Software: gpm, a mouse service for Linux console

There's a nice piece of software called gpm (general purpose mouse).
It's a mouse server for Linux console. (BTW, touchpads are supported too).

In Debian (and its derivatives like Ubuntu), it's very easy to start using it by simple installation from package repositories:

# apt-get install gpm

And you should see a rectangular mouse pointer soon ;)

In case it gets stuck, you can try restarting the gpm service this way:

# service gpm restart

or, a more generic command if you don't use Debian:

# /etc/init.d/gpm restart

See also: HOWTO: reload mouse driver in Linux

External links:

• gpm - general purpose mouse (official site)
• Debian Package Tracker - gpm

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Last updated: 2016-07-04