Logitech MX518 -- Remap the DPI Buttons

[Mimfort]

I use a Logitech MX518 USB mouse. I need to disable the DPI function of buttons 6 and 7 (Marked '+' and '-' on the mouse) and remap them to keybinds.

These DPI adjustment buttons are hardware-controlled. None of the drivers or hacks (Such as g5_hiddev and lomoco) appear to support the newest MX518. Xev does not report any events in response to these button presses.

I understand that I'm straying a bit from the 'Ubuntu Way' in asking this, but does anyone have any tips or insight into a solution for my problem? I understand what needs to be done, but I'm a new convert to Linux and a bit unfamiliar.

I'm determined to get these buttons remapped, if I have to hairlip everyone on Bear Creek to do it. I can script. I can program a bit of C. I'm willing to write my own hack and spend a few months learning how to do so (I'm retired!) but I'm hoping that someone out there can give me a few pointers as to where to begin.

I believe that the mouse has a mode that reports those button presses to the OS. If I knew how to poll the device and issue command strings to the hardware controller I could certainly work something out.

Anyone?

[David Harkness]

I know you posted this over a year and a half ago, but did you have any luck? I have an older MX510 that I use with XP, and it has a control panel to map all the buttons. These two I map to Home and End which is great for web browsing and working alike, and I'd love to map my MX518's buttons at work on Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx.

I found information about using evdev in another post, but it doesn't mention anything about the extra buttons or mapping.

[Tweak42]

I found this post and thought you would want to know was able to get my Logitech MX518 fully working and dpi buttons remapped. The steps I took to get working for 10.10. The steps I roughly took (minus reboots)

1. Install lomoco from synaptic
2. Edit /etc/default/lomoco to force 1200 dpi mode (800 dpi mode will NOT allow remapping)
3. Launch xev in a xterm and verify that the buttons are sending events, xev will spew alot of text you should see button 10, 11 and 12 in there. If they aren't registering something isn't configured right, go back and fix.
4. Install btnx and btnx-config from synaptic
5. Use btnx-config to poll and capture the events, then assign each to keys. The gui is pretty self explanatory.

[Tweak42]

I just discovered http://www.hidpoint.com/ after I got my MX518 working and installed it to try out. It's a slicker interface, supports many devices, but does NOT (as of this writing) support remapping the MX518 dpi buttons.

[Bimps]

I found this post and thought you would want to know was able to get my Logitech MX518 fully working and dpi buttons remapped. The steps I took to get working for 10.10. The steps I roughly took (minus reboots)

1. Install lomoco from synaptic
2. Edit /etc/default/lomoco to force 1200 dpi mode (800 dpi mode will NOT allow remapping). Restart Ubuntu.
3. Launch xev in a xterm and verify that the buttons are sending events, xev will spew alot of text you should see button 10, 11 and 12 in there. If they aren't registering something isn't configured right, go back and fix.
4. Install btnx and btnx-config from synaptic
5. Use btnx-config to poll and capture the events, then assign each to keys. The gui is pretty self explanatory.Restart Ubuntu.

Thanks for this! Just added in bold for those like me who forgot to restart after step 2.

btnx starts okay, registers all clicks, but yesterday didn't map any buttons, although I restarted Ubuntu. This morning, it worked. But because I remapped the forward button to open a terminal, when I'm in Firefox, it opens a terminal and goes forward one page.

[proxximity]

Thank you for these instructions, it works great!
The problem is just one part:

Edit /etc/default/lomoco to force 1200 dpi mode (800 dpi mode will NOT allow remapping)

The mouse in 1200 dpi-mode is not convenient to use (at least for me, it's just too fast, although I set the mouse-sensivity in the KDE-menu to the lowest settings).

Why is it like that, that the buttons can't be remapped in 800dpi-mode? Any chance to fix this?

[Tweak42]

Thank you for these instructions, it works great!
The problem is just one part:



The mouse in 1200 dpi-mode is not convenient to use (at least for me, it's just too fast, although I set the mouse-sensivity in the KDE-menu to the lowest settings).

Why is it like that, that the buttons can't be remapped in 800dpi-mode? Any chance to fix this?

I know it's stupid, but I have no idea why the driver behaves that way since the windows side doesn't do that. I ended up using 1200dpi by setting sensitivity to to lowest and adding the command

xinput --set-prop "Logitech USB-PS/2 Optical Mouse" "Device Accel Constant Deceleration" 2

to my Startup Applications to compensate.

Also there another command

xinput --set-prop "Logitech USB-PS/2 Optical Mouse" "Device Accel Velocity Scaling" 1

that I didn't end up using. Try adjusting the numbers and maybe you can get 1200 dpi working for you.

[DrewBoo]

I found this post and thought you would want to know was able to get my Logitech MX518 fully working and dpi buttons remapped. The steps I took to get working for 10.10. The steps I roughly took (minus reboots)

1. Install lomoco from synaptic
2. Edit /etc/default/lomoco to force 1200 dpi mode (800 dpi mode will NOT allow remapping)
3. Launch xev in a xterm and verify that the buttons are sending events, xev will spew alot of text you should see button 10, 11 and 12 in there. If they aren't registering something isn't configured right, go back and fix.

Fantastic! It works for the first time (in Natty 11.04 beta) and it's never worked before.

I have one of the newer MX518 mice, which looks the same but didn't completely work with earlier versions of Ubuntu/lomoco.

So odd that it only works at 1200 dpi. No big issue. I just turned the mouse sensitivity down in Ubuntu's mouse settings.

Now I have Compiz Scale and Compiz Expo mapped to mouse buttons.

Thank you!

[Tweak42]

Hey MX518 users,
I did a clean install of 11.04 and started having issues with my MX518 sensitivity settings constantly reseting. I run the script

xinput --set-prop "Logitech USB-PS/2 Optical Mouse" "Device Accel Constant Deceleration" 2

at login, but often randomly at the desktop and in game, the mouse will pause (feels like usb device connection reset) then then the sensitivity resets to super sensitive and I have to run the script again to fix it.

I never had this problem in 10.10, and I've done a cursory look thru the log files and have not found any thing obvious erroneous. Has anyone experience this behavior?

[outa]

Hey,
I got this to work using lomoco the way it's described here, but I'd like to go one step further:
Under Windows 7, I mapped the +/- buttons to something called "Cruise up/down" which made a document smoothly scroll up / downwards. I'd like to have the same behavior in Linux.

The problem is that this is (probably?) not a simple key stroke or command execution, so I guess I can't use tools like xbindkeys or btnx.
So far I've re-mapped the buttons to the up- and downwards motion of the mousewheel using xinput (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Config/Input), but now the screen only scrolls 3 lines per button press. I want it to keep scrolling when I hold down the button.

Any ideas about this? thx in advance.