I’ve never been the type to use an *abomination mouse (as I call them) and I prefer not to use an abomination keyboard, but there are a lot of you out there that seem to enjoy them so I thought I would share the steps on getting them to work.
(* abomination mouse & keyboard, in my mind, is anything other than a standard mouse and keyboard. If your mouse has 6,000 buttons and your keyboard has enough buttons and dials to control a death-robot and soon rule the world it is an abomination.)
Below are the steps for setting up your 5 (or more) button mouse for use in Firefox (tomorrow’s tip is support within Nautilus!).
- Backup your xorg.conf file (ALWAYS backup this file before even thinking about touching it): sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf-backup
- Edit the file: sudo nano gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
- Find the Section “Input Device” for your mouse and change the following:
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
.....
Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
.....
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection
to include the multiple button mouse support:
Section “InputDevice”
Identifier “Configured Mouse”
Driver “mouse”
Option “CorePointer”
…..
Option “Protocol” “ExplorerPS/2”
…..
Option “Emulate3Buttons” “true”
Option “Buttons” “7”
Option “ButtonMapping” “1 2 3 6 7”
EndSection
At this point you can restart your computer (or possibly just GNOME using ctrl-alt-backspace). You should then have support for your additional buttons within Firefox. Enjoy your world domination!
I just did this for my Logitech mx 1000 mouse a few days ago. Works like a charm, for those of us into “abomination” mice 😉
KP
I’m glad it was helpful. New tutorials every day 🙂
I used this instruction on my 6.10 install and I have the wheel and side buttons reversed, meaning the side buttons scroll pages and the wheel traverses the browser. I have the MX510, I also used the IMWheel startup script. Is this the typical setup? In my mind it should be reversed. Any suggestions?
@aaron:
try inserting this:
Option “ZAxisMapping” “6 7”
Option “ButtonMapping” “1 2 3 5 6”
Help please!
I tried to modify xorg.conf several times but with the same result – nothing changes. I have A4 X7-750F 5 button mouse and my xorg currently looks like:
Section “ServerLayout”
Identifier “Layout0”
Screen 0 “Screen0”
InputDevice “Keyboard0” “CoreKeyboard”
InputDevice “Mouse0” “CorePointer”
EndSection
…
Section “InputDevice”
# generated from default
Identifier “Mouse0”
Driver “mouse”
Option “Protocol” “auto”
Option “Device” “/dev/psaux”
Option “Emulate3Buttons” “no”
Option “ZAxisMapping” “4 5”
Option “Buttons” “7”
Option “ButtonMapping” “1 2 3 6 7”
EndSection
On Ubuntu 6.10, GNOME 2.16.1
Thanks in advance 🙂
Thanks, this works great for my MS IntelliMouse Explorer 3. The steps are just slightly different than what I had to do before for SUSE.
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Worked nicely, fixed the issue I made following another guide 🙂 Thanks man!
Jamie
Thanks!!! Great tutorial!!! Really helped!
Stuff changed for me since I upgraded to Ubuntu Hardy
Identifier “Mouse0″
Driver “mouse”
Option “Protocol” “auto”
Option “Device” “/dev/psaux”
Option “Emulate3Buttons” “no”
Option “ZAxisMapping” “4 5 6 7″
Option “Buttons” “9″
Option “ButtonMapping” “1 2 3 8 9″
Did the trick for me
From http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Mouse+buttons+do+not+work+as+Back+and+Forward
“In Firefox 3 on Linux, the mouse button assignments for Back and Forward have changed, to follow X11 customs. Previous versions of Firefox used buttons 6 and 7 for Back and Forward, respectively. Firefox 3 uses buttons 8 and 9.”
So the important thing to change is ButtonMapping from “1 2 3 6 7″ to:
Option “ButtonMapping” “1 2 3 8 9”
xorg.conf reports that it no longer contains configuration data for input devices, as the server is configured automatically (read: badly).
Sad end to an easy fix. You do realize that you’re an ‘abomination enabler’, though? :p
Peace.