Wheel Mouse

raypen · 03-27-2006, 06:46 PM

I have a cordless Logitech MouseMan Wheel model # M-RK53 which
has four buttons if you count the wheel as one. I enjoy the
fourth button on the thumb side since I can use it
in Windows to go back a page in the web browser.

I have searched the web to see if I can somehow enable this
in Linux. I have had no luck and wonder if anyone has an
answer to this?

Brian1 · 03-27-2006, 07:01 PM

Some help can be found in the HCL section here. Not your model but should work. http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/sh...t=1756&cat=441

You will need to edit your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file
And run the line mentioned in the post.

Look at other newer mice in that section and see if any info differs. Yours may actually be there.

Brian1

cwwilson721 · 03-27-2006, 09:04 PM

Also look in your own HOW-TOs in /usr/doc

raypen · 03-28-2006, 04:35 PM

Thanks for the tips. I also did some searching from within this forum
and got some extra help.

I was able to remap "6 7" to "4 5" and after fiddling around for
awhile found that the 'xmodmap -e "pointer = 1 2 3 6 7 4 5" goes
best in /etc/profile. Could never get it right trying to put it
in xinitrc (which is just a symlink to xinitrc.kde).

So Z-Axis works fine and I can scroll as before, but nothing happens
when I press my thumb button. xev also shows no output.

Apparently there is a program called 'imwheel' which can be used
to activate the button or assign it a task, but I wonder if there
isn't some other way to do this? Someone hinted at using the keyboard
reassignment program but it is unclear just how to do this.

Any further help appreciated.

Brian1 · 03-28-2006, 05:17 PM

If xev does not show a keycode then the only other choice is someone may have a program written to understand exactly what the button does when pressed like the imwheel one you mention. If you get it going make sure you post back with the procedure you did to get it all working.

Brian1

raypen · 03-30-2006, 12:37 AM

Searching the web for an answer to a specific question is really an art. You
start with a small piece of information which generally leads to non-specific
and generally outdated information. You pose a forum question, learn a little
bit more and refine your search. Hopefully, you eventually reach the answer
that you want.

A pretty good discussion of the mouse and its setup in XWindows can be found
here: http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Mouse_Nav_Buttons.

While it did not specifically answer my question, since it generally discusses
USB mice, there was a link to Xorg documentation which yielded an example
leading to this solution for my Logitech MouseMan Wheel:

Code:

Section "InputDevice"
         Identifier      "Mouse0"
         Driver          "mouse"
         Option          "Protocol"      "ExplorerPS/2"
         Option          "Device"        "/dev/mouse"
         Option          "ZAxisMapping"  "5 6"
         Option          "Buttons"       "6"
EndSection

/etc/profile xmodmap -e "pointer = 1 2 3 6 4 5"