Linux-Hardware Digest #231, Volume #10 Fri, 14 May 99 02:13:37 EDT
Contents:
Re: AHA 153x SCSI, where can I find it (Len Huppe)
Diamond Viper V770 and XFree86? (Brian Hall)
Alternative to OSS for Sound Blaster PCI128? ("Spotillius Maximus aka \"Spot\"")
Re: Need specs for older monitor (Len Huppe)
Re: SCSI and >8.2G partitions (Len Huppe)
Hard drive geometry, boot-time parameters for LILO (Keith Rhodes)
Re: LILO refuses, stops after 'LI' (HAC)
ess audio drive (Los)
Re: tty00 or ttyS0? Confused... (Robin Munn)
Hauppauge WIN/PCI with bt878 (Richard Brunner)
Re: Floppy Tape (Erwann ABALEA)
Re: SCSI Problem (Len Huppe)
Exhaustive testing of a suspect hard drive ("Matthew B. Kennedy")
Re: HELP REQUIRED WITH RAGE 128 CHIPSET + SBLIVE! ("Carlo Leorini")
Re: CMI8330 Soundblaster and isapnp - a question (Steven Martin)
Re: Cloning a Linux box (HAC)
PS/2 or serial? (mj)
Re: Amd-k6-2 (Len Huppe)
Re: All the current OSes are idiotic (was Re: Is Windows for idiots?) (Brad BARCLAY)
Re: Some USR modems are MS-only, Re: [SURVEY] Who has an internal modemin his linux
box ? ("DP30Dev")
Re: Exhaustive testing of a suspect hard drive ("Clifton T. Sharp Jr.")
Re: SB live, or Monster 3d? ("Chad Dressler")
Re: mouse, gpm and X ("Gene Heskett")
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Len Huppe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: AHA 153x SCSI, where can I find it
Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 22:54:43 -0500
Have you tried installing the latest kernel source and looking for the
driver there? You may be able to compile it as a kernel module.
good luck
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Hi
> I'm trying to install on an IBM THinkPad with an
> AHA153x / AIC-6370 PnP SCSI adapter, but
> I don't find it in the list on my Red Hat 5.2 CD
>
> What shall I doooo.
>
> Torfinn K�ringen
>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: Brian Hall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Diamond Viper V770 and XFree86?
Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 20:53:41 -0400
Anyone out there gotten the Diamond Viper V770 to work at all under
XFree86?
Thanks!
Caliginous
------------------------------
From: "Spotillius Maximus aka \"Spot\"" <*****@ix.netcom.com>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.setup
Subject: Alternative to OSS for Sound Blaster PCI128?
Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 21:00:32 -0400
What are my options for running a SB PCI128 sound card? I'm using OSS now
and it seems to be OK, but I'm curious if there are alternatives that will
work better. I copied all my sound themes over from Win98 and only half of
them work, the other half don't play. I think this is a problem in OSS
since they are all *.wav format. Thanks.
Ed
------------------------------
From: Len Huppe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To:
alt.comp.hardware,alt.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.hardware,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.video
Subject: Re: Need specs for older monitor
Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 22:57:41 -0500
Try doing a search at www.aj.com.
good luck
Watchman wrote:
> Hey all. I have a Daewoo CMC-1414AV 14" SVGA monitor that I need to find
> out the specs for (ie. horizontal sync, vertical sync, vertical refresh
> etc).
>
> If you happen to know where to find the specs or know what they are, plz
> email me at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thanx.
------------------------------
From: Len Huppe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: SCSI and >8.2G partitions
Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 23:04:19 -0500
The 8.2 Gbyte limit is due to the design of certain PC hardware and
software systems. You should also know that SCSI drives are rated for
capacity when they are raw. A 9.1 Gig drive is about 8.47 Gig after
formatting.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Hey all,
>
> I've read several messages concerning the 8G
> limit problem. I've encountered this problem when
> using the kickstart option from Redhat. When using
> the "grow" directive, it would create a 8.2
> partition, instead of using the 9G of my SCSI
> drive. So my doubt is. Can I create a linux boot
> partition of more than 8.2G or not ?
>
> Thanks,
> Marcelo
>
> --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==--
> ---Share what you know. Learn what you don't.---
------------------------------
From: Keith Rhodes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.setup
Subject: Hard drive geometry, boot-time parameters for LILO
Date: Tue, 11 May 1999 20:59:03 +0200
This might help
Thanks for your comments on working through the problem I had with LILO.
