USB mouse device problem

pj69482 · July 28, 2009, 6:36pm

Hi all, I tried googling for this issue but so far have not managed to solve this, hopefully someone here can help.

I bought Logitech Revolution MX mouse just recently. The mouse is great and for the most part works quite well with Linux. The biggest problem currently is that the mouse device changes every boot and I am left without mouse.

I followed this guide to get it working Logitech MX Revolution in Linux at Andy @ Hillhome.org . What causes problems, is this line in the xorg.conf:


Option       "Device" "/dev/input/event2"   # cat /proc/bus/input/devices

Because the device /dev/input/event for my Logitech mouse keeps changing, the xorg.conf needs to be changed also every boot.

Here is my /dev/input (event2 is currently the correct device for my mouse):


petrin:/dev/input/by-id # ls -lha ../
total 0
drwxr-xr-x   4 root root    260 Jul 28  2009 .
drwxr-xr-x  13 root root   5.1K Jul 28 19:23 ..
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    120 Jul 28  2009 by-id
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    160 Jul 28  2009 by-path
crw-r-----   1 root root 13, 64 Jul 28  2009 event0
crw-r-----   1 root root 13, 65 Jul 28  2009 event1
crw-rw----+  1 root root 13, 66 Jul 28  2009 event2
crw-r-----   1 root root 13, 67 Jul 28  2009 event3
crw-r-----   1 root root 13, 68 Jul 28  2009 event4
crw-r-----   1 root root 13, 69 Jul 28  2009 event5
crw-r-----   1 root root 13, 70 Jul 28  2009 event6
crw-r-----   1 root root 13, 63 Jul 28  2009 mice
crw-r-----   1 root root 13, 32 Jul 28  2009 mouse0

I dug around and noticed that someone else also has thought of this situation, because under /dev/input/by-id directory there are symlinks that point to the correct device:


petrin:/dev/input/by-id # ls -lha
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 120 Jul 28  2009 .
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 260 Jul 28  2009 ..
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   9 Jul 28  2009 usb-Logitech_Logitech_Illuminated_Keyboard-event-kbd -> ../event0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   9 Jul 28  2009 usb-Logitech_Logitech_Illuminated_Keyboard-event-mouse -> ../event1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   9 Jul 28  2009 usb-Logitech_USB_Receiver-event-mouse -> ../event2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   9 Jul 28  2009 usb-Logitech_USB_Receiver-mouse -> ../mouse0

So the fix seemed quite trivial, just to replace the /dev/input/eventX with the symlin /dev/input/by-id/usb-Logitech_USB_Receiver-event-mouse . But to my suprise that does not work! If I specify the device directly, all is well, but that keeps changing and if I try with symlink, mouse does not work. And for the life of me I can not figure out why the symlink to the device does not work, usually a symlink is as good as the original, but I guess it can be different with device-files.

Can anyone suggest a fix for this? It is extremely annoying to jump back to text-terminal to edit xorg.conf after every boot.

caf4926 · July 28, 2009, 7:56pm

Logitech Revolution MX
Ick…
I just use a regular 2 button 1 wheel usb mouse on both my laptop and box. Just works.
Not much help eh. But honestly I wouldn’t expect that mouse to be very friendly. What happens if you plugin a regular $3 mouse

pj69482 · July 28, 2009, 9:59pm

Normal mice work just like they should. I think it because this mouse shows as two mouse devices instead of one.

Hopefully someone could advice with the device-files.

user · July 29, 2009, 2:55am

I just had a very similar problem with a touchscreen. Kept changing between event2 and event5. I seem to have fixed it by using the symlink from “/dev/input/by-path/”… have you tried that instead of “/by-id/”?

(I first did a “cat /proc/bus/input/devices”, found the device, established which event it was currently attached to, then used the matching symlink from the “by-path” directory)

Regards,
Gary

pj69482 · July 29, 2009, 4:13pm

Thanks for the suggestion, however what that did do was that it also disabled my keyboard. Also it is bit hard to see why the symlinks under by-path would work when the symlinks under by-id do not.

I’ll post my USB devices for reference. As you see I also have Logitech USB keyboard in there. The “Logitech USB Receiver” with “mouse0 event2” is the correct device for the mouse.


# cat /proc/bus/input/devices                     
I: Bus=0003 Vendor=046d Product=c318 Version=0111          
N: Name="Logitech Logitech Illuminated Keyboard"           
P: Phys=usb-0000:00:1a.0-2/input0                          
S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.0/usb1/1-2/1-2:1.0/input/input0
U: Uniq=                                                               
H: Handlers=kbd event0                                                 
B: EV=120013                                                           
B: KEY=1000000000007 ff9f207ac14057ff febeffdfffefffff fffffffffffffffe
B: MSC=10                                                              
B: LED=1f                                                              

I: Bus=0003 Vendor=046d Product=c318 Version=0111
N: Name="Logitech Logitech Illuminated Keyboard" 
P: Phys=usb-0000:00:1a.0-2/input1                
S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.0/usb1/1-2/1-2:1.1/input/input1
U: Uniq=                                                               
H: Handlers=kbd event1                                                 
B: EV=1f                                                               
B: KEY=837fff002c3027 bf00444400000000 1 f848a27c000 667bfad9415fed 8e000000000000 0                                                                              
B: REL=40                                                                        
B: ABS=100000000                                                                 
B: MSC=10                                                                        

I: Bus=0003 Vendor=046d Product=c525 Version=0111
N: Name="Logitech USB Receiver"                  
P: Phys=usb-0000:00:1d.1-2/input0                
S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.1/usb5/5-2/5-2:1.0/input/input2
U: Uniq=                                                               
H: Handlers=mouse0 event2                                              
B: EV=17                                                               
B: KEY=ffff0000 0 0 0 0                                                
B: REL=143                                                             
B: MSC=10                                                              

I: Bus=0003 Vendor=046d Product=c525 Version=0111
N: Name="Logitech USB Receiver"
P: Phys=usb-0000:00:1d.1-2/input1
S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.1/usb5/5-2/5-2:1.1/input/input3
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd event3
B: EV=1f
B: KEY=837fff002c3027 bf00444400000000 1 f848a27c000 667bfad9415fed 8e000000000000 0
B: REL=40
B: ABS=100000000
B: MSC=10

I: Bus=0010 Vendor=001f Product=0001 Version=0100
N: Name="PC Speaker"
P: Phys=isa0061/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/platform/pcspkr/input/input4
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd event4
B: EV=40001
B: SND=6

I: Bus=0019 Vendor=0000 Product=0002 Version=0000
N: Name="Power Button (FF)"
P: Phys=LNXPWRBN/button/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXPWRBN:00/input/input5
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd event5
B: EV=3
B: KEY=10000000000000 0

I: Bus=0019 Vendor=0000 Product=0001 Version=0000
N: Name="Power Button (CM)"
P: Phys=PNP0C0C/button/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0C0C:00/input/input6
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd event6
B: EV=3
B: KEY=10000000000000 0