gpm-types
GPM-TYPES(7) GPM-TYPES(7)
NAME
This manual page describes what pointer types (mice, tablets, etc) are
currently managed by gpm.
The information below is extracted from the texinfo file, which is the
preferred source of information.
DESCRIPTION
This manpage describes the various pointer types currently available
in gpm. If you look at the source code, you’ll find that pointer-spe-
cific code is confined to mice.c (while it used to only include mouse
decoders, gpm now supports tablets and touchscreens as well).
The mouse type is specified on command line with the -t option. The
option takes an argument, which represents the name of a mouse type.
Each type can be associated to different names. For old mouse types,
one name is the old selection-compatible name, and another is the
XFree name. After version 1.18.1 of gpm, the number of synonyms was
made arbitrary and the actual name being used is made available to the
function responsible for mouse initialization. Therefore it is possi-
ble for a mouse decoder to behave slightly differently according to
the name being used for the device (if this feature was already
present, we wouldn’t have for example ms+ and ms+lr as different mouse
types).
The initialization procedure of each mouse type can also receive extra
option, by means of the -o command line option. Since interpretation
of the option string is decoder-specific, the allowed options are
described in association to each mouse type. When no description of
option strings is provided, that means the option string is unused for
that mouse type and specifying one generates an error. When the docu-
ment refer to ‘‘standard serial options’’ it means that one of -o dtr,
-o rts, -o both can be specified to toggle the control lines of the
serial port.
The following mouse type are corrently recognized:
bare Microsoft
The Microsoft protocol, without any extension. It only reports
two buttons. If your device has three, you should either try
running the mman decoder or msc. In the latter case, you need
to tell the mouse to talk msc protocol by toggling the DTR and
RTS lines (with one of -o drt, -o rts or -o both) or invoking
gpm -t msc while keeping the middle button pressed. Very annoy-
ing, indeed. This mouse decoder accepts standard serial
options, although they should not be needed.
ms This is the original Microsoft protocol, with a middle-button
extension. Some old two-button devices send some spurious
packets which can be misunderstood as middle-button events. If
this is your case, use the bare mouse type. Some new two-but-
ton devices are ‘‘plug and play’’, and they don’t play fair at
all; in this case try -t pnp. Many (most) three-button devices
that use the microsoft protocol fail to report some middle-but-
ton events during mouse motion. Since the protocol does not
distinguish between the middle button going up and the middle
button going down it would be liable to get out of step, so
this decoder declares the middle button to be up whenever the
mouse moves. This prevents dragging with the middle button, so
you should probably use -t ms+lr instead of this decoder,
especially if you want to use X. This mouse decoder accepts
standard serial options, although they should not be needed.
ms+ This is the same as -t ms except that the middle button is not
reset during mouse motion. So you can drag with the middle but-
ton. However, if your mouse exhibits the usual buggy behaviour
the decoder is likely to get out of step with reality, thinking
the middle button is up when it’s down and vice versa. You
should probably use -t ms+lr instead of this decoder. This
mouse decoder accepts standard serial options, although they
should not be needed.
ms+lr This is the same as -t ms+ except that there is an additional
facility to reset the state of the middle button by pressing
the other two buttons together. Do this when the decoder gets
into a confused state where it thinks the middle button is up
when it’s down and vice versa. (If you get sick of having to do
this, please don’t blame gpm; blame your buggy mouse! Note that
most three-button mice that do the microsoft protocol can be
made to do the MouseSystems protocol instead. The ‘‘3 Button
Serial Mouse mini-HOWTO’’ has information about this.) This
mouse decoder accepts standard serial options, although they
should not be needed.
msc MouseSystems
This is the standard protocol for three-button serial devices.
