My mouse wheel doesn't work, although the other buttons do. I have read other posts on this problem and I have tried some of the recommended things but I don't think they're applicable. For example, I looked for a config file in /etc/X11 but there doesn't seem to be one. I wonder if it's been moved. I find a file called xorg.conf-vesa and an empty dir called xorg.conf.d but that's all. I did try adding "Option "ZAxisMapping" to the xorg.conf-vesa file and I changed the option from PS/2 to "Auto" but I see no changes. Naturally I restarted X11 between tries. Anyway, if someone has had this experience and know how to fix it, please reply. I'm using a USB mouse and the distro is Slackware64 14.1

The first thing to do, if you haven't already done so, is to test the mouse in another computer to make sure the mouse is not defective.

What distro/version are you using?

I'm using Slackware --Current on two machines with two different brands of USB mouse (though, for all I know, they may have been made in the same factory somewhere), and the mouse wheel was detected unfailingly in both. Indeed, none of the distros I've used in the past five or six years has failed to detect the mouse wheel. (I did have to modify xorg.conf on Slackware 10.x, but that was a long time ago.)

In contemporary versions of X, there is no xorg.conf by default, because X has become quite good at detecting hardware. You can, however, create one if you need to.

If you do create an xorg.conf, you should end up with this in the mouse section:
That's from mine. Wheel's working OK, plus middle-button click.

First, yes the mouse wheel works if I boot under Windows 8. Otherwise I as still having no luck. I ran X -configure and it created a new xorg.conf and the mouse section looks like :

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection

However nothing seems to have changed. I did see a ref in the docs to /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf. Any comments on that?

Back when I had to enable a wheel mouse in Slackware 10.x, I followed instructions similar to these. Note that the article is so old that it refers to XFree86, but it might be worth a shot.

http://linuxreviews.org/howtos/xfree/mouse/

Hi,

First, xorg.conf-vesa is a sample file and if you wish to use it then you would copy the file to xorg.conf or 'mv xorg.conf-vesa xorg.conf'. Slackware64 14.1 should support your mouse without a xorg.conf. Look at '/var/log/Xorg.0.log' to see what's going on to help diagnose your issue(s).

EDIT: You make sure the mouse is visible or detected. What does 'lsusb' show from 'cli' or VT?

Hope this helps.

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Xorg.0.log piped through grep Mouse yields the following:

[953332.177] (**) |-->Input Device "Mouse0"
[953332.177] (WW) Disabling Mouse0
[953332.467] (II) config/udev: Adding input device USB Optical Mouse (/dev/input/event12)
[953332.467] (**) USB Optical Mouse: Applying InputClass "evdev pointer catchall"
[953332.467] (II) Using input driver 'evdev' for 'USB Optical Mouse'
[953332.467] (**) USB Optical Mouse: always reports core events
[953332.467] (**) evdev: USB Optical Mouse: Device: "/dev/input/event12"
[953332.467] (--) evdev: USB Optical Mouse: Vendor 0x192f Product 0x916
[953332.467] (--) evdev: USB Optical Mouse: Found 3 mouse buttons
[953332.467] (--) evdev: USB Optical Mouse: Found scroll wheel(s)
[953332.467] (--) evdev: USB Optical Mouse: Found relative axes
[953332.467] (--) evdev: USB Optical Mouse: Found x and y relative axes
[953332.467] (II) evdev: USB Optical Mouse: Configuring as mouse
[953332.467] (II) evdev: USB Optical Mouse: Adding scrollwheel support
[953332.467] (**) evdev: USB Optical Mouse: YAxisMapping: buttons 4 and 5
[953332.467] (**) evdev: USB Optical Mouse: EmulateWheelButton: 4, EmulateWheelInertia: 10, EmulateWheelTimeout: 200
[953332.467] (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "USB Optical Mouse" (type: MOUSE, id 9)
[953332.467] (II) evdev: USB Optical Mouse: initialized for relative axes.
[953332.468] (**) USB Optical Mouse: (accel) keeping acceleration scheme 1
[953332.468] (**) USB Optical Mouse: (accel) acceleration profile 0
[953332.468] (**) USB Optical Mouse: (accel) acceleration factor: 2.000
[953332.468] (**) USB Optical Mouse: (accel) acceleration threshold: 4
[953332.468] (II) config/udev: Adding input device USB Optical Mouse (/dev/input/mouse0)

From what I see, it detects the mouse, the wheel and all. 'lsusb' shows nothing that contains either cli or VT.

Hi,
I was asking for the output for the command 'lsusb' from the command line(cli) or virtual terminal(VT) using cli.

Something different. I am able to use the scroll wheel sometimes, ie in some places. I must conclude that the mouse and driver are working and the fault lies elsewhere. Thank you for your suggestions, they help me learn more about the Slackware software. I will call this thread resolved and I'll see you in another thread.