mouse motion scaling factors

[Kemp at dockmaster.arpa]

In Sun-spots v7n161 Sandeep Mehta reports problems with mouse scaling on a
monochrome system but not on color.  We are having the same problem on a
color Sun-3/60 running 4.0, and it was not fixed in 4.0.1.  In this case,
the system will NOT read the .defaults file correctly even after logging
out and back in, or after rebooting the machine.  The scenario is:

 1. edit ~/.defaults (with vi or the window editor) to contain some
    higher speed factors (I use 2, 4, 6 with ceilings of 2, 8, 65535).
 2. exit and restart sunview, or logout, or reboot - it doesn't matter;
    when you get back into sunview, the mouse is still the same old slow
    speed.
 3. run defaults_edit and select "Input"; it says "running conversion
    program input_from_defaults" (or defaults_from_input, I forget which),
    it sets the mouse parameters to the standard values (2, 65535), AND
    IT WIPES OUT THE SETTINGS IN .defaults!!! (resets them to standard).
 4. set the scaling factors to the desired fast values from within
    defaults_edit and hit "Save", and voila, the mouse now works fast
    and the .defaults file is again correct.
 5. use the machine for long enough, and at some random time the mouse
    will switch back to normal speed.

I don't know why sunview won't correctly set the mouse speed from the
user's .defaults file, but there is clearly a bug in defaults_edit which
writes to .defaults without the user hitting "Save".

Does anyone else use faster than normal mouse scaling and if so, do you
have these problems?

  Dave Kemp