MOUSED(8) BSD System Manager's Manual MOUSED(8)
NAME
moused -- pass mouse data to mouse mux
SYNOPSIS
moused [-DPRacdfs] [-I file] [-F rate] [-r resolution] [-S baudrate] [-W devicename] [-a X[,Y]] [-m N=M] [-w N] [-z target] [-t mousetype]
[-3 [-E timeout]] -p port
moused [-Pd] -p port -i info
DESCRIPTION
The mouse daemon moused and the console driver work together to support access to serial mice from user programs. They virtualize the mouse
and provide user programs with mouse data in the standard format (see wsmouse(4)).
moused listens to the specified port for mouse data, interprets and then passes it via ioctls to the console driver. It 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.
If moused receives the signal SIGHUP, it will reopen the mouse port and reinitializes itself. Useful if the mouse is attached/detached while
the system is suspended.
The following options are available:
-3 Emulate the third (middle) button for 2-button mice. It is emulated by pressing the left and right physical buttons simultaneously.
-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), moused waits timeout milliseconds at most before deciding whether two buttons
are being pressed simultaneously. The default timeout is 100 milliseconds.
-F rate
Set the report rate (reports per second) of the device if supported.
-I file
Write the process id of moused 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 enumeration procedure when identifying the serial mouse. If this option is given together
with the -i option, moused 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.
-W devicename
Select the wsmux(4) control device. The default is /dev/wsmuxctl0.
-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 handles this.
-d Enable debugging messages.
-f Do not become a daemon and instead run as a foreground process. Useful for testing and debugging.
-i info
Print specified information and quit. Available pieces of information are:
port Port (device file) name, e.g. /dev/tty00.
if Interface type: serial, bus, inport or ps/2.
type Protocol type. It is one of the types listed under the -t option below.
model Mouse model. moused may not always be able to identify the model.
all All of the above items. Print port, interface, type and model in this order in one line.
If moused cannot determine the requested information, it prints ``unknown'' or ``generic''.
-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
moused automatically select an appropriate protocol for the given mouse. If you entirely omit this option on the command line, -t
auto is assumed. Under normal circumstances, you need to use this option only if moused is not able to detect the protocol automati-
cally.
Note that if a protocol type is specified with this option, the -P option above is implied and Plug and Play COM device enumeration
procedure will be disabled.
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 NetMouse, ASCII Mie Mouse, Logitech MouseMan+ and FirstMouse+ use this pro-
tocol too. Other mice with a roller/wheel may be compatible 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 models.
mouseman Logitech MouseMan and TrackMan protocol. Some 3-button mice may be compatible with this protocol. Note that Mouse-
Man+ 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 protocol.
versapad Interlink VersaPad protocol.
-w N Make the physical button N act as the wheel mode button. While this button is pressed, X and Y axis movement is reported 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 movement is detected.
N Report down events for the virtual buttons N and N+1 respectively when negative and positive Z axis movement 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 movement 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 user.
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 negative 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's.
Multiple Mice
As many instances of moused as the number of mice attached to the system may be run simultaneously; one instance for each serial mouse.
FILES
/dev/wsmuxctl0 default device to control mouse mux
/var/run/moused.pid process id of the currently running moused
EXAMPLES
moused -p /dev/tty00 -i type
Let moused determine the protocol type of the mouse at the serial port /dev/tty00. If successful, moused will print the type, otherwise it
will say ``unknown''.
moused -p /dev/tty00
If moused is able to identify the protocol type of the mouse at the specified port automatically, you can start the daemon without the -t
option and enable the mouse pointer in the text console as above.
moused -p /dev/tty01 -t microsoft
Start moused on the serial port /dev/tty01. The protocol type microsoft is explicitly specified by the -t option.
moused -p /dev/tty01 -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/tty01 -t intellimouse -z 4
Report negative Z axis (roller) movement as the button 4 pressed and positive Z axis movement as the button 5 pressed.
The mouse daemon is normally enabled by setting moused=YES in /etc/rc.conf.
SEE ALSO
wsmouse(4), wsmux(4), rc.conf(5), wsmoused(8)
STANDARDS
moused partially supports ``Plug and Play External COM Device Specification'' in order to support PnP serial mice. However, due to various
degrees of conformance to the specification by existing serial mice, it does not strictly follow 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 mouse daemon moused first appeared in FreeBSD 2.2 and NetBSD 1.6.
AUTHORS
moused was written by Michael Smith <msmith@FreeBSD.org>. This manual page was written by
Mike Pritchard <mpp@FreeBSD.org>. The daemon and manual page have since been updated by
Kazutaka Yokota <yokota@FreeBSD.org>. The NetBSD port was done by
Lennart Augustsson <augustss@NetBSD.org>.
BUGS
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 Glide-
Point and Interlink VersaPad models treat the tapping action as fourth button events. Use the option ``-m 1=4'' for these models to obtain
the same effect as the other pad devices.
BSD
October 29, 2001 BSD