USB mouse no longer working under X in 8.10

[Rares Vernica]

Rares Vernica <rares at ics.uci.edu> writes:

> I recently upgraded from 8.04 to 8.10 and my USB mouse is no longer
> working under X. The mouse is working fine in the console, using
> gpm. So, I believe my mouse is recognized by the system. The mouse is a
> standard Dell optical mouse.

And the answer is...

> sudo apt-get install hal

Here is how I found it:

> sudo grep device /var/log/Xorg.0.log
...
(II) Cannot locate a core pointer device.
(II) Cannot locate a core keyboard device.
(II) The server relies on HAL to provide the list of input devices.
        If no devices become available, reconfigure HAL or disable
        AllowEmptyInput.
...
> sudo dpkg-reconfigure hal
Package `hal' is not installed and no info is available.
...
> sudo apt-get install hal
...

Everything went back to normal. 

The mouse and keyboard device configurations have been moved from
xorg.conf into HAL. I did not realize but the keyboard was not working
either.

--
Rares