Phathead

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This mouse works pretty well. I haven't tried to setup the other buttons, but the two main buttons and the wheel work exactly like the Intellimouse 1.1a it replaced.

I decided to use the USB connection for this mouse, but it does ship with a PS/2 adapter.

The only real problem I had with installation was with the usbmouse kernel module. It doesn't work well with XFree86, so it has to be manually removed from the kernel at each boot. I accomplished this simply by adding "/sbin/rmmod usbmouse" to the end of /etc/rc.d/rc.local. Not the most elegant solution, but it does work. I also had the change the mouse device in XF86Config-4 to "/dev/input/mice" from "/dev/mouse".

A comment about the mouse itself:

I had hoped this would be a good gaming mouse, and while the resolution is good and the motion is very smooth, the wheel is very difficult to use in a gaming situation. The wheel button is very, very difficult to push without moving the wheel up or down, so I had to disable the wheel button for gaming. The wheel on this mouse does not have notches like my old Intellimouse 1.1a so it moves too much when trying to push the wheel button. Also, the wheel tilt feature is not supported by any games I know of, but it is so hard to quickly use the wheel tilt, so I don't see it being very useful anyway. The thumb buttons are very small and not easy to reach quickly, so they are relegated to simple tasks like changing weapons.

Since gaming isn't my primary concern, these annoyances are minor, but if I were to get a mouse specifically for gaming, I'd probably buy a Razor.

edit: I got the side buttons working today. There is a thread on the subject. Search on "intellimouse explorer buttons" and you'll find it. The tilt wheel probably will not work with Linux at this time. It's too new and I found by using xev that the tilt wheel is not actually a button at all, when you press it, it sends a repeating signal that is not recognized as a button at all.

Primer

I can't get xev to display ANYTHING regarding the tilt wheel on this mouse. I have the wireless version though. Can you provide some more info, like, your XF86Config, version of XFree, etc?

Thanks

TSRWedge

Followed Phathead's directions loosely and fared well enough. (XF86Config instead of XF86Config-4, and had to add < Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5" > (sans angle brackets) to XF86Config as well in the mouse section. Also witched to the IMPS/2 protocol.

Tilt wheel does not function at this time. The thumb buttons seem to have remapped themselves to act as secondary middle and right buttons.

DiZASTiX

After reading here about everything done to get the mouse to work and looking at the "HOWTO: Get side mouse buttons working" by bluephile, I got everything on the mouse to work except the tilt (horizontal scroll)

I first followed the instructions Phathead gave and that got my scroll to work but I didn't have the side buttons. After reading bluephile's howto I got the side buttons to work as back and forward in my browser (mozilla firefox) The mouse seems pretty compatible with linux and so far, everything is working great :)

Note: I did not have to download imwheel, as stated in bluephile's howto to get the scroll wheel to work.

zarac

Since i already had everything set up for a Microsoft intellimouse explorer 3.0 before i did not have any problems with the scrollwheel or the sidebuttons. However, i've sat for days now trying to get the tilt wheel working and, to me, it seems like it is impossible. =D

Also, one big problem with the mouse is that i cannot use the scrollwheel while i move the mouse. This is not that big of a problem while i am in X and scrolling through pages on the www, since i can just stop moving the mouse and then start scrolling.

On the other hand this is a huge problem when gaming. When i play quake3 i use the mousewheel to switch weapons. Any gamer can say that having to hold the mouse still everytime you try to switch weapon is a big problem =D ....

Do you guys have the same problem with the mouswheel? Please try moving the mouse and using the scrollwheel at the same time and reply in this forum if it works for you or not.

zarac

Ok, some updates...

I've researched a bit more, and i've noticed that if i boot (from being powered off) my computer into linux i have that problem with not being able to move the mouse if i want to use the scroll wheel. ... but... if i boot my computer into windows (xp) and then reboot the computer (NOT shutting it off in between).. into linux... then i can move the mouse and scroll the wheel at the same time as much as a want =D ... although.. if i power it off and the boot up into linux again i have the same problem... so i'me guessing there's some kind of hardware cache memory blah blah blah.. that windows changes and it's resetted when the usb mouse loses power..!? ...

Another thing about the mouse that is REALLY A BIG FLAW.... the mouse is capped to be run at 100hz (or lower) ... no kernel hack allowing usb at 500hz.. or using the windows 500hz usb hack can make it go above 100hz.. not even with the ps/2 converter it can exceed 100hz... so for all us gamers... it sucks =D ... for general desktop usage... i actually like the mouse a lot... has a nice grip etc... since that is not an option for me, i had to buy a new mouse... i bought an mx500 mouse and it is pretty much like the ime4.0 but it can be run at 450hz (some say 500) .. and it has more buttons for us who like the bind them to weird stuff =D ... (although no tilt wheel).. GOOD LUCK AND HAVE FUN =D

hansolocg

Got the same problem with the mouse wheel only working as it should after rebooting here. Tried all kinds of forums and mailing lists for this problem, but as there are no replies i tend to just give it away to someone and buy myself a logitech g5 or something like that.