How do I keep my mouse from going crazy (or going away) when switching between X and the Linux virtual console?
If your mouse behaves erratically (or the mouse cursor goes away entirely) after switching back to a virtual console after starting X, and/or the gpm program spews messages about errors in the mouse protocol to your system logs when you switch, you may need to set up gpm as a repeater, and instruct the X server (via the /etc/X11/XF86Config file) to use the /dev/gpmdata device file as its mouse device. The gpm program documentation has more information about this. Alternatively, if this does not work or if you do not feel you need the mouse in text mode, simply remove or disable the gpm program. (If you have package dependencies on your system that prevent removal of the gpm package itself, you can always prevent it from starting at boot by renaming its init script, as described above in the question about disabling xdm .
If your mouse behaves erratically (or the mouse cursor goes away entirely) after switching back to a virtual console after starting X, and/or the gpm program spews messages about errors in the mouse protocol to your system logs when you switch, you may need to set up gpm as a repeater, and instruct the X server (via the /etc/X11/XF86Config file) to use the /dev/gpmdata device file as its mouse device. The gpm program documentation has more information about this. Alternatively, if this does not work or if you do not feel you need the mouse in text mode, simply remove or disable the gpm program.
