moused(8)

NAME

moused - pass mouse data to the console driver

SYNOPSIS

moused [-DPRacdfs] [-I file] [-F rate] [-r  resolution]  [-S
baudrate]
       [-VH  [-U  distance]]  [-a  X[,Y]] [-C threshold] [-m
N=M] [-w N]
       [-z  target]  [-t  mousetype]  [-l  level]  [-3   [-E
timeout]]
       [-T distance[,time[,after]]] -p port
moused [-Pd] -p port -i info

DESCRIPTION

The moused utility and the console driver work together to
support mouse
operation in the text console and user programs. They vir
tualize the
mouse and provide user programs with mouse data in the stan
dard format
(see sysmouse(4)).
The mouse daemon listens to the specified port for mouse da
ta, interprets
and then passes it via ioctls to the console driver. The
mouse daemon
reports translation movement, button press/release events
and movement of
the roller or the wheel if available. The roller/wheel
movement is
reported as ``Z'' axis movement.
The console driver will display the mouse pointer on the
screen and provide cut and paste functions if the mouse pointer is enabled
in the virtual console via vidcontrol(1). If sysmouse(4) is opened by
the user
program, the console driver also passes the mouse data to
the device so
that the user program will see it.
If the mouse daemon receives the signal SIGHUP, it will re
open the mouse
port and reinitialize itself. Useful if the mouse is at
tached/detached
while the system is suspended.
If the mouse daemon receives the signal SIGUSR1, it will
stop passing
mouse events. Sending the signal SIGUSR1 again will resume
passing mouse
events. Useful if your typing on a laptop is interrupted by
accidentally
touching the mouse pad.
The following options are available:
-3 Emulate the third (middle) button for 2-button mice.
It is emu
lated by pressing the left and right physical but
tons simultaneously.
-C threshold
Set double click speed as the maximum interval in
msec between
button clicks. Without this option, the default
value of 500
msec will be assumed. This option will have effect
only on the
cut and paste operations in the text mode console.
The user program which is reading mouse data via sysmouse(4)
will not be
affected.
-D Lower DTR on the serial port. This option is valid
only if
mousesystems is selected as the protocol type. The
DTR line may
need to be dropped for a 3-button mouse to operate
in the
mousesystems mode.
-E timeout
When the third button emulation is enabled (see
above), the
moused utility waits timeout msec at most before de
ciding whether
two buttons are being pressed simultaneously. The
default timeout is 100 msec.
-F rate
Set the report rate (reports/sec) of the device if
supported.
-H Enable ``Horizontal Virtual Scrolling''. With this
option set,
holding the middle mouse button down will cause mo
tion to be
interpreted as horizontal scrolling. Use the -U op
tion to set
the distance the mouse must move before the
scrolling mode is
activated. This option may be used with or without
the -V
option.
-I file
Write the process id of the moused utility in the
specified file.
Without this option, the process id will be stored
in
/var/run/moused.pid.
-P Do not start the Plug and Play COM device enumera
tion procedure
when identifying the serial mouse. If this option
is given
together with the -i option, the moused utility will
not be able
to print useful information for the serial mouse.
-R Lower RTS on the serial port. This option is valid
only if
mousesystems is selected as the protocol type by the
-t option
below. It is often used with the -D option above.
Both RTS and
DTR lines may need to be dropped for a 3-button
mouse to operate
in the mousesystems mode.
-S baudrate
Select the baudrate for the serial port (1200 to
9600). Not all
serial mice support this option.
-T distance[,time[,after]]
Terminate drift. Use this option if mouse pointer
slowly wanders
when mouse is not moved. Movements up to distance
(for example
4) pixels (X+Y) in time msec (default 500) are ig
nored, except
during after msec (default 4000) since last real
mouse movement.
-V Enable ``Virtual Scrolling''. With this option set,
holding the
middle mouse button down will cause motion to be in
terpreted as
scrolling. Use the -U option to set the distance
the mouse must
move before the scrolling mode is activated.
-U distance
When ``Virtual Scrolling'' is enabled, the -U option
can be used
to set the distance (in pixels) that the mouse must
move before
the scrolling mode is activated. The default
distance is 3 pixels.
-a X[,Y]
Accelerate or decelerate the mouse input. This is a
linear
acceleration only. Values less than 1.0 slow down
movement, values greater than 1.0 speed it up. Specifying only