Some of such devices only enter MouseSystem mode if the RTS,
DTR or both lines are pushed low. Thus, you may try -t msc
associated with -o rts, -o dtr or -o both.
mman Mouseman
The protocol used by the new Logitech devices with three but-
tons. It is backward compatible with the Microsoft protocol,
so if your mouse has three buttons and works with -t ms or sim-
ilar decoders you may try -t mman instead to use the middle
button. This mouse decoder accepts standard serial options,
although they should not be needed.
sun The protocol used on Sparc computers and a few others. This
mouse decoder accepts standard serial options, although they
should not be needed.
mm MMSeries
Title says it all. This mouse decoder accepts standard serial
options, although they should not be needed.
logi Logitech
This is the protocol used by old serial Logitech mice.
bm BusMouse
Some bus devices use this protocol, including those produced by
Logitech.
ps2 PS/2
The protocol used by most busmice.
ncr This ‘type’ is able to decode the pointing pen found on some
laptops (the NCR 3125 pen)
wacom The protocol used by the Wacom tablet. Since version 1.18.1 we
have a new Wacom decoder, as the old one was not working with
new tablets. This decoder was tested with Ultrapad, PenPartner,
and Graphire tablets. Options: -o relative (default) for rela-
tive mode, -o absolute for absolute mode.
genitizer
The This mouse decoder accepts standard serial options,
although they should not be needed.
logim Used to turn Logitech mice into Mouse-Systems-Compatible.
Obviously, it only works with some of the Logitech mice.
pnp This decoder works with the new mice produces by our friend
Bill, and maybe with the old ones as well. The Pnp protocol is
hardwired at 1200 baud and is upset by normal initialization,
so this is a -t bare decoder with no initialization at all.
This mouse decoder accepts standard serial options, although
they should not be needed.
ms3 A decoder for the new serial IntelliMouse devices, the ones
with three buttons and a protocol incompatible with older ones.
The wheel is currently unused.
imps2 ‘‘IntelliMouse’’ on the ps/2 port. This type can also be used
for a generic 2-button ps/2 mouse too, since it will auto-
detect the type.
netmouse
Decodes the ‘‘Genius NetMouse’’ type of devices on the ps/2
port. For serial ‘‘Netmouse’’ devices, use the ‘‘ms3’’
decoder.
cal A decoder of the ‘‘Calcomp UltraSlate device.
calr Same as above, but in relative mode.
twid Support for the twiddler keyboard. As of gpm-1.14 this decoder
includes a char generator for the text console, but doesn’t yet
support X keycodes. If used with -R, gpm will anyway repeat
mouse events to the X server. More information about twiddler
support can be found in README.twiddler, in the gpm distribu-
tion.
syn synaptics
A decoder for the Synaptics TouchPad connected to the serial
port. This mouse decoder accepts standard serial options,
although they should not be needed.
synps2 synaptics_ps2
Same as above, but for the devices attached to the ps2 port.
brw A decoder for the Fellowes Browser, a device with 4 buttons and
a wheel. This mouse decoder accepts standard serial options,
although they should not be needed.
js Joystick
This mouse type uses the joystick device to generate mouse
events. It is only available if the header linux/joystick.h is
found at compile time. The header (and the device as well) has
been introduced only during 2.1 development, and is not present
in version 2.0 of the kernel.
summa This is a decode for the Symmagraphics of Genius tablet, run in
absolute mode. A repeater is associated to this decoder, so it
can -R summa can be used to generate X events even for other
absolute-pointing devices, like touchscreens. To use the
repeated data from X, you need a modified xf86Summa.o module.
mtouch A decoder for the MicroTouch touch screen. Please refer to the
file README.microtouch in the source tree of gpm for further
information. In the near future, anyways, I plan to fold back
to this documentation the content of that file.
gunze A decoder for the gunze touch screen. Please refer to the file
README.gunze in the source tree of gpm for further information.
In the near future, anyways, I plan to fold back to this docu-
mentation the content of that file. The decoder accepts the
following options: smooth=, debounce=. An higher smoothness
results in slower motion as well; a smaller smoothness gives
faster motion but, obviously, less smooth. The default smooth-
ness is 9. The debounce time is express in milliseconds and is
the minimum duration of an up-down event to be taken as a tap.
Smaller bounces are ignored.
acecad The Acecad tablet in absolute mode.
wp wizardpad
Genius WizardPad tablet
FILES
src/mice.c The source file for pointer decoders
SEE ALSO
gpm(8) The General Purpose Mouse server
The info file about ‘gpm’, which gives more complete information and
explains how to write a gpm client.
4th Berkeley Distribution July 2000 GPM-TYPES(7)
