Bugzilla Bug 130846

I'm using gentoo-sources 2.6.16-r3. I also have a Logitech MX500 mouse
connected to my computer's PS/2 port (using the supplied PS/2 adapter). The
mouse has 8 buttons and they all work properly. Here is the problem:

1. Detach the mouse cord from the computer PS/2 port.
2. Attach the mouse cord back to the computer PS/2 port.

Now the buttons don't work properly anymore. Only the main buttons work (1-3),
not all 8. xev shows that no button events above 3 are generated. The two thumb
buttons produce button 2 events, the scroll wheel, scroll buttons and the task
switch button produce no events at all. This doesn't happen with gentoo-sources
2.6.15-r1. With 2.6.15-r1 the buttons work properly even after removing the
cord and connecting it back. 

Emerge info:

Portage 2.0.54 (default-linux/x86/2006.0, gcc-3.4.5, glibc-2.3.5-r3,
2.6.16-gentoo-r3 i686)
=================================================================
System uname: 2.6.16-gentoo-r3 i686 Unknown CPU Typ
Gentoo Base System version 1.6.14
dev-lang/python:     2.3.5-r2, 2.4.2
sys-apps/sandbox:    1.2.12
sys-devel/autoconf:  2.13, 2.59-r7
sys-devel/automake:  1.4_p6, 1.5, 1.6.3, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.6-r1
sys-devel/binutils:  2.16.1
sys-devel/libtool:   1.5.22
virtual/os-headers:  2.6.11-r2
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"
AUTOCLEAN="yes"
CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-march=athlon-xp -O2 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer"
CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config
/usr/share/config /var/qmail/control"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/eselect/compiler /etc/gconf /etc/env.d"
CXXFLAGS="-march=athlon-xp -O2 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
FEATURES="autoconfig distlocks sandbox sfperms strict"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://trumpetti.atm.tut.fi/gentoo/"
LANG="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ALL="en_US.UTF-8"
LINGUAS="en"
MAKEOPTS="-j2"
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
SYNC="rsync://trumpetti.atm.tut.fi/gentoo-portage"
USE="x86 3dnow X aac alsa apache2 apm audiofile avi berkdb bitmap-fonts bzip2
cdr cjk cli crypt cups curl dri eds emboss encode exif expat flac foomaticdb
fortran gdbm gif glut gmp gpm gstreamer gtk2 imlib isdnlog jpeg libg++ libwww
mad mikmod mmx motif mp3 mpeg ncurses nls nptl ogg opengl pam pcre pdflib perl
png pppd python quicktime readline reflection sdl session spell spl sse ssl
tcpd theora tiff truetype truetype-fonts type1-fonts udev unicode vorbis
win32codecs xml xml2 xorg xv xvid zlib linguas_en userland_GNU kernel_linux
elibc_glibc"
Unset:  ASFLAGS, CTARGET, INSTALL_MASK, LDFLAGS, PORTDIR_OVERLAY

Are you planning to damage the PS/2 port soon? It's not hotplug, uh...

No I'm not :) The reason I discovered this is my mouse which is not functioning
properly. Every now and then (every few minutes in Windows) there is a small (1
sec) halt during which the mouse pointer doesn't move and no button presses get
registered. This problem is for some reason a lot more common in Windows. In
Gentoo this happens very seldom but it seems the my mouse gets disconnected
during these hickups. I think a new mouse would be a good idea. A bug fix would
be nice also :)

(In reply to comment #2)
> No I'm not :) The reason I discovered this is my mouse which is not functioning
> properly. Every now and then (every few minutes in Windows) there is a small (1
> sec) halt during which the mouse pointer doesn't move and no button presses get
> registered.

The fact that the problem exists in Microsoft Windows as well indicates that it
is a hardware problem. Please try with a different mouse and see if that
improves the situation.

If not, feel free to reopen this bug report.

No, although the hickups are present in Windows the buttons don't stop working
there! Also buttons don't stop working with older kernels. This is an issue
only with the 2.6.16-r3. The real question is:

Should a PS/2 mouse work properly after detaching and attaching the cord? With
the old kernel it did work properly, with the new kernel it doesn't.

(I didn't reopen yet...)

(In reply to comment #4)
> Should a PS/2 mouse work properly after detaching and attaching the cord? With
> the old kernel it did work properly, with the new kernel it doesn't.

Since the PS/2 specification doesn't allow hotplugging a device, I would say
no. You could try reporting this problem upstream at
http://bugzilla.kernel.org/ and see what they say. If you decide to do that,
please post the URL here.

Of course, you should test with the latest release (linux-2.6.17-rc2) before
reporting the issue.

I reported this to kernel devs and they have now supplied a patch that works:

http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6440

I closed this.

I'll reopen so we can watch the upstream bug and include the patch when it is
merged.

Fixed in gentoo-sources-2.6.16-r5 (genpatches-2.6.16-7)