"jumpy" mouse movements.

[shay]

I have installed Fedora Core 5 Test 3 64BIT.
My Hardware;
ASUS P5V800-MX
Inetl 3.0GHZ 64BIT
1 HD 40GB IDE (IBM)
1 HD 80GB SATA (WD)
MS wireless mouse/keyboard with PS2 connectors.

That mouse/keyboard is working well with windows and Fedora FC4.

I tried FC5 because FC4 did not work well with the VIA chip and could not recognized the on board LAN.
With FC5 T3 its working well though I think there still a problem with the SATA.

The annoying problem is with the mouse behavior.
In the installation process and after the boot, the mouse movement is "jumpy".
I run yum and update all available packages, hoping that this will solve the problem.

Since FC5 is the only distro that I succeed to work with on that machine I really like to make it work.

I know that FC5 is still under development, but is there a way to fix the mouse problem.

I am new with Linux so please explain your suggestion in detail.

Thank you in advanced,
Shay

[BanditRider]

I had the same problem with my Microsoft wireless keyboard/mouse setup.

I pluged in a real wired mouse and it works fine. I was getting sick of this keyboard/mouse combination anyway. I'm going to buy a wired PS/2 Logitech keyboard and mouse this week.

I don't know what causes the wireless mouse to act that way. It worked alright in FC4.

[RossGoodman]

I had a similar issue when I went from FC3 to FC4.

It didn't like to reboot, if I selected a reboot, post reboot the mouse was jerky.
If I selected shutdown and then powered up, everything was OK.

[shay]

I overcome the problem by using a receiver (spare one that I have) that has a single USB connector.
That receiver did not work under FC4 but do work now under FC5.

Its all look ok now beside the SATA support.
I've notice there is a new kernel (yum is running) update, lets hope they added the VIA chip support. Otherwise I will have to get it from their website.

Thanks,

[BanditRider]

shay,
That got me thinking. I removed the USB to PS/2 adapter from the mouse cable and plugged it into a USB port and now everything's fine. No more jerky mouse movements. Works great.

[Crux]

This sounds funny, however I also had the same problem. What cured me was a 5 dollar 'optical mouse' mouse pad. I looked at it under a 10x microscope, and it has 'diamond/pyramid' shaped 'grooves' in it. I THINK it's to reflect the light in 'all directions'. Anyway, that worked for me and my problem..

I used to have an 'optical bus mouse' back in the late 80's. Had it's own IO card; connector was a DB25 like a printer cable, or SCSI 1, and a 'special' pad with a reflective surface. The mouse would not work without the pad. SO with that in mind, the 'optical mouse pad' makes sense. Sux, but still is logical.

[BanditRider]

Modern optical mice are designed to work on any surface. Mine will even work on a piece of white printer paper.
The PS/2 issue is a Core 5 problem as it worked perfectly in Core 4 and windows xp.

All is fine now that I'm plugged into a USB port.

[Crux]

I am well aware of todays technology my friend. However, in FC5 the pad did the trick. Just a thought is all.


For example, the Avago/Agilent ADNS-3080 optical mouse sensor has this response curve for a given wavelength of light
Wavelength Range (nm) Color LED's Available (nm)
(100-400) Ultraviolet (UV) (none)
400-450 Violet "UV" 405
450-500 Blue "Blue" 463, 470, 472
500-570 Green "Green" 524-525
570-590 Yellow "Yellow" 588-595
590-610 Orange "Orange" 605
610-750 Red "Red" 625-630, 660
(700-1000) Infrared (IR) "IR" 850-860, 880, 940-950

So, red light at 630nm works best (and is also very efficient power-wise, so that's what is used), near infrared at 850nm would work OK, IR at 945nm (like the LED's in most VCR-type remotes) wouldn't work very well. Blue LED's at 470nm would work better than 850nm near IR, so I'm not sure why more manufacturers don't use blue.

Seems like if the driver for the mouse is 'precise', so should be the mouse pad.

[w5set]

And it cured my mouse jumpin too--well not a mouse pad but a single blank sheet of regular printing paper.
The uniform surface texture must be better then a coffee stained desk surface--who would figure?
x64 bit linux has been buggin me with the mouse movements and I just tried the paper trick.
And this after I printed a special very high density line(s) treatment on card stock paper to use as a test a few months ago for a "show-n-tell" subject for a local high school computer class. I don't attend high school, but I do have a few kids going there...
Guess I am gettin old and senile!! Or my part-timjers is gettin full blown!
Thanks for reminding me of the "surface" requirements, Crux.
Fixed my problem!!! Now my old eyes ain't darting all over the screen,..