5.7 USB Devices

Configuring USB devices is straighforward. I generally don't like the touchpad, therefore I went out and got an optical USB mouse.

While configuring the kernel, I chose Y to Support for USB and UHCI Alternate Driver (JE) support, under the USB support submenu. This will notify Linux of your USB ports on the laptop.

Then, for the mouse, I selected Y for USB Human Interface Device (full HID), also in the USB section. Also, you will have to say Y to the Mouse support option under the Input core support submenu.

Proceed to create the necessary device files for the mouse, if they don't already exist:

# mkdir /dev/input
# mknod /dev/input/mice c 13 63

Upon your next reboot, Linux should pick up the mouse/USB device.

Within your XFree86 configuration file, you will want to comment out the old lines referring to the mouse, and enter the following lines. This is, of course, if you have a mouse similar to mine.

 Option          "Device"                "/dev/input/mice"
 Option          "Protocol"              "IMPS/2"
 Option          "Emulate3Buttons"       "true"
 Option          "ZAxisMapping"          "4 5"

Configuring your mouse with the laptop, once USB support is available with the kernel, is not any different than other systems. You may have to read the appropriate documentation for configuring your particular mouse, or USB device.