Linux Mint Forums

Posted: **Sat Mar 22, 2008 1:16 pm**

Hey -- could use some of the wisdom of your xorg champs. I found this link on how to emulate the scroll wheel using the logitech marble trackball. I figure any trackball would work for this, but what I was wondering is whether or not I could emulate the scroll wheel by using the "Windows" key and the trackball -- that is to say, if I hold the Windows key down, could I then use the trackball to scroll?

I was going to post in Ubuntu forums, but figured I like you guys more.

And, well, the Mint crew has been so terribly helpful.

I'm not convinced it's possible when I read the xorg documentation... but I wanted to ask.

Thanks much.

Here's the referenced link above: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=169423

And the howto from the post:

End Result
Using trackball to emulate wheel button scroll (horizontal & vertical) in web browser (Epiphany 2.14.0 and Firefox 1.5.0.1).

Method

1. Open xorg.conf file using a text editor (gedit). Go to Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal and enter command:
Code:

sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

2. Look for a section that contains the entry for your mouse, it looks kind of like this.
Code:

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

3. Edit that section into this:
Code:

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "Buttons" "9"
Option "EmulateWheel" "1"
Option "EmulateWheelButton" "8" # for right-handed people
Option "YAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "XAxisMapping" "6 7"
EndSection

Posted: **Sun Mar 23, 2008 8:21 am**

What do you really want to achieve?
I can't test the xorg.conf posted without a trackball, but it's supposed to work.....
Why mix in the Win key?
I don't think there is a solution for that, at least not an easy one

Posted: **Sun Mar 23, 2008 8:33 am**

If I remember correctly I got the trackball to work as a scroll by holding the two "mouse" buttons and then use the ball as a 3D wheel, but it's been a while...
No xorg hack needed.

Posted: **Sun Mar 23, 2008 10:43 am**

Husse: Trying to achieve basically what Zwopper posted -- there's so much common and habitual grammar around the mouse wheel at this point, it feel weird to NOT use one when scrolling through long documents or web pages. The mouse wheel is the greatest invention since... well... the mouse.

Zwopper: You nailed it. That's what I'd love to figure out. I know there's an emulate three buttons command in the xorg. I'm going to go scour the documentation. If you get hit with the epiphany of how you did it, that'd be awesome.

-Chow

Posted: **Sun Mar 23, 2008 6:59 pm**

Of course you want scrolling

I see that my complete lack of experience with a trackball got me on the wrong track

What that xorg.conf achieved is normal "mouse movement" (am I right?

)
Sorry for that
And yes there is an

emulate three buttons command in the xorg

I appreciate not having to look it up - you can find it somewhere among my posts I think - but that's just 67 pages

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