[Cialug] Which Distro is best?

[Matthew Nuzum]

On Wed, Jul 9, 2008 at 1:16 PM, Nick Johnson <mainbass64 at gmail.com> wrote:
> i did the install through the live cd, and through the windows wubi
> installer. both times the mouse didnt work, i tried two different usb port
> mice, both of which work for about 10-15 minutes on ubuntu then become
> obsolete. Also, the mouse and the keyboard are independent of one another.

Thanks for providing more details. Now that we're trouble shooting a
problem, it's OK to err on the side of giving too much information.

Here's what to do:

In Ubuntu, open a terminal by going to Application -> Accessories -> Terminal

If your mouse doesn't work then press alt+f2 and type gnome-terminal
in the run box.

If you have a fast network connection, lets make sure your system is
up to date first. Run this:

sudo apt-get update
(you'll be prompted for your password... sudo lets you run
adminstrative commands)

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
(this will show you a bunch of files it wants to install, choose y to
install them)

if anything gets installed, reboot to ensure thinks are up to date. We
first want to look for errors in your xorg config. This will work best
if your mouse is working. In the terminal type this:

grep EE /var/log/Xorg.0.log

Copy and paste the output and send it to us. Also, if you can, send us
the output from this too:

cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Now we want to see if we can spot an error that happens when your
mouse stops working again. So in the terminal, do this:

tail -f /var/log/syslog

This will cause log messages to scroll by as they happen. Now play a
game of soduko or frozen buble. When your mouse stops working, alt+tab
and try to see if there's an error message in the terminal. If there
is, then do:

tail -n 100 /var/log/syslog > ~/Desktop/errors.txt

That puts a copy of the last 100 lines from your syslog onto your
desktop in a file called errors.txt. Reboot to get your mouse back and
send us that file too. (or if you can send the file without rebooting
that's fine too)

The good news is that learning how to troubleshoot these problems will
soon make you a Linux expert.

-- 
Matthew Nuzum
newz2000 on freenode