Nobody gave me a complete solution, but several people gave me clues
that led to one.
Finally, I figured out that the problem is with the geometry of the hard
drive (a Western Digital Caviar AC32500 2.5 Gbyte). The drive probable
gives incorrect values to the BIOS, or the drive gives correct valuesto
the BIOS which incorrectly interprets them (this is probale; it's an
*OLD* BIOS).
The solution turned out to be:
1. boot from the floppy
2. edit /etc/lilo.conf
add these lines:
disk = /dev/hda
sectors = 63
heads = 16
cylinders = 4096
then in the stanza for my kernel image, the line
append = "hd=4096,16,63"
3. run /sbin/lilo to update LILO
4. take out the floppy and reboot.
the hd parameter to apend takes its arguments in the order
cylinders,heads,sectors.
Here are some values for other Western Digital drives
(taken from page 21 of the Caviar Series Installation Guide)
Model cylinders heads sectors
AC2850 1654 16 63
AC21000 2100 16 63
AC31000 2100 16 63
AC21200 2484 16 63
AC31200 2484 16 63
AC31600 3148 16 63
AC31200 4092 16 63
AC32500 4960 16 63
AC33100 6136 16 63
/*Note that there are two versions of the AC31200 drive
The version with 2484 cylinders is listed as having a capacity of
1281.9 MBytes.
The version with 4092 cylinders is listed as having a capacity of
2111.8 MBytes.
This is a typographical error: the front cover of the installation
guide refers to a model AC32100. This is very probably the 2111.8 MByte
drive.*/
------------------------------
From: HAC <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: LILO refuses, stops after 'LI'
Date: Fri, 14 May 1999 04:16:46 GMT
mj wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> Some weeks ago, i installed Debian 2.0 on a friends machine, equipped with 2
> Hardrives (Quantum Fireball, 2.5GB (hda) and Fujitsu 4.2 GB (hdc), windows on
> hda and Linux on hdc). Selecting the boot drive as "D:" in the BIOS settings
> caused this "LI" problem ("LI" appears on the screen and the machine hangs).
> Installing LILO on hda master boot record, and setting boot drive to "C:"
> eliminated the problem. Any idea why this happens?
>
LILO uses the BIOS. The BIOS assigns each partition a number, along the
lines of the DOS drive letter. If you add or remove partitions, that
number may change. As a result, LILO doesn't find what it is looking
for, since it's looking in the wrong place.
Boot from your boot floppy - you do have one, right? - and rerun LILO.
That should fix it.
--
Howard Christeller Irvine, CA [EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: Los <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: ess audio drive
Date: Fri, 14 May 1999 04:17:16 GMT
hi, i was wondering If linux has drivers onn line for ess audio drive
1938 pci, because On the list it only goes up to 1868 or i just gotta
eat it,, you could e mail at [EMAIL PROTECTED] thanks,,
------------------------------
From: Robin Munn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: tty00 or ttyS0? Confused...
Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 14:05:49 GMT
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> On Wed, 12 May 1999 22:31:23 GMT, Brad Pepers wrote:
> >Robin Munn wrote:
[snip]
> >>
> >> Serial driver version 4.13 with no serial options enabled
> >> tty00 at 0x03f8 (irq 4) is a 16450
> >> tty02 at 0x03e8 (irq 4) is a 16550A
> >>
> >> And the output from the /etc/rc.boot/0setserial boot script is:
> >>
> >> Configuring serial ports...done.
> >> /dev/ttyS0 at 0x03f8 (irq 4) is a 16450
> >> /dev/ttyS2 at 0x03e8 (irq 5) is a 16550A
> >
[snip Brad Pepers' reply]
>
> I got curious about this tty00 thing and checked what I have
> during the boot-up (I usually have the monitor turned off).
> Guess what (this is Debian 2.1 "slink" with kernel 2.2.5):
>
> Linux version 2.2.5 (root@Port) (gcc version 2.7.2.3) ...
> ...
> Serial driver version 4.27 with no serial options enabled
> ttyS00 at 0x03f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
> ttyS01 at 0x02f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
> ttyS02 at 0x03e8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
> (ttyS2 is a modem and its IRQ is certainly changed to 5...)
>
> Needless to say I only have ttyS0 ttyS1 ... in /dev/.
> What is this extra `0' standing for?..
> a.