one value sets
the acceleration for both axes.
-c Some mice report middle button down events as if the
left and
right buttons are being pressed. This option han
dles this.
-d Enable debugging messages.
-f Do not become a daemon and instead run as a fore
ground process.
Useful for testing and debugging.
-i info
Print specified information and quit. Available
pieces of information are:
port Port (device file) name, i.e. /dev/cuad0,
/dev/mse0 and
/dev/psm0.
if Interface type: serial, bus, inport or
ps/2.
type Protocol type. It is one of the types
listed under the
-t option below or sysmouse if the driver
supports the
sysmouse data format standard.
model Mouse model. The moused utility may not
always be able
to identify the model.
all All of the above items. Print port, in
terface, type
and model in this order in one line.
If the moused utility cannot determine the requested
information,
it prints ``unknown'' or ``generic''.
-l level
Specifies at which level moused should operate the
mouse driver.
Refer to Operation Levels in psm(4) for more infor
mation on this.
-m N=M Assign the physical button M to the logical button
N. You may
specify as many instances of this option as you
like. More than
one physical button may be assigned to a logical
button at the
same time. In this case the logical button will be
down, if
either of the assigned physical buttons is held
down. Do not put
space around `='.
-p port
Use port to communicate with the mouse.
-r resolution
Set the resolution of the device; in Dots Per Inch,
or low,
medium-low, medium-high or high. This option may
not be supported by all the device.
-s Select a baudrate of 9600 for the serial line. Not
all serial
mice support this option.
-t type
Specify the protocol type of the mouse attached to
the port. You
may explicitly specify a type listed below, or use
auto to let
the moused utility automatically select an appropri
ate protocol
for the given mouse. If you entirely omit this op
tion in the
command line, -t auto is assumed. Under normal cir
cumstances,
you need to use this option only if the moused util
ity is not
able to detect the protocol automatically (see
Configuring Mouse
Daemon).
Note that if a protocol type is specified with this
option, the
-P option above is implied and Plug and Play COM de
vice enumeration procedure will be disabled.
Also note that if your mouse is attached to the PS/2
mouse port,
you should always choose auto or ps/2, regardless of
the brand
and model of the mouse. Likewise, if your mouse is
attached to
the bus mouse port, choose auto or busmouse. Serial
mouse protocols will not work with these mice.
For the USB mouse, the protocol must be auto. No
other protocol
will work with the USB mouse.
Valid types for this option are listed below.
For the serial mouse:
microsoft Microsoft serial mouse protocol.
Most 2-button
serial mice use this protocol.
intellimouse Microsoft IntelliMouse protocol.
Genius Net
Mouse, ASCII Mie Mouse, Logitech
MouseMan+ and
FirstMouse+ use this protocol too.
Other mice
with a roller/wheel may be compati
ble with this
protocol.
mousesystems MouseSystems 5-byte protocol.
3-button mice may
use this protocol.
mmseries MM Series mouse protocol.
logitech Logitech mouse protocol. Note that
this is for
old Logitech models. mouseman or
intellimouse
should be specified for newer mod
els.
mouseman Logitech MouseMan and TrackMan pro
tocol. Some
3-button mice may be compatible
with this protocol. Note that MouseMan+ and
FirstMouse+ use
intellimouse protocol rather than
this one.
glidepoint ALPS GlidePoint protocol.
thinkingmouse Kensington ThinkingMouse protocol. mmhitab Hitachi tablet protocol.
x10mouseremote X10 MouseRemote.
kidspad Genius Kidspad and Easypad proto
col.
versapad Interlink VersaPad protocol.
gtco_digipad
GTCO Digipad protocol.
For the bus and InPort mouse:
busmouse This is the only protocol type
available for the
bus and InPort mouse and should be
specified for
any bus mice and InPort mice, re
gardless of the
brand.
For the PS/2 mouse:
ps/2 This is the only protocol type
available for the
PS/2 mouse and should be specified
for any PS/2
mice, regardless of the brand.
For the USB mouse, auto is the only protocol type
available for
the USB mouse and should be specified for any USB
mice, regardless of the brand.
-w N Make the physical button N act as the wheel mode
button. While
this button is pressed, X and Y axis movement is re
ported to be
zero and the Y axis movement is mapped to Z axis.
You may further map the Z axis movement to virtual buttons by
the -z option
below.
-z target
Map Z axis (roller/wheel) movement to another axis
or to virtual
