HOWTO: Logitech G7 Mouse

[blakecraw]

To get my back button working, I first disabled the xbindkeys that I had running:

ps aux |grep xbindkeys 
         xxxx  0.0  0.0   4484  1480 ?        S    18:35   0:00 xbindkeys
kill -9 xxxx

Then ran xbindkeys -k and pressed the back button in the little window it pops open, and copied that output (m:0x0 + b:8 in my case) to the .xbindkeysrc file, and made sure that its bind was alt+left. I believe the file provided in the original guide had it set to button 6, which was throwing me off since I set mine up differently and got different button numbers.

[B00R4dL3y]

I can use the below to get my G7 working, but sometimes when I reboot, the display isn't recognized properly and I get a really low resolution screen (xorg.conf.failsafe replaces my xorg.conf file). I'm using Ubuntu 7.10 and this happened when I was using 7.04 (but there wasn't an xorg.conf.failsafe which meant X just didn't boot and I got an error message).

Section "InputDevice"
        Driver          "evdev"
        Identifier      "Configured Mouse"
        Option          "Dev Phys"  "usb-0000:00:1a.0-1/input0"
        Option          "Device" "/dev/input/event1"
        Option          "CorePointer"
        Option          "Name"  "Logitech USB Receiver"
	Option		"Buttons"		"8"
	Option		"ZAxisMapping"		"4 5 6 7"
EndSection

[NobodySpecial]

Update: I wrote this how-to, but since then I moved on to a Logitech MX Revolution mouse. The latest method does not require evdev, and is MUCH easier and more feature rich: use btnx.

Ubuntu how-to HERE

It works great for my MX mouse. I would encourage you to switch to that method. The first person to get it to work with the G7, please post here so I can change the how-to above to refer people straight-away.

Before doing the btnx way, please remove the evdev protocol from xorg.conf and revert to the default protocol.

[B00R4dL3y]

I reverted my xorg.conf's "Configured Mouse" back to the original. Installed btnx, but I can't get the side button on my mouse to work in Firefox for some reason. I've assigned it to be KEY_LEFT and Modifier key 1 as KEY_LEFTALT. This should be the equivalent of the 'Back' button, but it doesn't seem to work while in Firefox.

Seems to work while in any other program. When I press the side-button, it behaves like pressing the middle-button where it lets you quick scrolling with moving mouse.

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier	"Configured Mouse"
	Driver		"mouse"
	Option		"CorePointer"
	Option		"Device"	"/dev/input/mice"
	Option		"Protocol"	"ImPS/2"
	Option		"Buttons"	"8"
	Option		"ZAxisMapping"	"4 5"
	Option		"Emulate3Buttons"	"true"
EndSection

I added in the 'Option "Buttons" "8"' line to see if it made any difference.


edit: I changed "Protocol" to "auto" and it fixed my problem. Things are working great now!

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier	"Configured Mouse"
	Driver		"mouse"
	Option		"CorePointer"
	Option		"Device"	"/dev/input/mice"
	Option		"Protocol"	"auto"
	Option		"Buttons"	"8"
	Option		"ZAxisMapping"	"4 5"
	Option		"Emulate3Buttons"	"no"
EndSection

[mirwin77]

Does anyone else have problems with their G7 mouse battery running out really quickly? The mouse seems to work OK (brand new mouse, just installed btnx), but I'm having to switch fully charged batteries every day. It's strange, the monitor will go to screensaver after the designated time but will not go on standby like it used to before I started using the G7. I left my box on over night last night and this morning still no standby and the mouse battery is drained. This has been happening for the last few days. Hmmm, maybe I need to switch protocol to "auto" in my xorg configuration? Any ideas?

[NobodySpecial]

mirwin77 - I didn't have problems with the battery running dead, but some other problems with one that recurred again when Logitech sent me a replacement.

I've switched over to the MX Revolution and love it.

[mirwin77]

I did some testing last night and, as I suspected, the monitor standby mode is what was causing the mouse battery to run out. Every time the monitor attempts to go into standby mode, the mouse turns on. This triggers the monitor to wake up (out of standby mode) until the designated time of inactivity, and then this cycle repeats. I turned off monitor standby in the power management options last night and this morning my mouse had plenty of battery left. If I don't want my mouse battery to drain, no monitor standby mode for me! Hahaa. If anyone knows how to fix this issue, please let me know.

Thanks NobodySpecial, I may switch to a nice corded mouse to avoid the standby issue I'm having or just not use standby at all and manually turn off my monitor by pressing the power button when not in use.

[madestro]

I'm sorry there might be something that I'm not doing right here because when I follow the tutorial here http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=455656 I don't get any errors or anything but nothing happens. I have followed the whole troubleshooting and the instructions but nothing. So, I decided to give this script a try and when I restart the X environment my graphics get all messed up and the system tells me that it can't find my correct display drivers and defaults me to low graphics mode. Now the only way I can get back to normal graphics is to disable and enable my restricted graphics driver. But when I do that the xorg.conf file returns to it's defaults INCLUDING the mouse section.
Will anyone be so kind as to help me out here because I've followed everything as it says here and I have looked everywhere and I now have a G7 that works like a cheap-*** 10 dollar mouse.
These are the things that make Ubuntu not accesible to the programing impaired such as myself.