modules/2.6.24-19-generic/kernel/drivers/acpi/battery.ko): No such file or directory

it's a little different, but whether or not it's a step in the right direction is still a question...

[przxqgl]

Re: HH + different monitor = mouse working differently?

so i decided to try something different, since the xorg configurator wasn't doing what i wanted, so i went to the backup xorg.conf file from when the mouse was doing what i wanted, and copied just the "Configured Mouse" settings, and pasted them into the current xorg.conf file. it worked: my mouse now has the functionality it did before i switched monitors.

unfortunately, i still have this problem of the xserver-xorg configurator crashing because it's going to look for a battery that isn't there. this is much lower on my list of priorities to fix, but it's still a question that is out there. i did some searching and discovered that battery.ko is part of acpi - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance...ower_Interface. if i understand correctly, this is something only laptops should have... and this is definitely not a laptop. any suggestions?