mousedrv ignores "Device" and "Protocol" in xorg.conf
Submitted by WJ
Assigned to Xorg Project Team
Description
It is impossible to use a serial mouse with xorg, because the mousedrv does not see the "Device" line. I have modified mousedrv, and have confirmed this with printf statements. The test for "Device" always returns NULL, because it is before the call to CollectOptions. An identical test placed after CollectOptions does see the xorg.conf "Device" line and can printf to confirm this. The test for "Protocol" is right before the "Device" test and fails for the same reason. I have modified a mousedrv by reording the calls, and have confirmed that "Device" in xorg.conf works simply by putting the CollectOptions before any calls to test for Options. Have not got "Protocol" to work yet.
There is no way to use a serial mouse without using the "Device" line in xorg.conf. HAL and UDEV cannot discover a serial mouse. This has blocked use of a serial mouse on Linux 2.6 over 18 months and 2 distributions. I still use Linux 2.4 because of this. There is no way around it. Other mice do not have 3 buttons. There is no reason to have code in mousedrv checking for Options in a way that cannot possibly work.
Version: 7.7 (2012.06)