Mouse doesnt work in mint but works in windows[fixed]

[sexybikeman]

Ive been using mint for about 2 weeks now and I had a day off yesterday so I figured I would give the system a make over and a tune up. I updated the system and also installed a few apps including: wine (havent used it at all yet), compiz fusion, another compiz app, and cairo doc. The compiz never worked, or whats probably the more likely scenario I dont know how to use it, and the cairo doc was all screwy with my dual monitor setup on my laptop. This is just the history of what happened before I experienced my actual problem. When I went to login this morning mint will not recognize my mouse. I boot up the OS and the mouse just sits in the center of the scrreen and doesnt move. I log out and log back in, same problem. Just to check that it wasnt the mouse pad itself I logged into windows and the mouse is working fine. Can any one take mercy on a poor newb and try and help me fix this. I would appreciate it very much.

[richyrich]

Compiz and/or Cairo conflicts with the compositing manager that is used in Mint 12 / Ubuntu 11.10. It can cause many errors and/or problems in Mint 12's gnome-shell or cinnamon sessions. More info about gnome 3 and the many changes can be found in the release notes and what's new in mint 12 pages.

More good stuff (and replies) : Mint 12 Tips & Tricks Guide

good luck, and have fun, richy

[sexybikeman]

found a thread on the internet that told me to go to terminal (ctrl alt t and it should pop up) and download this program (write this in the terminal) sudo apt-get install gpointing-device-settings. Once I wrote this in it said it wouldnt download and to run some code that i didnjt write down. this code went through a bunch of files over 5 minutes and once it was finished i restarted and the mouse works. I know this doesnt get to the heart of the problem and I would like to know how to actually solve it if any one wants to walk me through it