hw-detect wants to install mouseemu on Mac when it really shouldn't

[Jo Shields]

Binary package hint: hw-detect

hw-detect contains the following line in hw-detect.sh, which is used by the Ubiquity installer:

# Install mouseemu on systems likely to have single-button mice
case $SUBARCH in
        i386/mac|amd64/mac)
                apt-install mouseemu || true
        ;;
        powerpc/powermac_*)
                # mouseemu causes an oops somewhere in the input layer on
                # powerpc64 at the moment, so don't install it.
                if [ ! -d /proc/ppc64 ]; then
                        apt-install mouseemu || true
                fi
        ;;
esac

Unfortunately, this makes a rather flawed assumption about "likely to". All Intel-powered desktop Macs (i.e. those with mice) have shipped with the "Mighty Mouse", a 4-button mouse with a scrollball. Assuming *all* Macs have single-button mice is a false assumption - it's generally a safe assumption for Mac *laptops* though, and most ppc Macs (iMac and PowerMac G5 after October 2005 had a Mighty Mouse, all others are single button)

Whilst this may appear trivial, mouseemu appears to conflict with real multi-button mice, preventing use of more buttons than the typical 3-plus-scroll-wheel. It's not obvious that uninstalling mouseemu is needed on prety much every desktop Mac for the last 4 years, and I think it's reasonable to assume that non-laptop Macs don't want mouseemu when evaluating packages to install.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

Thanks for your report and the extra information. This is also bug 251830, though, so I'll mark it as a duplicate.