buttons. Valid target maybe:
x
y X or Y axis movement will be reported when the
Z axis move
ment is detected.
N Report down events for the virtual buttons N
and N+1 respec
tively when negative and positive Z axis move
ment is
detected. There do not need to be physical
buttons N and
N+1. Note that mapping to logical buttons is
carried out
after mapping from the Z axis movement to the
virtual buttons is done.
N1 N2
Report down events for the virtual buttons N1
and N2 respectively when negative and positive Z axis move
ment is
detected.
N1 N2 N3 N4
This is useful for the mouse with two wheels of
which the
second wheel is used to generate horizontal
scroll action,
and for the mouse which has a knob or a stick
which can
detect the horizontal force applied by the us
er.
The motion of the second wheel will be mapped
to the buttons
N3, for the negative direction, and N4, for the
positive
direction. If the buttons N3 and N4 actually
exist in this
mouse, their actions will not be detected.
Note that horizontal movement or second
roller/wheel movement may not always be detected, because there
appears to be
no accepted standard as to how it is encoded.
Note also that some mice think left is the neg
ative horizontal direction; others may think otherwise.
Moreover, there
are some mice whose two wheels are both mounted
vertically,
and the direction of the second vertical wheel
does not
match the first one.
Configuring Mouse Daemon
The first thing you need to know is the interface type of
the mouse you
are going to use. It can be determined by looking at the
connector of
the mouse. The serial mouse has a D-Sub female 9- or 25-pin
connector.
The bus and InPort mice have either a D-Sub male 9-pin con
nector or a
round DIN 9-pin connector. The PS/2 mouse is equipped with
a small,
round DIN 6-pin connector. Some mice come with adapters
with which the
connector can be converted to another. If you are to use
such an
adapter, remember the connector at the very end of the
mouse/adapter pair
is what matters. The USB mouse has a flat rectangular con
nector.
The next thing to decide is a port to use for the given in
terface. For
the bus, InPort and PS/2 mice, there is little choice: the
bus and InPort
mice always use /dev/mse0, and the PS/2 mouse is always at
/dev/psm0.
There may be more than one serial port to which the serial
mouse can be
attached. Many people often assign the first, built-in se
rial port
/dev/cuad0 to the mouse. You can attach multiple USB mice
to your system
or to your USB hub. They are accessible as /dev/ums0,
/dev/ums1, and so
on.
You may want to create a symbolic link /dev/mouse pointing
to the real
port to which the mouse is connected, so that you can easily
distinguish
which is your ``mouse'' port later.
The next step is to guess the appropriate protocol type for
the mouse.
The moused utility may be able to automatically determine
the protocol
type. Run the moused utility with the -i option and see
what it says.
If the command can identify the protocol type, no further
investigation
is necessary on your part. You may start the daemon without
explicitly
specifying a protocol type (see EXAMPLES).
The command may print sysmouse if the mouse driver supports
this protocol
type.
Note that the type and model printed by the -i option do not
necessarily
match the product name of the pointing device in question,
but they may
give the name of the device with which it is compatible.
If the -i option yields nothing, you need to specify a pro
tocol type to
the moused utility by the -t option. You have to make a
guess and try.
There is rule of thumb:
1. The bus and InPort mice always use busmouse protocol
regardless of
the brand of the mouse.
2. The ps/2 protocol should always be specified for the
PS/2 mouse
regardless of the brand of the mouse.
3. You must specify the auto protocol for the USB mouse.
4. Most 2-button serial mice support the microsoft proto
col.
5. 3-button serial mice may work with the mousesystems
protocol. If itdoes not, it may work with the microsoft protocol al
though the third
(middle) button will not function. 3-button serial
mice may also
work with the mouseman protocol under which the third
button may
function as expected.
6. 3-button serial mice may have a small switch to choose
between
``MS'' and ``PC'', or ``2'' and ``3''. ``MS'' or ``2''
usually mean
the microsoft protocol. ``PC'' or ``3'' will choose
the
mousesystems protocol.
7. If the mouse has a roller or a wheel, it may be compat
ible with the
intellimouse protocol.
To test if the selected protocol type is correct for the
given mouse,
enable the mouse pointer in the current virtual console,

