Interesting , I just had a conversation with a hardware engineer about
just this point. It turns out that some mice can do both PS2 and serial
communications and some mice can only do PS2. PS2 communications are
MUCH different then RS-232. Prior to the conversation I had mistakenly
assumed (never should assume) that PS2 serial comms were very simular to
RS-232 comms. RS232 is primarly ASYNC and PS2 is SYNC. Yes you can have
RS-232 running in SYNC mode but in practicse is not done.

You either need a real RS-232 serial mouse or a PS2 mouse that is
designed to detect RS-232 comms and swith to that protocol.

CHeers,

Davidm

On Mon, 2002-05-06 at 09:59, Jeff wrote:
> I have a question that stems from the serial mouse part of this email.
> 
> I have Mandrake 8.2, and a machine that only has a serial port on the back
> of it (I have the option of installing a ps/2 port if all else fails) for
> the mouse. I don't have a serial mouse, but I have an adapter for a serial 2
> PS/2 connector. No matter what setting I've tried during install, I can't
> get the mouse to work using that adapter. Do those adapters just not work
> very well? Even windows wasn't getting it... I've tried 3 different adapters
> and none of them work, (I've also tried 3 different computers) What am I
> doing wrong?
> 
> The serial port is connected to COM1 (TTYS0 right?) on the motherboard.
> 
[snip]