I just installed Slackware 10.1. The scroll buttons worked well under Mandrake 10, but don't now. All other keyboard and mouse features work fine.

I've tried editing the mouse type under xorg.conf, but it didn't work. I tried: Logitech (no mouse at all), Various PS/2 mice (mouse works, but scroll buttons still don't).

Any suggestions? Am I on the right track?

scroll "buttons" are you referring to the scroll wheel on an external mouse, or on a touchpad?

touchpads with that functionality use the "synaptic" driver in the kernel, which i don't believe is in the stock slack kernel. You'd need to compile it yourself...something which you will likely be doing in slack anyways eventually, on a laptop anyways.

If its an external mouse, you need to add a few lines to /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Something like this:


Section "InputDevice"

Identifier "usbmouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Buttons" "5"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"

EndSection

theres some tricks to getting both a touchpad and external mouse working, ask if you're interested

It's actually neither, but the buttons operate similar to a scroll wheel. Using Mandrake most recently, I would choose a mouse in HardDrake that defined the buttons directly as a scroll wheel.

I looked at xorg.conf first and most of what you had was already there. What you had was:
Identifier "usbmouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Buttons" "5"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"

And what my file had was:
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "PS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"

I added the last two lines of your description and restarted, but it still didn't work. Any other suggestions?

Thanks for your help!

I tried the IMPS/2 notation and my mouse went bonkers. It constantly wanted to go to the lower left of the screen and activate the menu. Changed back successfully. Should I try the other PS/2 settings to see if they work better?

Posting the final solution for others in my situation.

Option "protocol" "Auto"
Option "Buttons" "5"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"

Note you should change the type from PS/2 to Auto. That and the last two lines being added allows you to use your scroll buttons.

yeah, its usually a good idea to use auto first, as it will try and figure out whats best to use.

the last two lines are telling X that your mouse has 5 buttons, and to use the last two buttons as scroll. If you have one of those fancy MS Explorer mice, you can even tell it you have 7 buttons, with the last two again being the scroll, and everything will be functional, even those forward/back buttons!