vidcontrol -m on
start the mouse daemon in the foreground mode,

moused -f -p _selected_port_ -t _selected_protocol_
and see if the mouse pointer travels correctly according to
the mouse
movement. Then try cut & paste features by clicking the
left, right and
middle buttons. Type ^C to stop the command.
Multiple Mice
As many instances of the mouse daemon as the number of mice
attached to
the system may be run simultaneously; one instance for each
mouse. This
is useful if the user wants to use the built-in PS/2 point
ing device of a
laptop computer while on the road, but wants to use a serial
mouse when
s/he attaches the system to the docking station in the of
fice. Run two
mouse daemons and tell the application program (such as the
X Window
System) to use sysmouse(4), then the application program
will always see
mouse data from either mouse. When the serial mouse is not
attached, the
corresponding mouse daemon will not detect any movement or
button state
change and the application program will only see mouse data
coming from
the daemon for the PS/2 mouse. In contrast when both mice
are attached
and both of them are moved at the same time in this configu
ration, the
mouse pointer will travel across the screen just as if move
ment of the
mice is combined all together.

FILES

/dev/consolectl device to control the console
/dev/mse%d bus and InPort mouse driver
/dev/psm%d PS/2 mouse driver
/dev/sysmouse virtualized mouse driver
/dev/ttyv%d virtual consoles
/dev/ums%d USB mouse driver
/var/run/moused.pid
process id of the currently running moused
utility
/var/run/MouseRemoteUNIX-domain stream socket for X10 MouseRe
mote events

EXAMPLES

moused -p /dev/cuad0 -i type
Let the moused utility determine the protocol type of the
mouse at the
serial port /dev/cuad0. If successful, the command will
print the type,
otherwise it will say ``unknown''.

moused -p /dev/cuad0
vidcontrol -m on
If the moused utility is able to identify the protocol type
of the mouse
at the specified port automatically, you can start the dae
mon without the
-t option and enable the mouse pointer in the text console
as above.

moused -p /dev/mouse -t microsoft
vidcontrol -m on
Start the mouse daemon on the serial port /dev/mouse. The
protocol type
microsoft is explicitly specified by the -t option.

moused -p /dev/mouse -m 1=3 -m 3=1
Assign the physical button 3 (right button) to the logical
button 1 (logical left) and the physical button 1 (left) to the logical
button 3 (logical right). This will effectively swap the left and right
buttons.

moused -p /dev/mouse -t intellimouse -z 4
Report negative Z axis movement (i.e., mouse wheel) as the
button 4
pressed and positive Z axis movement (i.e., mouse wheel) as
the button 5
pressed.
If you add

ALL ALL = NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/killall -USR1 moused
to your /usr/local/etc/sudoers file, and bind

killall -USR1 moused
to a key in your window manager, you can suspend mouse
events on your
laptop if you keep brushing over the mouse pad while typing.

CAVEATS

The moused utility does not currently work with the alterna
tive console
driver pcvt(4).
Many pad devices behave as if the first (left) button were
pressed if the
user ``taps'' the surface of the pad. In contrast, some
ALPS GlidePoint
and Interlink VersaPad models treat the tapping action as
fourth button
events. Use the option ``-m 1=4'' for these models to ob
tain the same
effect as the other pad devices.
Cut and paste functions in the virtual console assume that
there are
three buttons on the mouse. The logical button 1 (logical
left) selects
a region of text in the console and copies it to the cut
buffer. The
logical button 3 (logical right) extends the selected re
gion. The logical button 2 (logical middle) pastes the selected text at
the text cursor
position. If the mouse has only two buttons, the middle,
`paste' button
is not available. To obtain the paste function, use the -3
option to
emulate the middle button, or use the -m option to assign
the physical
right button to the logical middle button: ``-m 2=3''.

SEE ALSO

kill(1), vidcontrol(1), keyboard(4), mse(4), pcvt(4),
psm(4), screen(4),
sysmouse(4), ums(4)

STANDARDS

The moused utility partially supports ``Plug and Play Exter
nal COM Device
Specification'' in order to support PnP serial mice. Howev
er, due to
various degrees of conformance to the specification by ex
isting serial
mice, it does not strictly follow the version 1.0 of the
standard. Even
with this less strict approach, it may not always determine
an appropriate protocol type for the given serial mouse.

HISTORY

The moused utility first appeared in FreeBSD 2.2.

AUTHORS

The moused utility was written by Michael Smith
<msmith@FreeBSD.org>.
This manual page was written by Mike Pritchard <mpp@FreeB
SD.org>. The
command and manual page have since been updated by Kazutaka
Yokota
<yokota@FreeBSD.org>.
BSD November 12, 2004
Copyright © 2010-2024 Platon Technologies, s.r.o.           Home | Man pages | tLDP | Documents | Utilities | About
Design by styleshout