Syd Hancock wrote:

From pictures, they seem to have a receiver at the laptop end, plugged into a usb port. Does this need to be line of site from the mouse?

I've never owned one but I assume this depends what type of wireless you are talking about. Infra red requires line of sight but bluethooth and other RF technologies generally don't. -- Ben "tola" Francis 00101010 tola ^/. http://hippygeek.co.uk mailto://tola_at_imen.org.uk opinions expressed are of the voices in my head only

On Sun, 30 Nov 2003, Syd Hancock wrote:

I'm thinking of getting a cordless mouse for the laptop. Has anyone here used one?

I have a Packard Bell RF cordless KB and mouse. Seem to work quite nicely, although sometimes lose communication link with computer. More on this problem below.

From pictures, they seem to have a receiver at the laptop end, plugged into a usb port. Does this need to be line of site from the mouse?

In my case, both keyboard and mouse transmit wirelessly to the same receiver, and this receiver plugs into both PS/2 ports on my computer. Line of sight is not necessary, although I can imagine wireless communication methods where it would be.

Also, is a purely h/w device or does it need drivers?

A bit of both. The keyboard and mouse work in Linux, without special drivers; I won't bore you with what /etc/X11/XF86Config says to achieve this here, but if anyone's interested, I can tell you off-list. In Windows, manufacturer's drivers provide the following flashiness: special keys for going back and forward in a web browser, shutting down the computer, starting a web browser, searching (?the web,) opening IE favourites, starting a mail reader, and sending the computer to sleep, and messages on screen that do the job of the keyboard LEDs (which this keyboard doesn't have.) xkbvleds is a good Linux substitute for this. More about the loss of communication; maybe someone can help me with it...? It matters because, once I don't have the keyboard and mouse to control the computer, my only options are the power button or the reset button. In Windows, the power button is under software control, and shuts down the computer elegantly, but in Linux, it just cuts the power, leaving me having all sorts of "fun" with fsck the next time I start the machine. A light on the receiver continues to blink when a key is pressed or the mouse is moved, suggesting that the communication failure is in the PS/2 cable links, not in the wireless links. A reboot, with no other action, restores communication. Re-introducing the keyboard and mouse to the receiver, using the registration process in the documentation, without a reboot, does not restore communication. The loss of communication occurs more often in Linux than in Windows, but happens sometimes in Windows as well. The loss of communication happens mostly when the machine's been left alone long enough for sleepd to put the computer into APM standby, but sometimes sleepd happily puts the computer into APM standby without a loss of communication. The loss of communication seems to happen mostly to both input devices at once, although occasionally to the mouse alone. -- Thanks Dan Hatton <http://www.bib.hatton.btinternet.co.uk/dan/>