In my /etc/X11/xorg.conf file, I had these (oddly, correct) setting for the mouse. They were originally commented out, but not below.
# commented out by update-manager, HAL is now used Section "InputDevice" Driver "vmmouse" Identifier "VMware Mouse" Option "Buttons" "5" Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice" Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2" Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5" Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true" EndSection
However, the hal settings are a mess, and not able to handle my mouse (Logitech Mx900.) Rather than try to wrestle hal into order, I added these setting to override hal.
Section "ServerFlags" Option "AutoAddDevices" "false" EndSection
Now it works!!
