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JoeBruce
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VMware Tools breaks mouse wheel on Ubuntu Edgy Eft guest

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

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zeus_jay
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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.

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RDPetruska
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>Any suggestions?

Wait for the next maintenance release of Workstation, where Ubuntu 6.10 should be a supported guest. Smiley Happy

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JoeBruce
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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. Smiley Happy

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RDPetruska
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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?

JoeBruce
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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[/u] 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...

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JoeBruce
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Maybe I'll try the "Other 2.6 Linux kernel" guest OS

choice... Gotta love snapshots. Smiley Happy

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...

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zeus_jay
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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.

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JoeBruce
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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

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Sorcerous
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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

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zchris
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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

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JoeBruce
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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).

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AlvaroE
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Can you please post the instructions on how you got it working!!

Thanks

Alvaro

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JoeBruce
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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)

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Juul
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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

Best rgds, --Juul
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miguelt
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Note that it should be:

Option Protocol "ImPS/2"

(Lower "m")

Otherwise, VMware Toolbox will fail to startup...

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charlielittle
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I had the same exact problem with Feisty, and this solution fixed it.

Thanks!

--Charlie

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Simon-J
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Unfortunately gutsy gibbon also has this problem, luckily this fix still works! Smiley Happy

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Ridvan
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Under Debian etch you need the following entry additionally:

Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"

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russjar
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As the very first post in this Ubuntu forum says http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=508126

Edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Section "InputDevice"

Identifier "Configured Mouse"

Driver "mouse"

Option "CorePointer"

Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"

Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"

Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"

Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"

EndSection

VCP,MCSE NT4/W2k/W2k3, MCSA W2k3

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