So apparently, newer Ubuntu builds (7.04 and 7.10 are tested at the time of this writing) include a PS/2 kernel “fix” that breaks virtualized mice, such as those used in VirtualPC and VMWare. I discovered this today while trying to build such an Ubuntu VPC; thankfully, the end is not written there… Obviously, you can use the Accessibility options to turn on a numpad-based mouse (similar to the one in Windows), by going to the System menu (Alt+F1, right, right) and selecting Preferences->Accessibility->Keyboard accessibility, and using keyboard navigation to turn on the “Mouse Keys” option. This will let you use a “mouse” throughout the install process (although the only thing you really need it for is to actually click on the install icon — I can’t figure out how to select icons on the desktop when none is selected using only the keyboard in Gnome, even though I can in Windows or KDE… :\ ).

Now, once you actually get your Ubuntu system installed, you will still, unfortunately be mouseless. If you only plan to use a virtual console, or you really love keyboard navigation and MouseKeys ;), this isn’t a problem, but for everyone else, it’s unacceptable. If you never plan to upgrade your kernel, you can find a nifty binary kernel patch at this link, but since that is, as I mentioned, a binary patch, it’s only useful for the kernel that comes straight off the 7.04 installer CD. That’s not really too bad, since under most circumstances you won’t need to upgrade your kernel that much anyway, but I hope this will eventually get fixed… Knowing Linux developers, though, I’m sure it will

Update 09/22/2007

It seems that there’s actually an easier way that should work for all kernels…  this blog post explains that you can actually just append a kernel parameter (i8042.noloop) to make the mouse work again.  I’ve tested this on the latest Ubuntu 7.10 kernel, and it works great!  Of course, getting the kernel itself fixed would be the best option, but this is certainly a lot better than before