configuring extra mouse buttons

[geoffm]

I have 2 buttons on the side of my mouse. I use them to switch to desktop left/right. I could easily configure that with compiz, but I disabled compiz because I started prefering speed over eye candy (have a ****** graphics card)

But there's no easy way in gnome to configure those buttons. I read the wiki
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ManyButtonsMouseHowto
but it doesn't help because it only says to install imwheel, which can only configure mouse events in specific apps, and I want it to be equivalent to Ctrl Alt Left and Ctrl Alt Right in any app.

Is there another way? Or will I have to use compiz instead of metacity?


EDIT:
I figured with easystroke I can configure a static mousegesture for those buttons, so that way I can make button 8/9 go to desktop left/right.

[afeasfaerw23231233]

Have you looked at this thread?
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=132384

[techstop]

Even better is this thread;

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=455656

btnx is a program that lets you configure your mouse buttons to do *anything*. And you don't need to hack up xorg.conf or anything else. Strongly recommended.

[geoffm]

I tried btnx, it seems good, I configured the mouse buttons, I ran btnx with sudo, but it doesn't work. I made my up and down buttons act as Ctrl Alt Left / Right, but it seems like the program doesn't catch the events...

[LifeEnemy]

btnx broke in an earlier version of Ubuntu (8.10 i think), and apparently it's not going to be fixed. I also tried using it for a while, and it works for some things, but other times it totally fails or freezes my comp. I'm currently searching for an alternative.