Microsoft wheel mouse (optical) has no pointer

[girl_downunder]

Except that it displays the pointer correctly in safe mode.

That points to something in the driver-side of things...not so much hardware support.

[gold_finger]

Except that it displays the pointer correctly in safe mode.

That points to something in the driver-side of things...not so much hardware support.

Correct!

It's not the mouse -- it's most likely the video driver.  Depending on your video card, the problem may disappear once the proper video driver is installed.  Go to Menu -> Settings -> Install Drivers and see if it finds any drivers to install for video card.  You won't be able to install them to the live environment, but if it finds any you can be pretty sure problem will be solved on a real installed system with those drivers installed to it.

If you want to do a real test run, just install LL 2.0 to a USB stick (8GB or larger).  (A real installation, not a "live" USB.)

It's possible that no proprietary drivers will show up as available for use if the computer is using an older video card that is no longer supported by the vendors for newer Linux versions.  If that turns out to be the case, you might be better off using LL 1.0.6 -- based on Ubuntu 12.04, so will get updates through April, 2017.  The older LL will have the older video drivers.

As Scott(0) pointed out, it's also possible that older kernel has support for older hardware that has been dropped in newer kernels of newer LL releases.  Think that would apply more to the older generic video drivers than it would to the mouse itself though.  Highly unlikely that a mouse driver is the problem.

If you need further help, post back with hardware specs that show us what you're dealing with.  The easiest way to do that from your live LL 2.0 is to open a terminal and do:

Code:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install inxi
inxi -Fxz

That will install the inxi program and the last command will output a summary of important hardware specs (including your video card).  Copy the output of last command and paste it back here to the forum for us to see.

[girl_downunder]

Thanks GF- I did attach system info a couple posts up- is that enough?

Otherwise, back asap. Whole household (including me) down with horrendous cold/flu).

Lemme know. If there's a cure- will install to HDD just to test.

Cheers & ta.

[Scott(0)]

@Gold_finger
Great post, great info!

[gold_finger]

Thanks GF- I did attach system info a couple posts up- is that enough?

Sorry -- didn't see that attachment before.  Looks like you've got a pretty old machine (2001 from BIOS date) with old graphics card on it.  Very possible that something that supported that hardware was dropped in newer version of Xorg or kernel.  Highly doubtful that there is a proprietary driver available and my guess is that the older LL 1.0.6 likely still has what you need as far as the generic driver and/or older version of Xorg needed to run on that video card.

If computer is able to boot from USB stick (maybe not for age of that computer), then do a test install to a USB stick if you don't want to install to hard drive.  Then boot from it and see if there is any difference.  Honestly, I doubt that there will be.  Think your best bet would be to install older version that's based on Ubuntu 12.04.

Good luck.  Hope you feel better soon.

P.s.  Just had a look at LL download page to see if 1.0.6 is still available for download.  Looks like you need to click list of "ISO Mirrors", click on one closest to you, pick LL 1.0.6 directory, then pick 32-bit version for your machine.
https://www.freecinema2022.gq/download.html#isomirrors

[girl_downunder]

You're legend!  Thanks GF.   

As I said, I do PC work & I'm a real recycler. On principle, I rail against perfectly useful machines going into our landfills until they reach the sky- it's sickening to me.

My pensioners only ever use email, web, a tiny bit of photo viewing & word processing. Linux Lite is perfect for that.

Again- thank you. I'll look for the 1.0.6 & get it, asap.

Cheers

[girl_downunder]

Thanks for that- still battling the dreaded "came from northern hemisphere" cold, atm...

What is it you believe to have changed from 1.0.4/6 to 1.0.8/2.0?  I'm still thinking about the video card cause being the trouble. It's just odd that it would show as a mouse pointer issue. I'm curious how something like a mouse could go so wrong & be connected to video?  Unless it's something to do with the USB in general for certain attached devices...hmm. Maybe I should try some other USB stuff, like cams, etc. Or am I totally off here?

Any chance a BIOS update would make any diff? Prob not, but figured I'd ask.

Lastly, any security issues sticking what the old version?

Ta.