Hmmm, I'm using kernel 2.0.36 (the Debian 2.1 default kernel) and the
serial driver version is 4.13, while you've got driver version 4.27. It
seems they added an "S" to the names but they kept the extra "0". My
guess is they stuck an extra "0" to make the numbers two-digit instead
of one-digit so that if you have one of those extra-serial-port cards
that give you (say) 16 serial ports, ttyS15 will line up vertically with
ttyS00 and will sort properly. But that's just a guess; I don't know
what the driver author was thinking.
As for my modem-not-working-on-IRQ-5 problem, I checked /proc/interrupts
and there it was, plain as day: IRQ 5 was already being used by the
network card. *slaps forehead* D'OH! I switched it to IRQ 7 and
everything was once again peachy-keen. I could dial out, dial in,
everything.
Ah well. Thanks for the input.
--
Robin Munn (Legal name: Robert A. Munn)
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
--== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==--
---Share what you know. Learn what you don't.---
------------------------------
From: Richard Brunner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Hauppauge WIN/PCI with bt878
Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 16:39:48 +0200
Hi!
I've some problems with my Hauppauge WIN/PCI (bt878) - Kernel 2.2.8
/ SuSE 6.1 / bttv 6.0.4
First I've compiled my Kernel with bt848 support (as a module).
Then I've modified the Makefile from bttv and after that I installed it
(make / make ins)
"dmesg" said me the following:
bttv0: Brooktree Bt878 (rev 2) bus: 0, devfn: 72, irq: 10, memory:
0xe7000000.
PCI: Enabling bus mastering for device 00:48
bttv: 1 Bt8xx card(s) found.
bttv0: NO fader chip: TEA6300 # <== what's this?
bttv0: model: BT878
i2c: bus registered: bt848-0
i2c: scanning bus bt848-0: found device at addr=0xa0
i2c: scanning bus bt848-0: found device at addr=0xc2
i2c: device attached: tuner (addr=0xc2, bus=bt848-0, driver=tuner)
Then I installed Kwin-TV. I am able to watch TV, but the quality ist
very bad [black-white](with NTSC it's OK, but with PAL it's very bad
[why????, under win I am only able to watch with PAL!]
The second problem is, although the soundcard is working, that there is
no sound!
I hope someone is able to help me.
thank you
richard
------------------------------
From: Erwann ABALEA <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Floppy Tape
Date: Fri, 14 May 1999 04:06:36 +0200
Now, run in circles and scream... It should work...
On Thu, 13 May 1999, Dustin Oprea wrote:
> OK, I've installed ftape and its tools. What now?
>
>
>
--
Erwann ABALEA
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: Len Huppe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: SCSI Problem
Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 22:45:10 -0500
Sounds like you have a termination problem. This can happen when you use a
50-to-25 pin adapter cable. The problem occurs because you're only
terminating half of the SCSI bus. Here's what you can try: run your
scanner off of the 3140U, and put everything else on the 2940UW. You can
compile support for more than one SCSI adapter into your kernel.
good luck
Mykool wrote:
> I hate to ask this question to this group, but there are so many people
> here that know their stuff. So here goes...
>
> I just got my new SCSI card, Adaptec 2940U2W. Everything works ok
> except for my scanner. My scanner is a Umax 1220s. Here is my setup:
>
> ID0: NEC Cd-Rom (terminated)
> ID1: Panasonic CD-R CW-7502
> ID3: Umax 1220S (terminated)
> ID5: Iomega Zip 100
> ID7: Adaptec 2940U2W
>
> If I plug my scanner in, nothing is detected. Without it connected,
> everything else is detected. I'm connecting my scanner with a 25 to 50
> pin cable. I have an adapter to give me an external 50-pin connector.
> Everything is on the 50-pin connector. I'm thinking I have some a
> termination problem, but my settings haven't changed between my old card
> (Intraserver 3140U). All help is appreciated.
> --
> Michael Barnhill
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gte294f
> ICQ 13526262
------------------------------
From: "Matthew B. Kennedy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Exhaustive testing of a suspect hard drive
Date: Fri, 14 May 1999 04:23:53 +0000
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Hello all,
I recently gained a 2 Gb hard drive which according to the previous
user, has bad sectors. I've installed it in my linux machine,
partitioned it into two 500 Mb partitions and one 1000 Mb partition,
formatted each partition with mkfs, and mounted them successfully for
normal use. None of these operations complained about any drive
problems.
