NAME¶
mdetect - mouse device autodetection tool
SYNOPSIS¶
mdetect [
option ...]
OPTIONS¶
mdetect may be run without arguments.
- -h
- display a help message and exit
- -n
- do not search for PnP (Plug 'n' Play) mice
- -r
- [not yet implemented]
- -v
- be verbose; this option may be specified multiple times for increasing
levels of verbosity
- -o
- produce output appropriate for XFree86 3.x configuration
- -x
- produce output appropriate for XFree86 4.x configuration
DESCRIPTION¶
mdetect is a tool for autoconfiguring mice and compatible pointing
devices; it is typically used as the backend to some user-friendly frontend
code that, for example, asks the user to move the mouse for a moment.
mdetect is then run while user is producing input on the mouse device.
While mouse motion during detection is sometimes unnecessary, it is seldom
problematic.
mdetect writes the autodetected mouse device and protocol to standard
output. Unless either of the
-o or
-x options is given,
mdetect produces output appropriate for configuring the
gpm(1)
program. Alternatively, output appropriate for an XFree86 X server
configuration file is produced. If the
-v option is given, some
information about the program's status is also written to standard output, but
this is largely unimplemented at this writing.
If
mdetect is unable to find a mouse device, it exits after a few seconds
of searching.
NOTES¶
Detection of serial and PS/2 devices is often aided by moving the mouse while
mdetect runs.
Terminals connected to serial ports may display a small amount of garbage to the
screen while
mdetect probes them, but this a harmless side-effect; the
terminal's line settings are restored after the port has been probed.
DIAGNOSTICS¶
mdetect's exit status is used to communicate information.
- 0
- mdetect found a mouse and exited normally.
- 1
- An error occurred while attempting to read from the mouse device.
- 2
- mdetect timed out and gave up searching for a mouse device; this
indicates either that no mouse device is attached to the computer, or that
a mouse device exists which mdetect knows nothing about. This also
happens if your only mouse device(s) are already open and in use; for
instance, by gpm or an X Window System server.
- 3
- An error occurred while trying to set up mdetect's signal
handler.
BUGS¶
Please report bugs in
mdetect to <submit@bugs.debian.org>. The
current bug list may be viewed at <
http://bugs.debian.org/mdetect>.
AUTHORS¶
mdetect is copyright 1999 Caldera Systems, Inc. The actual authors are
unknown. Branden Robinson of Progeny Linux Systems, Inc. and the Debian
Project added several enhancements, including the XFree86-aware code and this
manual page. Richard Hirst wrote code to save and restore serial port
settings.
LICENSING¶
The
mdetect source code is licensed under the Q Public License (QPL); see
<
http://www.trolltech.com/products/download/freelicense/license.html>.
This manual page is licensed under the GNU General Public License.
SEE ALSO¶
gpm(1),
XFree86(1)