[SOLVED] Need optical mouse with side buttons that works out of the box with Lucid.

cabman46 · 06-30-2010, 10:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tredegar

Glad to see you are up and running again. And that you have the NVIDIA module installed (nouveau was unable to handle my nvidia chipset).

While you were away I borrowed a 7 button mouse, and played with it.
You are right: those lines in xorg should swap the buttons, but they have no effect at all.
I expect something has changed in the way X works, but I cannot find the documentation.

Have you seen this link?

It looks a little more complicated, but maybe that'll work for you.

Please let us know how you get on.

You are right about that link being more complicated. I tried to follow a few of the steps he proposed and now my system wont boot at all. I'm not familiar with the terminal enough to do this yet. He did have something interesting to answer both of our questions about the side button mapping. Read the link down to here:

Code:

 Alternate Methods

The following methods use standard X.org mouse input driver (xf86-input-mouse) instead of using the evdev driver. It works on mice up to 7 buttons. Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf InputDevice section for your mouse to reflect the changes shown below. Then restart X and you're done.

Code:

 Method 3 - Auto

This has been tested on a Logitech MX400 and should work on most mice with up to 7 buttons.

   Driver         "mouse"
   Option         "Protocol" "auto"
   Option         "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
   Option         "Buttons" "7"
   Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
   Option         "ButtonMapping" "1 2 3 6 7"

Method 3 is the closest config to mine. So I guess this works only on mice with up to 7 buttons. Mine has 9. Once I get this system running again I'll try some of his other methods. Because I mainly only use the back button when browsing, I think I'll tinker with the Firefox 3 section?

I backed up my files using back in time to a second drive in my system. I'll reinstall Lucid and see if I can restore all my settings. I've never used this before.

tredegar · 06-30-2010, 11:28 AM

I'll be interested to hear how you get on (with "Back in time", as well as the button problem).

I just tried ButonMapping "2 1 3 4 5"
and after restarting X, the usual L & R-click buttons were not swapped

Quote:

I've never used this before.

And I have never tried button-remapping before. Always something new.....

This should have been relatively easy, but as I said before, something in X seems to have changed, and I can't find the "new" way of doing things.

cabman46 · 07-01-2010, 08:36 PM

Well, I reinstalled Ubuntu and put in a few of the changes I had before and remembered "Back in time". I didn't find much help or instructions as to how to restore a backup so I just went by the GUI and selected my last backup. ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE. . .It appeared to start restoring and the window filled with all kinds of errors and they just kept coming. I couldn't stop them so I finally did a power reset. I'm not going to grade back in time because it could have been my fault getting this problem. Ubuntu would not restart. Many boot errors. Instead of reinstalling Ubuntu I installed Kubuntu Lucid. I always wanted to try it out. I thought I would be more comfortable with KDE since my Mandrake 10 days a long time ago. KDE has changed considerably since then. I assume other than eye candy, the files like xorg are the same? Speaking of files. I tried to run xorg.conf and couldn't find it? What do you use in Kubuntu in place of gedit? It didn't like gedit? I noticed one thing I really like about Kubuntu is when I hot plug a USB device, I get notification on the desktop. The more I use it the more I like it. I think I'm about ready to start tackling this mouse issue again.

tredegar · 07-02-2010, 06:24 AM

A reminder that it is always a good idea to test your backups before you find you need them

Quote:

KDE has changed considerably since then

Yes, 10.04 has KDE4, which is very different from KDE3. So different (and in my experience, unstable) that I switched to gnome. YMMV.

Quote:

I assume other than eye candy, the files like xorg are the same?

Correct.

Quote:

I tried to run xorg.conf and couldn't find it?

You'll need to generate it before you can edit it. The steps are in post #12 of this thread except that as you are now running KDE, it is kdm not gdm that you'll have to stop and then restart. So in any command that references gdm you should change gdm to kdm.

Quote:

What do you use in Kubuntu in place of gedit?

IIRC kubuntu has kate or kwrite, but you should be able to find a text editor in your KDE menus. nano is good if you are just using a VT, which you will have to do to follow the steps in post #12.

Quote:

I noticed one thing I really like about Kubuntu is when I hot plug a USB device, I get notification on the desktop.

gnome does that for me, but I know KDE is much more customisable than gnome. If you like KDE, use it. You can always install gnome as well [ you'll get a thing to click on your login screen that'll let you choose KDE or gnome before you login]

Good luck with the mouse buttons.

tredegar · 07-02-2010, 08:05 AM

An update:

Myabe you don't need to mess with xorg.conf (ButtonMapping ... doesn't seem to work there any more).

This command, in a GUI terminal swaps buttons 6 and 7

Code:

xmodmap -e "pointer = 1 2 3 4 5 7 6"

so if you just want buttons 8 and 9 reversing, try this:

Code:

xmodmap -e "pointer = 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 9 8"

It's worth a try.

cabman46 · 07-02-2010, 03:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tredegar

An update:

Myabe you don't need to mess with xorg.conf (ButtonMapping ... doesn't seem to work there any more).

This command, in a GUI terminal swaps buttons 6 and 7

Code:

xmodmap -e "pointer = 1 2 3 4 5 7 6"

so if you just want buttons 8 and 9 reversing, try this:

Code:

xmodmap -e "pointer = 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 9 8"

It's worth a try.

Well, try I did. It worked my friend! It gave me a warning stating I was only changing 9 of 16 buttons? It works though and I'm a happy camper.

I did come across another thing since I installed Kubuntu. My monitor powers down (sleep?) after a few minutes no matter what I do to the power settings. I have all the updates installed.

Thanks so much for being so patient and helpful with me as I get my feet wet with Ubuntu and Kubuntu

tredegar · 07-02-2010, 04:13 PM

Pleased your mouse buttons are finally working as you like.

You can work out for yourself how to have that xmodmap command executed automatically every time you log into kde4. Search hint = Autostart kde4

Code:

It gave me a warning stating I was only changing 9 of 16 buttons? It works though

Mine said it was only changing 7 of 20 buttons [TWENTY buttons? WTF?], but it worked, so I just ignored the "warning".

Quote:

I did come across another thing since I installed Kubuntu. My monitor powers down (sleep?)

This is an entirely different problem, so although I'd like to help you, I am not really interested in sleep / hibernate and have other things to do.

So, please start a new question, in a new thread, with an appropriate title, and sufficient information about your setup for people to help you.

Meanwhile, feel free to click the "Thanks" button on my posts until your leftie finger goes numb

Best wishes.

cabman46 · 07-02-2010, 06:47 PM

You're right that's a different problem. Thanks again. Consider this one solved.