My question: Is there a way I can thoroughly scan the disk for bad
sectors and surface problems? Something like scandisk under dos,
perhaps?
Thanks,
--
Matthew B. Kennedy
Research Concentration in Speech, Audio and Video Technology
Queensland University of Technology, Australia
------------------------------
From: "Carlo Leorini" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: HELP REQUIRED WITH RAGE 128 CHIPSET + SBLIVE!
Date: Tue, 11 May 1999 23:31:03 +0200
No the mach64 server is not ok for the ATI 128 Rage
Currently there is not server for this card
You can use it at 640x480: wonderfull :+(
Christopher James Smith a �crit dans le message ...
>Hi,
>
>I just wan't to know from anyone if the Rage 128 chipset (on AGP bus) is
>supported by the Mach64 server before I go and put my hand in my pocket and
>buy one. Also, are there any hardware DVD projects under Linux yet?
>
>Creative just launched the SBLive driver but I can't get it to recognise
>the mixer. Any suggestions?
>
>Please e-mail me if you know :-)
>
>Thanx
>
>-------------------------------
>Chris Smith
>Dept Electrical Engineering
>Brunel University
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
>
>
------------------------------
From: Steven Martin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: CMI8330 Soundblaster and isapnp - a question
Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 21:43:44 -0600
Stephen Quattlebaum wrote:
>
> I'm trying to get my CMI8330 on-board sound chip to work in Linux.
[.. Skipped ..]
You didn't give us much info to go on. How about a look at your pnpdump
output. I have only gotten mine to work with kernel 2.0.36. My device
has the same ID as the docs (16777472). Still doesn't work with 2.2.7,
even after following the mini-HOWTO. I put out a message a couple of
weeks ago with all the details but no response.
If you want, I could send you all of my details. My CD plays and
RealAudio works but only with kernel 2.0.36. I don't play any big games
so I can't comment on game sound.
> ****
> Stephen Quattlebaum
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> This email composed of %100 post-consumer electrons.
>
> The opinions expressed by me are not necessarily the opinions of the
> University of Alabama or it's faculty/administration (but they should be).
--
=======
Steve Martin, NR7P
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: HAC <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.setup
Subject: Re: Cloning a Linux box
Date: Fri, 14 May 1999 04:39:34 GMT
gus wrote:
>
> Assuming the hardwars *is* identical, you could always plug the clone's
> Harddisk in to the "master" computer, then assuming the master is disk
> hda, and the clone is hdb, you could *probably* do:
>
> dd < /dev/hda > /dev/hdb
> e2fsck /dev/hdb1 ....
>
> It is a bit risky, so a better way to do it would be to set up the clone
> disk partitions to be close on the master, and then do ....
>
If you happen to have a bad block, dd will bite you bigtime. Much safer
to put the new drive in the system you are cloning, run "badblocks -w
/dev/hdx", then partition and create your swap and filesystems. The
passthrough mode of cpio works well for duplicating filesystems. While
I usually pipe find into cpio, this is one time when it may be simpler
to use "find / | sort >/tmp/filelist", edit filelist to remove /proc and
the mountpoint for the destination, plus anything else you don't want
copied, and then use "cpio -pmdv /mnt/newdisk </tmp/filelist". Leave
/dev in; cpio understands special files.
I did run into a cpio that was really pax - it mangled permissions on
symbolic links. Check first.
--
Howard Christeller Irvine, CA [EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (mj)
Subject: PS/2 or serial?
Date: 13 May 1999 16:03:41 GMT
Hi,
What mice uses less resources? Serial or PS/2? Which has more incompatibility
trouble (under linux)? Any idea?
bye.
------------------------------
From: Len Huppe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Amd-k6-2
Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 22:27:29 -0500
Linux does not lock up unless there is something drastically wrong with your
hardware and/or the configuration of your system. I have a K6 machine that I use
to study computers at home and I have never been unable to run anything. I have
installed all of the following on my K6:
NT 4.0 Service Packs 1, 2, 3, & 4
Debian/GNU Linux 1.3, 2.0, 2.1
Linux kernel 1.2.13, 2.036, and now 2.2.7
X86Solaris 2.6, 7
BeOS 4
FreeBSD 2.2.8, 3.1
NetWare 3.12, 4.1
OS/2 Warp 3, 4, 5 Beta
Need I say anything more?
