HOWTO: Side Buttons in Both Nautilus and Firefox

[qkslvr221]

Same problem here as a few others, apparently. The thumb buttons scroll, and the scroll wheel goes forward/back. Any solutions yet?

HELP!!

I did this fix, and I have the exact same problem.

Scroll wheel up goes BACK
Scroll wheel down goes FORWARD

Forward side button scrolls down
Back side button scrolls up

[dude2425]

alter you're xorg.conf, where it says ZAxisMapping "6 7", change it to "4 5"
(it might be from "4 5" to "6 7", I can't remember.)

There's no xmodmap in breezy anymore (I hope that gets fixed soon) so now my scroll wheel does nothing, side buttons scroll no matter what I do, my middle button's still middle, and the extra button on my MX310 goes back (I cant seem to find the forward though.) I changed it though so that I use evdev instead of ExplorerPS/2 though. I'm trying to get my extra button to do something.

I might extract xmodmap from an older xbase-clients later till the problem's fixed.

[jackmacokc]

another quick "thanks" for a great post. this worked like a charm for my wireless intellimouse explorer 2.0

[ad noiseam]

Does anybody know how to have the side buttons do something else than back / forward in Firefox? I had configured my mouse to copy / paste with them in Hoary, but can not get it to work in Breezy.

[SuSUntu]

I don't really have much to add here, except that Doans' instructions worked for me in getting Nautilus-mouse functionality working and that any little coding mistake can lead to unexpected results (but we all knew that, didn't we).

As an example, I originally found instructions claiming to fix the FireFox / Nautilus mouse issues at the site linked below and applied them:

Matt's Blog
HOWTO: Microsoft Intellimouse in Linux
http://dotnet.org.za/matt/articles/39097.aspx
http://dotnet.org.za/matt/articles/category/1137.aspx


However, those instructions fixed FireFox mouse functionality, but left Nautilus somewhat lacking: the scroll wheel worked in Nautilus, but the side buttons scrolled the pane contents either left or right one small increment with each click (basically, the side buttons functioned as a slow alternative to just sliding the pane's horizontal scroll bar ... not exactly what I was looking for).

The wording and the instructions at "Matt's Blog" are virtually IDENTICAL to Doans' post #1 in this thread, so much so that either:

- Doans is "Matt"; or
- Doans should be upset with "Matt" for not giving Doans due credit and for screwing up the instructions.

Matt's error (typo, cut & paste gone awry, or whatever) is small and nearly unnoticeable, and I almost brushed Doans' post aside thinking I had tried the same instructions already and they didn't work. However, because Doans was insistent that it worked and others here claimed it worked, I slowed down to see what the difference was between Matt's instructions (which I had followed) and Doans', which appeared initially to be identical.

Here it is:

Matt's instructions (which don't fix Nautilus side-button functionality):

5. This is the final piece in the puzzle:
 sudo gedit /etc/X11/Xsession.d/63xmodmap

and paste in this code:

killall imwheel
xmodmap -e "pointer = 1 2 3 6 7 4 5"
BINARY=$(which imwheel)
$BINARY -k -p -b "6 7"

Doans' Instructions (which do work):

5. This is the final piece in the puzzle:

    sudo gedit /etc/X11/Xsession.d/63xmodmap

    and paste in this code:

    killall imwheel
    xmodmap -e "pointer = 1 2 3 6 7 4 5"
    BINARY=$(which imwheel)
    $BINARY -k -p -b "67"

Note the space between "6 7" in Matt's instructions and no space between "67" in Doans' instructions. Follow Doans' instructions and all should be good.

Anyway, if nothing else, maybe my comments will be cause to try again for some who think they have already done this without success based on other sources of similar instructions, or it will point out that any little variation in following the instructions will lead to unwanted results. Slowing down and trying again might be the order of the day.

Thanks Doans.
--------------
Mouse used: MS Wireless Intellimouse Explorer 2.0
OS: Ubuntu Breezy 5.10

[dude2425]

Actually, a lot of people have their own prefered way of these kinds of things in Linux, some work, some not so much, and when combined with other peoples "way" they work even better. Most guides have their similarities, and not-so-similarities, but they all produce exactly the same, or similar results.

[SuSUntu]

Actually, a lot of people have their own prefered way of these kinds of things in Linux, some work, some not so much, and when combined with other peoples "way" they work even better. Most guides have their similarities, and not-so-similarities, but they all produce exactly the same, or similar results.

I understand there is more than one way to skin a Linux cat. But in this particular case, my main point was to bring to light a single-character difference in posted instructions that would either cause failure or success for the particular mouse that I referenced in my post (MS Wireless Intellimouse Explorer 2.0). I wasn't trying to suggest that this works for all systems and all mice, but was suggesting that it might be beneficial to take a careful second look if one had used other instructions or was perhaps a bit hasty in following Doans' instructions.

And, by the way if you checked the links I provided, Doans' and Matt's posts aren't just similar regarding the instructions, they are exactly the same in every way except for the aforementioned critical, single-character difference. To wit, look at the opening paragraph of both posts:

I have been attempting to get my USB Microsoft Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer to completely work in Firefox and Nautilus for years now. I followed all of the guides on this and other forums and nothing was able to get the back and forward buttons to work in both Firefox and Nautilus. The side buttons would work in Firefox but not in Nautilus...until now! Here's how I did it (with the help of numerous forum posts which I have lost the links to now). Hopefully this will help someone else out.

Because even the personal experiences (not just the code) were EXACTLY the same, I almost blew off reading Doans' post because I was sure that I had already read it before from another source, and it had not worked. Had I blown it off and not looked more carefully, I still would be without a working mouse in Nautilus.

Otherwise, I have little care or interest in who the original author was, who copied from who or anything along those lines.

[treris]

I've been setting up my intellimouse all morning and it just doesn't seem to wanna work properly,
right now my scroll wheel for some reason works as a back and forward button, while the back and forward buttons on the side of my mouse do absolutely nothing.
I've also had it that my back and forward buttons were working but then my scroll wheel wasnt working,

why is something that should be so simple, so hard to do?

[thehamburgian]

thanks for the tip. i did all of the above, but ubuntu still does not recognize my ms intellimouse explorer. am i missing something really basic?

device manager recognizes usb microsoft bluetooth device. batteries are in the mouse...

a newbie's newbie,

thehamburgian

[thehamburgian]

do i need to alter the /proc/bus/unput/devices file?

it seems that the other users didn't mention this at all. their mice worked after installation except for wheels and buttons. i get no functions, though device manager recognizes the bluetooth usb stick.

thehamburgian