nicholas.alipaz
December 3rd, 2008, 02:07 AM
Introduction
I have read probably every thread on mouseclicking setup on these forums and elsewhere. I have an mx revolution and getting all the buttons to do what I need is of course difficult in the latest ubuntu 8.10.
I tried out a number of different solutions, many of which would work but would be slow/unresponsive at times. Or sometimes they would just be inaccurate.
In the end I used the following, which seems quick and smooth, as one would expect mouseclicks to be:
Tutorial
Requirements
xbindkeys
xautomation
xev
All of which may be obtained through synaptic
Discovering your buttons
First off you want to find what your mouseclicks actually do. Open a terminal and type
xev
now start clicking inside the box that popped up. You will see statements like
ButtonRelease event, serial 31, synthetic NO, window 0x4000001,
root 0x8b, subw 0x0, time 4542727, (45,140), root:(719,191),
state 0x100, button 1, same_screen YES
Where "button 1" is the click you used on your mouse.
Record these somewhere for reference, like gedit. Here are mine on my mx revolution connected via bluetooth.
# Mappings for keys for MX Revo
# b:1 left mouse button
# b:2 left and right mouse button together
# b:3 right mouse button
# b:4 mouse wheel up
# b:5 mouse wheel down
# b:6 mouse wheel tilt left
# b:7 mouse wheel tilt right
# b:8 back button
# b:9 forward button
# b:10 -none-
# b:11 -none-
# b:12 -none-
# b:13 media wheel up
# b:14 -none-
# b:15 media wheel down
# b:16 media wheel press
# b:17 -none-
# c:0xE1 Search Button
This is only for your reference, don't assume it will be the same on your mouse
Adding Commands
Now using this information. We are going to put all alterations to mouseclicking behaviour in our xbindkeysrc file:
gedit ~/.xbindkeysrc
All our commands are going to use xautomation to perform them. Here is an example
# Change mouse wheel tilt right to do Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Down
"/usr/bin/xte 'keydown Alt_L' 'keydown Control_L' 'keydown Shift_L' 'key Down' 'keyup Shift_L' 'keyup Control_L' 'keyup Alt_L' &"
m:0x0 + b:7
One more, more simple example:
# Change mouse wheel tilt right to do Alt+Down
"/usr/bin/xte 'keydown Alt_L' 'key Down' 'keyup Alt_L' &"
m:0x0 + b:7
Add what you need then save and close.
Run these two commands to test your configuration:
killall xbindkeys
xbindkeys
Then start clicking and see if it works
Persisting across restarts
To keep this configuration after restarting, it is necessary to add xbindkeys to your startup applications.
Go to System -> Preferences -> Sessions, then click add (new application). Type in 'xbindkeys' (without quotes) for the command and fill in the rest as you deem appropriate.
xautomation Documentation
Now here is what I was able to find for xautomation's documentation. This took quite a bit of hunting:
Commands:
key k Press and release key k
keydown k Press key k down
keyup k Release key k
str string Do a bunch of key X events for each char in string
mouseclick i Click mouse button i
mousemove x y Move mouse to screen position x,y
mousermove x y Move mouse relative from current location by x,y
mousedown i Press mouse button i down
mouseup i Release mouse button i
sleep x Sleep x seconds
usleep x uSleep x microseconds
Some useful keys (case sensitive)
Home
Left
Up
Right
Down
Page_Up
Page_Down
End
Return
Backspace
Tab
Escape
Delete
Shift_L
Shift_R
Control_L
Control_R
Meta_L
Meta_R
Alt_L
Alt_R
Happy clicking!
My xbindxrc file
Here are the things I added to my file:
# I have the list of my mouseclick here (the one I posted above)
# Change search button to do button 2 left/right together (or middle click)
"/usr/bin/xte 'mouseclick 2' &"
c:0xE1
# Change tilt wheel right to do Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Down
"/usr/bin/xte 'keydown Alt_L' 'keydown Control_L' 'keydown Shift_L' 'key Down' 'keyup Shift_L' 'keyup Control_L' 'keyup Alt_L' &"
m:0x0 + b:7
# Change tilt wheel left to do Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Up
"/usr/bin/xte 'keydown Alt_L' 'keydown Control_L' 'keydown Shift_L' 'key Up' 'keyup Shift_L' 'keyup Control_L' 'keyup Alt_L' &"
m:0x0 + b:6
I didn't specify anything else, since firefox already seems to pick up my back and forward buttons.
Additionally, I have configured a few of my buttons from within compiz configuration, by adding 'Button13' and so on. If the button isn't in the drop down, just click edit then type in manually.
