Yesterday I promised I would also include instructions on how to setup IMWheel for support for 5 button mouse within Nautilus file manager. These instructions are a little more detailed and require a touch of customization. In my mind, if you’re brave enough to use an abomination mouse you can easily be brave enough to set this up. It shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes and when you’re done you’ll have all the comforts of your 5 button mouse with GNOME and Nautilus. Let’s get started!

  1. sudo aptitude install imwheel
  2. sudo gedit /etc/X11/imwheel/imwheelrc
  3. Add the following to the bottom of the existing file:
  4. ".*"
    None, Up, Alt_L|Left
    None, Down, Alt_L|Right
    "(null)"
    None, Up, Alt_L|Left
    None, Down, Alt_L|Right

  5. Create an IMWheel startup script: sudo gedit /usr/bin/mouse
  6. #!/bin/sh
    exec xmodmap -e "pointer = 1 2 3 6 7 4 5" &
    exec imwheel -k -b "67" &
    exec $REALSTARTUP

  7. Set this script as executable: sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/mouse

You can optionally set this script up to auto-start at login by adding it to “System > Prefences > Sessions > Startup Programs”. Click “Add” and enter /usr/bin/mouse. Select “OK”.

At this point test IMWheel by restarting GNOME (ctrl-alt-backspace) or restarting the computer. I would love to hear how this works for people as I don’t personally have a 5 button mouse to test this on. If I’ve missed anything please let me know.

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Comments

10 Responses to “IMWheel (5 button mouse within Nautilus) : Ubuntu (6.10)”

  1. Piet on December 2nd, 2006 10:24 pm

    Much thanks for this little guide! I’m very new to ubuntu, so I had no idea how to get those buttons working.
    Works excellent, I can now also use my extra mouse buttons in ET again. Yay!

  2. Ubuntu Tutorials on December 2nd, 2006 11:08 pm

    I’m glad to hear it worked simply for you. That’s what we’re here for.. to save the world, one computer at a time.

  3. Jeroen on January 8th, 2007 2:06 am

    Worked like a charm, but it resulted in having my thumb buttons switched with my scroll-wheel action.

    So I changed my Xorg.conf (changed Option “ZAxisMapping” “4 5″ to Option “ZAxisMapping” “6 7″) and added Option “ButtonMapping” “1 2 3 4 5″

    This seemed to fix it…

  4. Specto on February 14th, 2007 7:35 am

    Any chance for a 4 button mouse guide (like Logitech dualoptic)?

  5. Sotec on July 13th, 2007 4:24 pm

    Didn’t work at all for me, but it didn’t crash X, so I guess not all bad. I would really love to get my scroll toggles to work in ET. I’m currently using:

    Ubuntu Feisty Fawn (official)
    Logitech G5 Gaming Laser mouse (wired)

    I should clarify that nothing happened when I restarted X. Nothing good, or bad. No change. Any help would be fantastic. My email is:

    eschatological.humor@gmail.com
    (copy/paste it if you have to, hehe)

    Thanks in advance!

  6. Nick on April 16th, 2008 9:13 pm

    Didn’t really work for me. I made the script alright, but it basically gave me this retarded mouse configuration where my mousewheel was my forward and back browsing buttons. =(

  7. Chris on April 27th, 2008 7:41 am

    Upgraded to 8.04 Hardy Heron (with Firefox 3B).
    Broke my back & forward buttons.
    Had to switch buttonmapping from “1 2 3 6 7 8 9″ to “1 2 3 8 9 6 7″.
    Wish I knew what it all meant!

  8. franky on May 6th, 2008 3:26 pm

    i’ve installed ubuntu 8.04 few days ago .im very new to linux. i did all the steps above and now scrolling is not working anymore(nautilus and firefox). and all other buttons did not work either (back and forward still working with firefox). i have a Logitech MX Laser Mouse. i would really appreciate it, if somebody could help me to get my mouse work. thanks a lot

  9. Danny on October 8th, 2008 8:54 am

    I followed this tutorial, but when I went to test it, scrolling was not working. So I commented the /usr/bin/mouse commands in the file and the wheel now works again.

    Anyone know a simple way to get Nautilus (File Browser) to work with buttons 6 and 7 as a back and forward though the folders? (like in Firefox)

    Thanks

  10. Richard Kimber on November 8th, 2008 4:05 pm

    What do the various fields in imwheelrc actually represent?

    And how do you represent more complicated actions than Alt_L? For example pasting from the clipboard.

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