[ale] HOW2 use MOUSE instead of TouchPad on portable

[Vernard Martin]

Courtney Thomas wrote:
> All of a sudden I can't get the mouse to function and must use the touchpad.
> How do I cure this on a Dell Latitude ?
>   

I'm going to assume that you ahve tested the mouse on another unit to 
verify that the mouse itself isn't bad. That happend to me once and was 
quite embarassing. But the new mouse was cheaper than having to get a 
laptop examined.

Back to your problem. Depending on when the mouse stopped functioning it 
could be one of a couple of things:
1) the mouse as stated above: could simply be dead.

2) If its a PS/2 style mouse, the actual external connector on the 
laptop could be kaput.

3) a bios setting. I seem to recall that a lot of Dell Latitudes have a 
bios setting to state whether it will use the Touchpad or an external 
mouse or Automatically choose between them or somesuch nonsense. Might 
want to check that. of course, that shouldn'ave change spontaneously 
while you are using the machine unless there is another problem.

4) a tray applet malfunctioning:  Some distros have an applet that 
manages the external mouse and trackpad being used at the same time. 
That might be acting squirrely.