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VMware Tools breaks mouse wheel on Ubuntu Edgy Eft guest posted: Oct 27, 2006 6:40 AM

Click to view JoeBruce's profile Novice
JoeBruce
8 posts since
May 1, 2006
I am running VMware Workstation 5.5.2-29772 and just installed Ubuntu "Edgy Eft" (6.10) as a guest OS yesterday. Everything works great until I install VMware Tools and reboot the guest. Once X restarts, the mouse wheel no longer works.

I trashed my first VM in frustration and tried again, paying attention to exactly where things break - the VMware Tools install is what does it. I imagine if I revert to my pre-VMware Tools snapshot the mouse wheel will work again.

Any suggestions? I really don't want to use the new Ubuntu without VMware Tools (1024x768 is a bit limiting), and I can't use it without the mouse wheel (amazing how we become dependent on such minor things). I have not seen this issue with Ubuntu 6.06, FC4-6, or SUSE.

- Joe

Re: VMware Tools breaks mouse wheel on Ubuntu Edgy Eft guest

1. Oct 27, 2006 6:42 AM in response to: JoeBruce
Click to view RDPetruska's profile Guru
RDPetruska
15,875 posts since
Jan 11, 2005
Any suggestions?
Wait for the next maintenance release of Workstation, where Ubuntu 6.10 should be a supported guest. :-)

Re: VMware Tools breaks mouse wheel on Ubuntu Edgy Eft guest

2. Oct 27, 2006 6:47 AM in response to: RDPetruska
Click to view JoeBruce's profile Novice
JoeBruce
8 posts since
May 1, 2006
That's one possibility. I at least wanted to ensure that VMware was alerted to the problem, or the next maintenance release may or may not fix it. That said, I can't imagine I'm the first person to try Ubuntu Edgy under VMware, and I had no such problem with FC6.

Maybe I'll try the "Other 2.6 Linux kernel" guest OS choice... Gotta love snapshots. :)

Re: VMware Tools breaks mouse wheel on Ubuntu Edgy Eft guest

3. Oct 27, 2006 6:49 AM in response to: JoeBruce
Click to view RDPetruska's profile Guru
RDPetruska
15,875 posts since
Jan 11, 2005
Nope, you're not the first person with problems with 6.10. And, if you look at the forum posts for the past 2 days, lots of people keep reporting various problems (mostly when updating their hosts, though).

I think this has to do with X.org 7.1 - perhaps FC6 doesn't use that?

Re: VMware Tools breaks mouse wheel on Ubuntu Edgy Eft guest

4. Oct 27, 2006 7:14 AM in response to: RDPetruska
Click to view JoeBruce's profile Novice
JoeBruce
8 posts since
May 1, 2006
Nope, you're not the first person with problems with
6.10. And, if you look at the forum posts for the
past 2 days, lots of people keep reporting various
problems (mostly when updating their hosts, though).

I noticed, but I didn't see anything about mouse problems (for the past year or so), so I wanted to make sure that this particular issue was reported (and I still hold out some hope for a work-around or fix).

I also noticed a number of posts regarding FC6, which I struggled with a bit as well. It is not entirely unexpected for the latest-and-greatest to fail, but I hope for things to work without new releases from VMware. I guess it does work as long as I don't "need" VMware Tools.

I think this has to do with X.org 7.1 - perhaps FC6
doesn't use that?

FC6 also uses X.org 7.1, so I'm mystified...

Re: VMware Tools breaks mouse wheel on Ubuntu Edgy Eft guest

5. Oct 27, 2006 7:17 AM in response to: JoeBruce
Click to view JoeBruce's profile Novice
JoeBruce
8 posts since
May 1, 2006
Maybe I'll try the "Other 2.6 Linux kernel" guest OS
choice... Gotta love snapshots. :)

For the record, this does not appear to work. Note that I did not, however, choose "Other 2.6 Linux kernel" and reinstall from scratch. I simply cloned a snapshot made before VMware Tools was installed, changed the Guest OS type, and then retrieved VMware Tools installation.

I know that "Other 2.6 Linux kernel" works fine - at least as far as the mouse wheel is concerned - with FC6, which also uses X.org 7.1. That was the RPM installation and for Ubuntu I use the TAR installation, but I doubt that would make the difference.

In any event, it is frustrating to have Edgy and VMware work so well together with this one (relatively minor, but maddening) bug...

Re: VMware Tools breaks mouse wheel on Ubuntu Edgy Eft guest

6. Oct 27, 2006 7:55 AM in response to: JoeBruce
Click to view zeus.jay's profile Novice
zeus.jay
15 posts since
Mar 30, 2006
Hi I think I have a solution (Atleast for Microsoft mouses). I have had the same problem.

Open the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file

Find the Section for Input Device -> Configured Mouse. For the option

Option Protocol "ps/2"

I changed it to

Option Protocol "IMPS/2"

Restart X of course (easy to use CTRL + ALT + Backspace).

