Member Avatar for KF4SQB

How do I get the functionality out of the rest of the buttons on my 5-button scroll mouse? I'm using a Microsoft trackball. The info on the label on the bottom is:

"Trackball Optical 1.0 PS2/USB Compatible"
"PN X08-70386 Product ID 52240-576-4082752-00000"

Currently, the left & right buttons, along with the scroll wheel, work normally. The "far left" button doesn't seem to do anything. The "far right" button seems to duplicate the function of the right button. I'm not sure what the middle button does.

I would like to know if there is any way to "custom configure" the function of individual buttons. I'm running version 2.14.3 of Gnome under version 4.0 r1 of Debian, and have the mouse attached via PS/2. I'm a Linux newbie, so please try to keep replies simple.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by jbennet
Member Avatar for jbennet

all the mouse and keyboard settings are held in the X (the core GUI on which your window manager and desktop sit) configuration file. It is stored as a text file in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

If you dont want to edit it by hand there is a wizard. BACK UP YOUR OLD XORG.CONF FIRST!.

to use the wizard go to a terminal and type (as root) "dpkg --reconfigure xserver-xorg" .Afterwards restarrt X with the new configuration by pushing control+backspace

Member Avatar for KF4SQB

Thanks, James, I'll give it a try in a few days. My Windows machine is down right now, and I'm using my Linux server to handle web surfing and email. I'd hate to hose it and have nothing! Hopefully, my Windows machine will be back up in a day or two, and I'll try it then. Thanks again!

Member Avatar for jbennet

I'd hate to hose it and have nothing

just backup your old xorg.conf to a safe place before you do anything and if things dont work out, you can go into text mode (control + alt +f2) and copy it back.

Member Avatar for KF4SQB

Yeah, I'm just not that comfortable with Linux yet. I can usually handle Windows, and DOS is a piece of cake, but I'm more likely to screw up Linux. Remember the display resolution problem you helped me with a while back? I'm likely to need help in the middle of things, so I'd rather have both systems running so I can pester you some more if needed;) .

Member Avatar for jbennet

Thats fine :)
im gonna be on vacation until after the new year though

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