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
GPM Dependencies
Optional
texlive-20250308 (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 &&
patch -Np1 -i ../gpm-1.20.7-gcc15_fixes-1.patch &&
./autogen.sh &&
./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc ac_cv_path_emacs=no &&
make
If texlive-20250308 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-20250308 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-1.20.7
Command 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-30.2 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files are quite outdated and they should be superseded with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-30.2 built-in GPM support. If you need to
use Emacs-30.2 in Linux console with mouse support,
you should install (or reinstall) Emacs-30.2
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-20241211 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