"ZAxisMapping" numbers

Slaxx · 11-05-2004, 11:51 PM

What exactly do the "ZAxisMapping" numbers (as a mouse device option in X configuration) mean? I know that to enable normal scroll-wheel functionality, you use "4 5", but can you use other numbers as well? If so, I'm curious as to what they do.

Matir · 11-05-2004, 11:58 PM

ZAxisMapping takes the input from the scrollwheel and maps it to button events. In other words, a 5 button mouse with no scrollwheel would perform like a scrollwheel on pressing buttons 4 and 5. 4 and 5 is pretty much fixed because that is how the software understands the inputs.

ror · 11-06-2004, 12:27 AM

You can use xev in X to see what X thinks you're doing as you press mouse buttons, helpful for debugging scrollwheels/side buttons etc

"4 5" is most common because that's how many buttons most mice have (each scroll counts as 2 in linux). For people with side buttons use "6 7" since they count as 7 button mice.

Slaxx · 11-06-2004, 06:02 PM

Ah, OK. So on a common mouse with two buttons and a clickable scroll-wheel, the left button is 1, right button is 2, scroll-wheel click is 3, scroll-wheel up is 4, and scroll-wheel down is 5. So the point of "ZAxisMapping" is to indicate what buttons control the scrolling. (i.e. scroll-wheel up and scroll-wheel down, hence "4 5")

ror · 11-06-2004, 06:13 PM

Yup, you'll also need Option "buttons" "5" so it knows how many total there are.

(might be Buttons, been a while)