USB boot = No mouse pointer/cursor [Ryzen 1700x / GTX1070]

[VUMeter]

Hi all,
I have searched for this one but not found a real answer or solution.

I put Mint 18.3 Cinnamon (and XFCE separately) on a USB stick using etcher. This worked perfectly on a Braswell Notebook, so the .iso or the imaging to stick isn't the issue here.
But when I put the stick into my main AMD Ryzen PC, everything boots up to desktop, but I have no mouse pointer!

I have to use the keyboard to navigate to the mouse settings, enable the 'ctrl shows where mouse cursor is'. Then I can spam the ctrl key to get an idea of where I am moving the mouse to.
Surely this ain't right. Any clue why it's happening, and more importantly, how to get a cursor to show?

Notes:
USB 'live' boot - haven't tried to install, and don't want to just yet.
AMD Ryzen 1700x
ASRock TaiChi X370
Zotac 'mini' nVidia GTX1070
32GB RAM (2x 16GB DIMMs)
Mouse via USB 2.0
Keyboard via PS/2

I have XFCE installed on a new Notebook and it's working very well. I am contemplating a dual-boot setup on my main PC as MS Windows 10 is just so needlessly aggressive with untested updates.

[ClixTrix]

Does the mouse work in BIOS setup?

Do you have the PS/2 Y-Cable in BIOS set to Enable or Auto? If Enabled, try Auto.

Have you tried all the USB ports with the mouse? Note, I do see that ALL your ports are USB 3.1 on that board.

If it is a wireless mouse, I'd check to make sure it isn't a weak battery.

You might want to check the kernel log for errors. I'd run the command dmesg from Terminal and look for any obvious problems. You could also look for errors or usb messages with the following:

Code: Select all

dmesg | grep -i error

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dmesg | grep -i usb

I would also look at USB devices detected with the following command.

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lsusb

It might be helpful to post back the output from those checks.

[VUMeter]

Thanks for the reply.

It's a wired mouse (A4 Tech X-750).
It definitely works in UEFI/BIOS, although I do tend to navigate via keyboard, old habits I guess.
I have seen that PS/2 Y-cable option, I think it is set to auto...I'll state for sure when I can check.
I have USB 2.0 on the Fractal R5 case, these connect to the motherboard USB 2.0 header. Tried a super cheap basic USB mouse there, no joy.

Unfortunately, I have a bigger crisis than no mouse cursor. My PSU looks to be dead (only 9 months old) and as such my system has no life at all. The 'paper clip test' has shown zero activity from the PSU. I'll have to deal with all of that before I can continue with this issue.

Thanks for the reply, I'll be sure to provide more data when I can.
It never rains, but pours!

[VUMeter]

Hi, new PSU installed and checked. I am back.

In checking my system and confirming it was a dead PSU, I pulled the CR2032 battery from the mainboard and also cleared CMOS. BIOS/UEFI is at default settings.
PS/Y-cable is set to auto.

I've got 18.3 XFCE on stick at the moment, and, I think because of the nVidia GPU, I have the Live Mint desktop on the HDMI screen, not the DisplayPort screen. It's also vertically stretched, so I can only see the top half of the desktop.
I think I need to change a mode setting option, edit the command line boot options for the live boot.

I'll sort this out and get back after some more testing.
I was just bumping to say that I am still here, and now having a physically working system again - hoorah!

[VUMeter]

18.3 Cinnamon has the same problem, no mouse cursor, so I don't know where the mouse actually is pointing!
Same screen resolution problem too. It looks to be interlaced, and as such has made the vertical resolution 2x what it should be, and so I cannot even see the taskbar (or it's equivalent name in Linux).

When I boot from USB3.0 stick, Grub boot loader shows on DisplayPort 1920x1200 screen, but then when I pick an option to boot, the "LM" logo appears on the HDMI 1920x1080 screen.
I'd like to get Linux on the DisplayPort screen by default, but I'd not be surprised to find that it's because I need an nVidia driver.
I am notified by the fact I am running in CPU mode non-accelerated graphics - again no nVidia driver.

Terminal was hard to use on only half the screen being visible. I recall shift+ctrl+T opens it, and I could at least type "reboot" without quotes to, well, reboot back to Windows.

I'll try again and note results of dmseg.

[michael louwe]

.

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To solve screen-freezing for Nvidia/AMD graphics cards ... viewtopic.php?f=46&t=122257
https://linuxmint.com/rel_sonya_cinnamon.php

[ClixTrix]

Are you sure you have the 8-pin power plug fully seated on the GTX1070? Also, are you using an minimum 500 Watt PSU and is it the current ATX v2.4 standard?

I would suggest trying one monitor at a time with the boot from USB flash, starting with the DP. Also, the GTX1070 has 3 DP ports, so I'd check them all. If the DP ports won't work, switch to HDMI for test.

[VUMeter]

PC hardware is utterly fine, zero issues in Windows, taxing with PRime95 Furmark or others and games play without issue.

Seasonic Prime Titatium Ultra 750w - I'd say that was latest ATX standards.
Zotac GTX1070 Mini (3x DP, 1x HDMI) - 8 Pin power connected directly from PSU, fully seated and tight.

I managed to sort of navigate the display 'control panel' application, by hitting the win-key and typing "display", then using win-key and cursor-key-left/right to get it on one side of the screen or other.
I couldn't get it to switch screens, but it did show that there were my two screens attached, Samsung on HDMI and Dell on DisplayPort. So Linux is definitely detecting them both.

I typed "dmseg" instead of "dmesg", so will have to do that without a dumb typo, and post results.

The link for nVidia stuff, that seems to be mostly pointing at adding the driver after installation. I am just trying to get the 'live' boot to work from a USB drive.
It's funny how Grub works fine, and on the correct display.

Next to do:
I'll pull the Samsung HDMI TV and move the DisplayPort cable for the Dell monitor around.
I'll post the results of dmesg.

Thanks again for the perseverance.

[VUMeter]

Sorry for taking a year to get back to this.
Really a bit unacceptable as I was asking for help - I'll accept the shaking heads and wagging fingers.

We'r now on 19.1 and this worked without issue.
Only 1 screen via DP, the second screen over HDMI wasn't physically connected.
Had to enable CSM in the UEFI so that it would recognise the Linux Boot USB drive, but other than that, it works and works very fast.

As this works so well, I am thinking of getting an Alxum or Inateck SATA>USB3.0 adaptor and am old HDD to begin with and then a cheap small SSD.
USB 3.0 should be quick enough, replacing the eSATA I never used ever, and then I have a nice Linux install without killing a USB flash drive.

Thanks for the assistance, and sorry again for not responding in a sensible manor.
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