I Found this online that mentioned some other options.

https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+bug/8312

Jason.

Re: VMware Tools breaks mouse wheel on Ubuntu Edgy Eft guest

7. Oct 27, 2006 9:01 AM in response to: zeus.jay
Click to view JoeBruce's profile Novice
JoeBruce
8 posts since
May 1, 2006
Thanks! That does the trick. For the record, the exact line is:

Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"

Note the quotes around "Protocol". I'm not familiar enough with the X11 config file format to know whether that's significant or not.

Also note that FC6 has no "InputDevice" section at all for the mouse in /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Apparently this section is optional?

Thanks again,
Joe

Re: VMware Tools breaks mouse wheel on Ubuntu Edgy Eft guest

8. Oct 31, 2006 12:07 AM in response to: JoeBruce
Click to view Sorcerous's profile Lurker
Sorcerous
1 posts since
Oct 31, 2006
Try a different mouse. I had a similar problem using 6.06. The mouse wheel would not scroll after the first spin. I tried this tip mentioned above IMPS/2, and nothing. Then I switched to another mouse, and surprise the scroll wheel works fine! Both mice are M$FT mice.

Wheel Mouse Optical USB -> works great
Notebook Optical mouse 3000 -> fails

Re: VMware Tools breaks mouse wheel on Ubuntu Edgy Eft guest

9. Oct 31, 2006 8:55 AM in response to: JoeBruce
Click to view zchris's profile Novice
zchris
10 posts since
May 10, 2005
Is anybody of you running Edgy in VMware on Windows or are you using Linux as the host OS?

I'm asking because I can't get it to run at all with VMware tools:
http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=60211&tstart=0

Re: VMware Tools breaks mouse wheel on Ubuntu Edgy Eft guest

10. Oct 31, 2006 9:46 AM in response to: zchris
Click to view JoeBruce's profile Novice
JoeBruce
8 posts since
May 1, 2006
I am running Edgy Eft under VMware Workstation 5.5.2 build-29772 with Windows XP SP2 as the host OS. I was able to get it to work (including VMware Tools) using both "Ubuntu" and "Other 2.6 kernel" as the guest OS choices.

Unlike with FC6, I don't remember Ubuntu giving me any problems building VMware Tools (tarball installation based on the VMware Workstation manual).

Re: VMware Tools breaks mouse wheel on Ubuntu Edgy Eft guest

11. Nov 13, 2006 8:50 AM in response to: JoeBruce
Click to view AlvaroE's profile Lurker
AlvaroE
1 posts since
Nov 9, 2006
Can you please post the instructions on how you got it working!!

Thanks

Alvaro

Re: VMware Tools breaks mouse wheel on Ubuntu Edgy Eft guest

12. Nov 13, 2006 9:24 AM in response to: AlvaroE
Click to view JoeBruce's profile Novice
JoeBruce
8 posts since
May 1, 2006
The instructions were given above by zeus.jay (the post marked "Correct"):

1. Open the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file

2. In the section marked Section "InputDevice" with Identifier "Configured Mouse", change:

Option "Protocol" "ps/2"

to

Option Protocol "IMPS/2"

3. Restart X (Ctrl + Alt + Backspace).

To address a separate bug, while you're editing the X11 configuration you might also want to fix the X11 font paths - the FontPath lines should read "/usr/share/fonts/X11/..." instead of "/usr/share/X11/fonts/...". Unlike the mouse wheel problem, this is a general issue with Edgy Eft that is not specific to VMware.

If you are referring to the VMware Tools installation, I didn't have to do anything special. I just followed the instructions for the tarball installation option in the VMware documentation. Caveat: I am using VMware Workstation 5.5.2, and VMware Server has a different version of VMware Tools. I have not tried the installation under VMware Server. See the linked issue for more discussion...

Message edited by JoeBruce (clarification)

Re: VMware Tools breaks mouse wheel on Ubuntu Edgy Eft guest

13. Feb 18, 2007 2:53 AM in response to: zeus.jay
Click to view Juul's profile Novice
Juul
14 posts since
Feb 11, 2007
Open the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file

Find the Section for Input Device -> Configured
Mouse. For the option

Option Protocol "ps/2"
ged it to

Option Protocol "IMPS/2"
t X of course (easy to use CTRL + ALT + Backspace).


Thanks a bunch, Jason, for this solution!

I'm sometimes really amazed about how people succeed in finding those kind of solutions!

Best rgds,

--Juul

Re: VMware Tools breaks mouse wheel on Ubuntu Edgy Eft guest

14. Apr 8, 2007 8:30 PM in response to: Juul
Click to view miguelt's profile Novice
miguelt
12 posts since
Oct 27, 2004
Note that it should be:
Option Protocol "ImPS/2"
(Lower "m")

Otherwise, VMware Toolbox will fail to startup...
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