Hi, I have an old mouse that could do hightlight and then I can paste by clicking
the middle button. Very nice, I enjoy it thoroughly. This mouse is over 10 years old and still much alive and `clicking'.

Now, the new mouses do not seem to support this by default. I have to hightlight
the text, right click, choose copy, bring to the desired place, right click, and
choose copy. In term of old efficient and elegant way, this is both frustrating and timing consuming.

I looked up the web but found none. But at least this post will keep me to hunt down
the solution when I have time to visit this issue.

xfig relies on middle button a lot, so I have trouble with xfig lately, but then
I don't use xfig a lot and xfig is rather old so it won't as much.

---------- Post added 11-12-14 at 08:35 AM ----------

BTW, I am using CentOS 6.x series on all platforms.

Similar situation here. For years I used a Logitech 3-button roller-ball mouse. That's 3 real buttons, no wheel. I liked it a lot, but it used the PS/2 interface and that is becoming scarce. So now I have a Logitech USB wheel mouse.

But the wheel button should work exactly like the middle button on your mouse did. In Xfig, for example. Press, not roll, the wheel = button 2. Mine certainly works.

Also there is a functional difference between copy/paste with left and middle buttons, versus using a menu, copy, and menu, paste. Both work for me, but not in all programs. I think the difference is in which X "clipboard" (buffer) they use.

Just want to report back, at least my first post keeps focus to solve this problem once and for all.

I just changed /etc/X11/xorg.conf to

It was working the first time I cut and paste from text in xterm. But when I try to paste the text
above to firefox, the middle click paste does not work anymore. This is more frustrating since it works and sometimes it doesn't and
the behaviour changes based on the circumstances. Without a good theory of how things work can waste a lot of time trying..
Aarh..

I do by trial and error, now pressing both left and right buttons seems to work robustly. Forget about the middle button or the wheel button ?

Even xfig knows pressing both left and right button simultaneously means paste. Okay, at least the problem is solved but I have to remember to
change my clicking behaviour.

Yes, 'Option "Emulate3Buttons" "yes"' means pressing left and right together emulates the middle button. But you should not need this or use it. It is meant for 2-button mice. What kind of mouse do you have (2-buttons plus wheel with wheel button, I assume). Actually you should not need an InputDevice section in your xorg.conf, and X should ignore it on systems that can detect hardware.