I gave a few wild-eyed guesses to the same problem sometime back.
Mouse problems on linux
(If the link doesn't work go to dosbox general and look back a few pages for "Mouse problems on linux" 2005-08-15 8:47 pm)
Never heard back, so no idea how helpful it was.

No luck with either of the environment variables. I did find a PS/2 mouse and will give that a try, but since someone else had the same problem while using a PS/2 mouse I don't think it will help much. Any other wild ideas?

uhm try other sdl games ?

Both of the games I've tried worked before with earlier versions of my OS, so I don't think that is the problem; but when I get more time I'll try more so I can see if I can find a game that does work.

OK, the two guest comments were mine, I didn't realize I wasn't logged in and I'm not used to forums allowing guest comments. Sorry for any confusion.

It turns out the problem is with the driver being used by X-windows. If I use a generic three button PS/2 mouse, everything behaves properly in dosbox. If I use the wheel mouse (Logitech M310) it doesn't. Something must have changed in the X mouse driver since my last update. I'll see if I can get the wheel mouse to work in Linux with a different driver that works in dosbox. If so, I'll post what works.

If I connect the wheel mouse to the PS/2 port using a USB to PS/2 adaptor, everything works fine. In dosbox the mouse behaves the same as my generic three button PS/2 mouse, and in Linux the wheel works. Here is the difference in the xorg.conf files.

When connected to the USB port:
Section "InputDevice"
Driver "mouse"
Identifier "Mouse[1]"
Option "Protocol" "explorerps/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Buttons" "8"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"

When connected to the PS/2 port:
Section "InputDevice"
Driver "mouse"
Identifier "Mouse[1]"
Option "Buttons" "8"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Name" "ImExPS/2 Logitech MX Mouse"
Option "Protocol" "explorerps/2"
Option "Vendor" "Sysp"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Both are using the same protocol, and I don't think the name or vendor settings would make any difference. I have no idea why the PS/2 port works correctly while the USB does not.

well dosbox simply gets inte output from SDL which get's it from X.

It's indeed weird.
I always use PS/2 type connections. Seems like I made wel choice (got a combo mouse as well)

When you have it hooked up on the USB port , you might want to try changing the Protocol to "usb" or even just "auto".

Strange that it would affect dosbox and not X, though.

After installing Dosbox 0.63 for fedora core 3 on my computer I have the same problems with my mouse. For so far it happens to al the games I tried. The mouse I'm using in a Logitech PS/2 mouse. The mouse works fine in X.
I tried all the solutions given in this thread. I treid it with the mouse connected to the serielbus, but it didn't work. I don't have a PS/2 to USB connector so i couldn't try it. I even tried it with the mouse protocol that smannell use (see his xorg.conf). The mouse did behave differend with this protocol. Now the mouse did go down with a differnt angle.

And now I'm stuck and don't know where to look for an awnser for this problem.

I have the same problem and found out that it is caused by the ATI proprietary X Server. When I replace "fglrx" in the driver section with "radeon" or "vesa" the mouse works again.

Thanks! It indeed solved the problem.

I've got a very similar problem. My config: SUSE 10.0, DOSBOX 0.63, Dell D610 Laptop with built-in ATI card, and proprietary ATI drivers. I've tried many different games, the mouse disappears as soon as locked by Dosbox.
I'm ready to believe that the ATI drivers are causing the problem (I think I remember things were ok before I installed them) but how do I implement the trick proposed by the two previous posts?
Any help greatly appreciated.

ps: Intererstingly, I have a similar problem with Scummvm, although only in full-screen mode.

There is a file, at least on my computer, /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 (yours is likely /etc/X11/xorg.conf) that holds the configuration for X. There is a section in it -Section "Device"- that has a place for Driver. Those others changed fglrx which is the proprietary ATI 3d driver to either radeon which is the open-source DRI 3d driver or vesa a generic non-3d driver, to some success. I never had the problem so I can't say.

Three bits of warning-
-Best to make a backup first just in case it doesn't work.
-This file does a number of important things so it is best to alter only minor things and more specifically to understand what you are changing before doing so.
-Depending upon your chipset, it is quite likely you will be disabling 3d acceleration.

This works, thanks a lot!
For other newbies:
cd /etc/X11/
cp xorg.conf xorg.conf.bak # Save a copy
edit xorg.conf (with vim for instance) and replace occurence of "flgdrx" by "radeon" (the line should start with "Driver")
Restart X (log off and on)
Note: you have to log as root to modify this file (type su then root password).

Unfortunately, this disables 3d acceleration. It is shame you have to restart X whenever you want to switch from one configuration (3d acceleration) to another (dosbox ok).
If you put vesa instead of radeon, dosbox works as well, but you loose some resolutions. Not very convenient.
One last thing: this trick also fixes the mouse problem in Scummvm (which occurs only in full-screen).

I suspect therefore this is a bug of the ATI drivers...

I meant "fglrx", sorry.