UMS(4)

✨ UMS(4) — the USB mouse driver, bestie edition 💅

okay so quick vibe check: this is the Kernel Interfaces Manual page for ums, and honestly it's giving "tiny driver, big main character energy" 🐭✨ Let's get into it.

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🎀 NAME 🎀

ums — the USB mouse driver. that's it, that's the whole name, and she ate 💅

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

so if you wanna compile this driver into the kernel (no cap, some of y'all still do this), you drop these lines into your kernel configuration file:

device ums
device hid
device uhci
device ohci
device usb

or — and this is the lowkey easier route — you can load the driver as a module at boot time by putting this line in loader.conf(5):

ums_load="YES"

literally that's it. one line. slay 🫶

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

the ums driver provides support for mice that attach to the USB port. and bestie, it's not picky — supported are mice with any number of buttons and mice with a wheel 🔥 like, any number. iconic behavior tbh.

the /dev/ums0 device presents the mouse as a sysmouse or mousesystems type device. if you're like "wait what does that mean," see moused(8) for an explanation of these mouse types — it's all in there, iykyk 💜

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⭐ SYSCTL VARIABLES ⭐

these following variables are available as both sysctl(8) variables and loader(8) tunables — dual threat, we love to see it 👑

• hw.usb.ums.debug — the debug output level, where 0 is debugging disabled and larger values increase debug message verbosity. default is 0. so like, leave it at 0 unless you're in your detective era 🕵️‍♀️

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🍓 FILES 🍓

• /dev/ums0 — blocking device node. that's the whole description, she's mysterious like that 🙈

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🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

want your console mouse to be the first USB mouse on the system? say less:

moused -p /dev/ums0 -t auto

want to use the USB mouse under X? then change the "Pointer" section in xorg.conf to the following:

Device /dev/ums0
Protocol Auto

and if you want the mouse to work in both virtual consoles AND in X? (the dream, honestly) change it to:

Device /dev/sysmouse
Protocol Auto

ok so note that these last two are alternatives — you pick /dev/ums0 for X-only vibes, or /dev/sysmouse for the have-it-all lifestyle ✨

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

ohci(4), sysmouse(4), uhci(4), usb(4), xorg.conf(5) (ports/x11/xorg), moused(8) — go read them, they're all part of the friend group 💖

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🧚 AUTHORS 🧚

the ums driver was written by Lennart Augustsson <augustss@cs.chalmers.se> for NetBSD and was adopted for FreeBSD by MAEKAWA Masahide <bishop@rr.iij4u.or.jp>. legends, both of them 🫡

this manual page was written by Nick Hibma <n_hibma@FreeBSD.org> with input from Kazutaka YOKOTA <yokota@zodiac.mech.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp>. shoutout to the whole crew 💐

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aaaaand that's the page! this one's from the Debian flavor of things, dated April 24, 2018 — so she's got a little vintage charm, but she still slays 💫 mwah, go plug in a mouse 🐭💖