Ok, I'm not totally new to this game, so you'd think I could figure it out.

But I put in the livecd of grafpup and I couldn't find how to change the mouse to be left handed. You lefties know that you can go to some type of control panel in virtually every distro and select the mouse then switch the buttons so that the typical right click button is now the primary button. I can use the normal right hand mouse, but I prefer not to...

But I could not, for the life of me, figure out how to change that on this distro! It wasn't the typical kde or gnome menu...just couldn't get it!

Would someone please help me out?! I know you long-timers are probably laughing, but if you were a lefty and YOU coulnd't find it, you'd be grumpy too!

Not being left handed this is one I haven't had to look for. In most versions of Puppy that I've played with there is a mouse and keyboard wizard that might have what you are looking for. Try going to Start>Setup>Wizard Wizard>Mouse and Keyboard wizard. I know that "Wizard Wizard" sounds a bit redundant but it will bring up a menu of useful wizards for a number of setup chores, Hope this helps.

Thanks, slvrldy17, very much appreciate the quick response, especially to a newbie to this forum.

However, I tried that. It's funny, I don't have any trouble CONFIGURING the mouse (which is what that is) but I just can't set it as left handed. I can pick which mouse model I have, but I can't set the left handed! Very frustrating...

Are there any other options? Was there a part of the Wizard that I just didn't see? I thought I was pretty thorough with it, but that's always a possibility...

you can configure a left handed mouse by putting one of these lines in /root/.xinitrc

xmodmap -e "pointer 2 1"
xmodmap -e "pointer 3 2 1"
xmodmap -e "pointer 3 2 1 4 5"

depending on whether you have a 2 button, 3 button, or scroll wheel mouse

or you can put one of these lines in /root/.Xmodmap

pointer = 2 1
pointer = 3 2 1
pointer = 3 2 1 4 5

depending on whether you have a 2 button, 3 button, or scroll wheel mouse

i don't know if there is a wizard or not, but the pointer line should work

Thanks, but can I do this with a livecd?

yes, .xinitrc and .Xmodmap should be kept on your hard drive (or usb key or multisession cd/dvd)

of course, if you boot the live cd to a new computer for the first time, you would have to configure the mouse, but once configured as a left-handed mouse, it should stay configured (you can always delete that line later and get your right-handed mouse back)

Glad to see that one of our more knowledgeable folks had the answer to your problem. I'm going to email Barry to see if this can be incorporated in the set up for Puppy when it is booted first time. I'm surprised it hasn't been addressed before. Good luck and enjoy Puppy.

Thanks, all. Yeah, the email to Barry would be appreciated. Although lefties aren't as plentiful as our right handed counterparts, there are a few of us. ;-)

Who said you have to be left-handed to use your mouse that way?

Here's from all of us who write righty, & would like to give the other hand something to do. I already run the nav. keys & the number pad, as well as the occasional pencil w/ my right hand.

AFAIAC, the pointing device, like a baseball glove, belongs in your "other" hand.

Back when I did income tax preparation (on an old electro-mechanical adding machine) I wondered why they were designed for the right hand when it would have been so much easier to run the adding machine w/ the left hand & not have to keep putting the pencil down to run a tape & pick it up again to write down the result.

Wish I had learned that sucker in my left hand from the get go.

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I tried both of these methods (used the last option for my mouse with R&L click and scroll wheel with button) and it doesn't seem to work. Is there some other action I need to take to make this take effect?

I copied and pasted everything, not knowing if there are spaces in there or not...looks like there is.

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Sorry, yes it is now working. I inserted lines into both files, saved and saved to CD and rebooted and now it works.

Is there a way to save command lines to a file and have it take effect w/o having to reboot?

Your Q is quite general -- what command lines, & why do you think you need to reboot to have them take effect?

You may be thinking of shell scripts (think batch files on steroids & genetically mutated), or you may need to refine your phrasing -- normally commands executed on the CLI (command line interface) take effect immediately but must be repeated after a reboot -- the opposite of what you seem to be asking.

if you type xmodmap -e "pointer 3 2 1 4 5" in a terminal/console window, it should take effect immediately

if you put pointer = 3 2 1 4 5 in the .Xmodmap file, it will take effect when X restarts (you don't have to reboot), or you can type xmodmap /rooot/.Xmodmap

it's usually not necessary to reboot, but it only takes my machine about 20 seconds to boot Puppy, so often it's the quickest and easiest way

Yes, archtoad6, my question was not at all clear. I'm brand new to Linux and Puppy, and don't understand a whole lot of the terminology yet.

I had first tried to establish the /root/.Xmodmap file, and added the line in there. When I saved the file, no change to the mouse occurred. I then added the other line to the /root/.xinitrc file and rebooted, and things worked.

I was asking if there was something I needed to do after my first step to make the instruction take effect. I'm now reading that if I restart X, that would do it, as well as rebooting. Since I'm still on Live CD to boot (saving every session), I'd rather not have to reboot unnecessarily.

Lots to learn. Thanks for your information all.