Introduction to GPM
The GPM (General Purpose Mouse daemon)
package contains a mouse server for the console and
xterm. It not only provides cut and paste support
generally, but its library component is used by various software such as
Links to provide mouse support to the
application. It is useful on desktops, especially if following (Beyond)
Linux From Scratch instructions; it's often much easier (and less error
prone) to cut and paste between two console windows than to type
everything by hand!
![[Note]](../images/note.png)
Note
Development versions of BLFS may not build or run
some packages properly if LFS or dependencies have been updated
since the most recent stable versions of the books.
Package Information
Additional Downloads
Editor Notes:
https://wiki.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/wiki/GPM
GPM Dependencies
Optional
texlive-20230313 (for documentation)
Kernel Configuration
Enable the following option in the kernel configuration and recompile the
kernel if necessary:
Device Drivers --->
Input device support --->
-*- Generic input layer (needed for keyboard, mouse, ...) [INPUT]
<*/M> Mouse interface [INPUT_MOUSEDEV]Installation of GPM
Install GPM by running
the following commands:
patch -Np1 -i ../gpm-1.20.7-consolidated-1.patch &&
./autogen.sh &&
./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc ac_cv_path_emacs=no &&
make
If texlive-20230313 is installed, build the GPM manual as
dvi, ps, and pdf formats:
make -C doc gpm.{dvi,ps} &&
dvipdfm doc/gpm.dvi -o doc/gpm.pdf
This package does not come with a test suite.
Now, as the root user:
make install &&
install-info --dir-file=/usr/share/info/dir \
/usr/share/info/gpm.info &&
rm -fv /usr/lib/libgpm.a &&
ln -sfv libgpm.so.2.1.0 /usr/lib/libgpm.so &&
install -v -m644 conf/gpm-root.conf /etc &&
install -v -m755 -d /usr/share/doc/gpm-1.20.7/support &&
install -v -m644 doc/support/* \
/usr/share/doc/gpm-1.20.7/support &&
install -v -m644 doc/{FAQ,HACK_GPM,README*} \
/usr/share/doc/gpm-1.20.7
If texlive-20230313 is installed and you've built GPM
manual as dvi, ps, and pdf formats, install them as the root user:
install -vm644 doc/gpm.{dvi,ps,pdf} /usr/share/doc/gpm-1.20.7Command Explanations
./autogen.sh: This command creates the missing
configure script.
ac_cv_path_emacs=no: This variable works around
an issue causing the package fail to build with
Emacs-29.1 installed. It also suppresses the
installations of some “Emacs support files” shipped with
GPM. These files are quite outdated and they should be superseded
with Emacs-29.1 built-in GPM support. If you need to use
Emacs-29.1 in Linux console with mouse support, you
should install (or reinstall) Emacs-29.1
after GPM.
install-info ...: This package installs a
.info file, but does not update
the system dir file. This command makes the update.
ln -v -sfn libgpm.so.2.1.0 /usr/lib/libgpm.so: This
command is used to create (or update) the .so symlink to the library.
Configuring GPM
Systemd Unit
To start the gpm daemon at boot,
install the systemd unit from the blfs-systemd-units-20230816
package by running the following command as the
root user:
make install-gpm
Config Files
/etc/gpm-root.conf and
~/.gpm-root: The default and individual user
gpm-root configuration files.
Configuration Information
GPM is by default started with
the following parameters:
-m /dev/input/mice -t imps2. If the
mentioned parameters don't suit your needs, you can override
them by running the following commands as
the root user:
install -v -dm755 /etc/systemd/system/gpm.service.d &&
cat > /etc/systemd/system/gpm.service.d/99-user.conf << EOF
[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/sbin/gpm <list of parameters>
EOF