> Sorry but I miss the leading posting from this thread. Is it about K6-2 random
> lockups under Linux? If so I am desesperately seeking a solution to this
> problem. Lockups happen in console mode as well as under X (more often though).
> I have a K6-2 350 + VIA MVP3 based motherboard with 1 M cache + 64M RAM + 10 Go
> HD + Creative Blaster Banshee video card and I am running kernel 2.2.3 with the
> Banshee server from Creative. Will upgrading to a newer kernel solve the
> Problem. 2.2.3 claims to supports AMD K6-2. Please help me or I'm afriad I have
> to get back to Windows.
>
> Eric Wurbel wrote:
>
> > Agent Cooper wrote:
> > >
> > > What about Cyrix systems?
> >
> > No problem at all.
> > I run a Cyrix 6x86L P200 with RedHat 5.2. It works fine
> >
> > Eric
> >
> > --
> > le dernier h�bergeur gratuit (sans pub obligatoire...) frapp� ==>
> > http://altern.org
> > Eric Wurbel
------------------------------
Crossposted-To:
comp.lang.java.advocacy,comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Brad BARCLAY)
Subject: Re: All the current OSes are idiotic (was Re: Is Windows for idiots?)
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Brad BARCLAY)
Date: 14 May 99 05:54:27 GMT
In <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Clifton T. Sharp Jr." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
writes:
>I moved to linux from WfWG 3.11. My previous OS managed to look like it
>was lacking all by itself, thank you very much. :-)
Well, I'm certainly not putting down Linux - it's an excellent operating
system, and is certainly vastly better than anything Microsoft has ever
released :).
In this case, however, I was talking specifically about moving from OS/2
to Intel Linux. That is a downgrade - about the only thing you actually
"upgrade" in such a move is you sense that your now running a "popular" OS
which gets lots of press rather than one which alot of so-called "journalists"
erroroniously put down for all the wrong reasons.
I have quite a few issues with Linux - starting right at the kernel. I
know that this is going to sound as blasphemous as saying "the Beatles are
bigger than Jesus" (which they are :), but the Linux kernel design is
TERRIBLE, and is a huge step backwards in kernel design. About it['s only
redeeming feature is that it's open source.
Anyhow, this is not the forum for me to rant about the diffiencies in
Linux - if you're really interested in hearing me rant about it, send me some
E-Mail :).
Brad BARCLAY
===============
>From the OS/2 WARP v4 Desktop of Brad BARCLAY.
E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] WWW: http://yaztromo.idirect.com
Public PGP Key available upon request. [ ] VoiceType Dictated.
------------------------------
From: "DP30Dev" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.setup,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: Some USR modems are MS-only, Re: [SURVEY] Who has an internal modemin
his linux box ?
Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 21:34:17 -0600
Although most US Robotics modems say if they are winmodems, the new PCI
internal 56K modem is a winmodem and you won't find that anywhere on the
box. Most of us buy modems that say made for windows but we know that most
will work with linux(obviously not winmodems). I think better Labeling is
required...it really sux to get a PCI modem which you think is better than
the old ISA connection and find out that it really is a winmodem.
David
------------------------------
From: "Clifton T. Sharp Jr." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: Exhaustive testing of a suspect hard drive
Date: Fri, 14 May 1999 01:07:18 -0500
Matthew B. Kennedy wrote:
> My question: Is there a way I can thoroughly scan the disk for bad
> sectors and surface problems? Something like scandisk under dos,
> perhaps?
Manufacturers frequently have something like that on their web sites. The
one I got for my Western Digital not only found a bad sector but managed
to "repair" it (swap in the spare sector on that track) with no data loss,
automatically. Unfortunately, they're frequently DOS programs, and I'm not
at all sure I would want to experiment by running it under DOSEMU.
--
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Cliff Sharp | "Speech isn't free when it comes postage-due." |
| WA9PDM | -- Jim Nitchals, founder, FREE |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- http://www.spamfree.org/ +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
------------------------------
From: "Chad Dressler" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: SB live, or Monster 3d?
Date: 13 May 1999 16:03:48 GMT
Do you happen to know if that beta driver works for the Live! Value card
also?
Thanks,
Chad Dressler
Ernst de Haan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in article
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
> Creative seems to be working on real support for their Live! (I have one
> too), there's currently a beta driver that still has some problems, but
> there's actually people working on it right now at Creative. Check out
> developer.soundblaster.com.
