I have been trying all that is listed here and everything works great after i type: xmodmap -e "pointer = 1 2 3 6 7 4 5" into a shell, however after i restart X it goes back to not working. Everyone says to edit the ~/.xinitrc file but i cant seem to find it. I do have a file named xinitrc in /etc/X11/xinit and i added the line pointer = 1 2 3 6 7 4 5 to it at the end but that did not work. I am running debian sarge, is there something i am missing?

IIRC, the ~/.xinitrc file you need to modify is user specific. From your home directory, (not as root) type in: "vi ~/.xinitrc". If I'm right, all you'll have to do is make your changes and reload X and that should take care of it.

It's been a while so I may not be remebering everything exactly right, but I think this might help. Good luck!

When I do xmodmap -e ¨pointer=1 2 3 6 7 4 5¨
I got the following errors
root@localhost:~# xmodmap -e ¨pointer=1 2 3 6 7 4 5¨
xmodmap: unknown command on line commandline:0
xmodmap: unable to open file '2' for reading
xmodmap: unable to open file '3' for reading
xmodmap: unable to open file '6' for reading
xmodmap: unable to open file '7' for reading
xmodmap: unable to open file '4' for reading
xmodmap: unable to open file '5¨' for reading
xmodmap: 7 errors encountered, aborting.

It's not xmodmap -e ¨pointer=1 2 3 6 7 4 5¨ but xmodmap -e "pointer=1 2 3 6 7 4 5"
You can make the " character with SHIFT+2 on most keyboards.

now my error is reduced to only xmodmap unknown command on line commandline: 0
after I enter xmodmap -e "pointer =1 2 3 6 7 4 5"

Try this one, with a space before and after "=": xmodmap -e "pointer = 1 2 3 6 7 4 5"

Thank you very much it works~~
Do you have any idea to get my backward and forward buttons to work?

Do a search on this forum, it has been asked before, i think you need a program called imwheel to assign functions to those buttons.

Using "ExplorerPS/2" is good, but there is a better solution and works with all mice and all buttons.
You can use the Event Interface Driver.

I include a sample config:

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse[0]"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "evdev"
Option "Dev Name" "Logitech MX700" # cat /proc/bus/input/devices
Option "Dev Phys" "isa0060/serio1/input0" # cat /proc/bus/input/devices
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Buttons" "10"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "9 10"
Option "Resolution" "800"
EndSection

(10 buttons for MX700,12 for MX1000, etc)

Then the usual changes for xmodmap. e.g "1 2 3 9 10 4 5 6 7 8"
You can see if the buttons work by running "xev" in a xterm.

There is a very good article http://www.linux-gamers.net/modules/...p?articleid=46 that mentions many things
The old version of it was more thorough. I don't why some things are missing from the new one.

P.S the X Server shipped with slackware doesn't have EVDEV support so it will crash if you change the config.
Install the support first. visit the url i mention.