HOWTO: use your Intellimouse's side buttons

[BrowneR]

Right i have done some more fiddling and come up with something that works for me. im not entirely sure why it works and the guides fail... but it does

I left my xorg.conf reading as follows:

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Configured Mouse"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "CorePointer"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
    Option         "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
    Option         "Buttons" "7"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
    Option	   "Resolution" "100"
EndSection

I then installed the imwheel package.

The guides all talk about issuing the follwing command at startup (in the /etc/X11/Xsession.d/57xmodmap file)

xmodmap -e "pointer = 1 2 3 6 7 4 5" &

this command swaps the button codes for buttons 45 with 67 and vice versa. (i guess )

This didnt work for me as i got the following error upon execution:

chris@res05-cib3:~$ xmodmap:  commandline:1:  bad number of buttons, must have 11 instead of 7

xorg.conf only specifies 7 buttons so im not sure where the extra 4 are coming from!!?

anyway i decided i wouldnt remap any buttons so i issued

xmodmap -e "pointer = default" &

from looking at the imwheel manpage the -b switch can also be used to remap buttons and this was being used in the command that i had from the guides:

imwheel -k -b "67" &

my button mappings however seemed to match those on the imwheel man page, namely:

4 wheel up
5 wheel down
6 wheel right (doesnt exist on my mouse)
7 wheel left (doesnt exist on my mouse)
8 thumb 1
9 thumb 2

and so i removed the -b switch from the imwheel command and everything worked!

i now have no /etc/X11/Xsession.d/57xmodmap file as i am using the default mappings and i am calling imwheel with only the -k switch.

just thought i'd post this in case someone else is having similar trouble.

my mouse is an IntelliMouse Optical 1.1A USB

My imwheelrc simply reads the following (for back/forward operation in firefox)

".*Mozilla Firefox$"
None,Thumb1,Alt_L|Left
None,thumb2,Alt_L|Right

[SShadow]

Hmmm... This is something to do with Dapper... By following this How To in Breezy, it worked perfectly every time. Now that I am updated to Dapper, it is no longer working. I hate it when things that were working perfectly get broken with a new release.

[Blazeix]

I thought I would post this here. I also have an "Intellimouse Optical 1.1A USB and PS/2 Compatible" mouse. I tried the above instructions, but they didn't work. Here's how I got this mouse to work with Ubuntu Dapper Drake 6.06 (also Edgy 6.10) on a Dell laptop:

Its really simple. You do not need imwheel or any other key mapping program.
First, back up your xorg.conf file.

sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup

Edit your xorg.conf by typing the following into the terminal:

sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Note: I use nano as my text editor, you may be using others such as gedit.

Find the InputDevice section that has to do with your mouse. It should look similar to this:

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Configured Mouse"
        Driver          "mouse"
        ...
EndSection

Edit it so it looks like this:

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Configured Mouse"
        Driver          "mouse"
        Option          "CorePointer"
        Option          "Device"                "/dev/input/mice"
        Option          "Protocol"              "ExplorerPS/2"
        Option          "ButtonMapping"         "1 2 3 6 7"
        Option          "ZAxisMapping"          "4 5"
EndSection

Restart your computer, start up your browser, and it should work!

[ericdsr]

This also worked for me in Dapper. The addition of the "ButtonMapping" line did the trick, thanks!

[Pekkalainen]

Ever since Dapper came out (well actually since flight 5 or so) I have been trying to get the forward/backward buttons to work in Konqueror, my conclusion is that it is impossible

[bryonhowley]

I have come from Gentoo to Ubuntu and the side buttons did not work with Konqueror in Gentoo ether. Works fine in Firefx/Swiftfox but not in Konqueror. Something with Kde and not Ubuntu.

[dvord]

Blazeix that worked for me. I did leave the emulate3buttons option true and it still works on Edgy.

SWEET! I'm so jazzed. After 3 years of trying Linux distros which can deliver what I need out of an OS this is as close as I've ever gotten. Thanks!!

[esaym]

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Configured Mouse"
        Driver          "mouse"
        Option          "CorePointer"
        Option          "Device"                "/dev/input/mice"
        Option          "Protocol"              "ExplorerPS/2"
        Option          "ButtonMapping"         "1 2 3 6 7"
        Option          "ZAxisMapping"          "4 5"
EndSection

That worked for me but it only works in firefox. How do I get the side buttons to work in Konqueror?

[Trekko]

Edit it so it looks like this:

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Configured Mouse"
        Driver          "mouse"
        Option          "CorePointer"
        Option          "Device"                "/dev/input/mice"
        Option          "Protocol"              "ExplorerPS/2"
        Option          "ButtonMapping"         "1 2 3 6 7"
        Option          "ZAxisMapping"          "4 5"
EndSection

Restart your computer, start up your browser, and it should work!

I also have an "Intellimouse Optical 1.1A USB and PS/2 Compatible" mouse.
Works like a charm in Opera to
Thx!

[mastergunner]

So copying the above will get my buttons working?