I have read probably every thread on mouseclicking setup on these forums and elsewhere. I have an mx revolution and getting all the buttons to do what I need is of course difficult in the latest ubuntu 8.10.
I tried out a number of different solutions, many of which would work but would be slow/unresponsive at times. Or sometimes they would just be inaccurate.
In the end I used the following, which seems quick and smooth, as one would expect mouseclicks to be:
Tutorial
Requirements
xbindkeys
xautomation
xev
All of which may be obtained through synaptic
Discovering your buttons
First off you want to find what your mouseclicks actually do. Open a terminal and type
xev
now start clicking inside the box that popped up. You will see statements like
ButtonRelease event, serial 31, synthetic NO, window 0x4000001,
root 0x8b, subw 0x0, time 4542727, (45,140), root:(719,191),
state 0x100, button 1, same_screen YES
Where "button 1" is the click you used on your mouse.
Record these somewhere for reference, like gedit. Here are mine on my mx revolution connected via bluetooth.
# Mappings for keys for MX Revo
# b:1 left mouse button
# b:2 left and right mouse button together
# b:3 right mouse button
# b:4 mouse wheel up
# b:5 mouse wheel down
# b:6 mouse wheel tilt left
# b:7 mouse wheel tilt right
# b:8 back button
# b:9 forward button
# b:10 -none-
# b:11 -none-
# b:12 -none-
# b:13 media wheel up
# b:14 -none-
# b:15 media wheel down
# b:16 media wheel press
# b:17 -none-
# c:0xE1 Search Button
This is only for your reference, don't assume it will be the same on your mouse
Adding Commands
Now using this information. We are going to put all alterations to mouseclicking behaviour in our xbindkeysrc file:
gedit ~/.xbindkeysrc
All our commands are going to use xautomation to perform them. Here is an example
# Change mouse wheel tilt right to do Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Down
"/usr/bin/xte 'keydown Alt_L' 'keydown Control_L' 'keydown Shift_L' 'key Down' 'keyup Shift_L' 'keyup Control_L' 'keyup Alt_L' &"
m:0x0 + b:7
One more, more simple example:
# Change mouse wheel tilt right to do Alt+Down
"/usr/bin/xte 'keydown Alt_L' 'key Down' 'keyup Alt_L' &"
m:0x0 + b:7
Add what you need then save and close.
Run these two commands to test your configuration:
killall xbindkeys
xbindkeys
Then start clicking and see if it works
Persisting across restarts
To keep this configuration after restarting, it is necessary to add xbindkeys to your startup applications.
Go to System -> Preferences -> Sessions, then click add (new application). Type in 'xbindkeys' (without quotes) for the command and fill in the rest as you deem appropriate.
xautomation Documentation
Now here is what I was able to find for xautomation's documentation. This took quite a bit of hunting:
Commands:
key k Press and release key k
keydown k Press key k down
keyup k Release key k
str string Do a bunch of key X events for each char in string
mouseclick i Click mouse button i
mousemove x y Move mouse to screen position x,y
mousermove x y Move mouse relative from current location by x,y
mousedown i Press mouse button i down
mouseup i Release mouse button i
sleep x Sleep x seconds
usleep x uSleep x microseconds
Some useful keys (case sensitive)
Home
Left
Up
Right
Down
Page_Up
Page_Down
End
Return
Backspace
Tab
Escape
Delete
Shift_L
Shift_R
Control_L
Control_R
Meta_L
Meta_R
Alt_L
Alt_R
Happy clicking!
My xbindxrc file
Here are the things I added to my file:
# I have the list of my mouseclick here (the one I posted above)
# Change search button to do button 2 left/right together (or middle click)
"/usr/bin/xte 'mouseclick 2' &"
c:0xE1
# Change tilt wheel right to do Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Down
"/usr/bin/xte 'keydown Alt_L' 'keydown Control_L' 'keydown Shift_L' 'key Down' 'keyup Shift_L' 'keyup Control_L' 'keyup Alt_L' &"
m:0x0 + b:7
# Change tilt wheel left to do Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Up
"/usr/bin/xte 'keydown Alt_L' 'keydown Control_L' 'keydown Shift_L' 'key Up' 'keyup Shift_L' 'keyup Control_L' 'keyup Alt_L' &"
m:0x0 + b:6
I didn't specify anything else, since firefox already seems to pick up my back and forward buttons.
Additionally, I have configured a few of my buttons from within compiz configuration, by adding 'Button13' and so on. If the button isn't in the drop down, just click edit then type in manually.