>
> I don't know about the Aureal Monster3d.
>
>
> GreetinX++, Ernst
------------------------------
Date: 14 May 99 01:13:36 -0500
From: "Gene Heskett" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: mouse, gpm and X
Reply to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Gene Heskett sends Greetings to Clifton T.;
Cliff, the whole mouse thing is a matter of apples and oranges.
The std 'PS-2' mouse, or a seriel mouse of any kind, and the 'Buss
Mouse' are two completely different animals.
I think nearly everyone knows the seriel mouse protocol is a 1200 baud
protocol, with either 3 bytes or 5 bytes for its data packet, repeated
for *any* motion or button click. Such can be sent to the cpu using 3
wires, and often is, thats why the cables are so small and generally
speaking, flexible.
The 'Bus Mouse' OTOH, doesn't sent its data serially at all, but uses,
for a 3 button mouse, all 9 wires of the db9 connector it usually has on
the end of the cable. The signals are 'static', and usually, a change
in any wires status is an interrupt.
Bus mice send motion data in each direction as 2 quadrature related
signals per direction, using 2 wires plus a common power and common
ground per direction where direction is up/down or left/right.
This ties up 6 wires in the cable right there. Add in a 3 button
controller arrangement, and you have used all 9 wires in the db9
connector.
So the bus mouse has a bigger, stiffer cable.
What other 'advantages' does the bus mouse have? To me, and this amiga
uses whats basicly a bus mouse with a re-assigned connection list at the
db9 connector, the biggest single, hugely obvious benefit is that when I
move the mouse, the cursor/pointer motions are absolutely accurate, and
instantainious. You get used to this, and when you sit down to a
windoze machine, and have to force yourself *not* to make the click
until you have visually verified that the pointer is on the desired
item, and has finally come to rest on the desired item, made so by the
fact that this 'packetization' results in a refresh rate many times
slower than the vertical scan of the monitor. Then, and only
then is it safe to click on the item desired. Otherwise the lag and
jerky motion of the std serial mouse will eat your lunch, and maybe
format your hard drive when you meant to start explorer.
Bus mice are great mice for the working man, and its unfortunate that
they are, with the exceptions of the junk they sell us amigaites, too
damned expensive, and special order at your local cpu peddlers. I
wouldn't object to paying 40-60 bucks for a well built bus mouse, but
the last quote I had of special ordering one was in the $110 area.
'scuse me? I may be old fashioned, but for something like a mouse, I
want to feel the motions, and hear the buttons click before I cut the
check.
CTS> I have a crumpy $5 mouse which you may try to pry from my cold,
CTS> dead hands some day. When I first installed linux, a friend told
CTS> me I would not get the mouse to work with X unless I loaded gpm
CTS> as a repeater.
CTS> I came to find out his mouse was a bus mouse, and according to
CTS> the docs could not possibly work without gpm. And I've had a few
CTS> quirky little things happen with the mouse, so I decided to try
CTS> doing things without gpm loaded.
CTS> Long and short of it: no way. With gpm, all is well. Without
CTS> gpm, no magic incantation makes the mouse work in X. This has
CTS> now become a matter of honor, and I shall not rest until I get
CTS> it working without gpm. So... suggestions?
CTS> Kernels tried: 2.0.35, 2.2.2, 2.2.6, 2.2.7
CTS> Mouse is a Mouse Systems compatible as far as gpm and Windoze
CTS> are concerned Relevant from XF86Config:
CTS> Section "Pointer"
CTS> Protocol "MouseSystems"
CTS> Device "/dev/gpmdata" # this works
CTS> # Device "/dev/mouse" # this doesn't
CTS> BaudRate 1200
CTS> Buttons 3
CTS> # Emulate3Timeout 50
CTS> ClearDTR # doesn't matter
CTS> ClearRTS # ditto
CTS> EndSection
gpm is that port watcher/data translator, acting as the agent to keep
the data in order. I've had zero problems with it.
Cheers, Gene
--
Gene Heskett, CET, UHK |Amiga A2k Zeus040 50 megs fast/2 megs chip
Ch. Eng. @ WDTV-5 |A2091,GuruRom,1g Seagate,CDROM,Multiface III
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or |Buddha + 4 gig WDC drive, 525 meg tape
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>|Stylus Pro, EnPrint, Picasso-II, 17" vga
RC5-Moo! 22kkeys/sec isn't much, but it all helps
--
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