How to map Ctrl/Shift to thumb buttons of Mouse?

Question

I have an Microsoft Sidewinder X8 mouse and I wish to use 8 for Shift and the 9 for Control. Can anybody please tell me how?

Answer 1

First install xdotool

sudo aptitude install xdotool

Then, you can create a script to simulate a Ctrl key press. Open gedit and copy paste the following:

#! /bin/bash

xdotool keydown ctrl

while [MOUSEKEYDOWN == 1]; do  #TODO change the while test.
sleep 30 
   #decrease sleep if script doesn't react fast enough on releasing the key, 
   #increase sleep if the computer uses to many CPU when pressing the button.
done

xdotool keyup ctrl # Lift the key back up after no button is pressed.

I'm not a great bash programmer. I need to search a way to identify if your button is down and I may have (more than one) syntax errors but I guess a bash programmer gets the idea.

If someone fixed the script, save it under ctrl.sh and make it executable

chmod +x ctrl.sh

Then, as nathwill said, go to system -> preferences -> keyboard. Add a custom command, choose to add the ~/ctrl.sh command and press your mouse button as shortkey.

This should do it.

Answer 2

http://linux.derkeiler.com/Newsgroups/comp.os.linux.x/2003-07/0010.html explains how to accomplish this using xbindkeys and xmacroplay (from the xmacro package). Both of these applications are available from the Ubuntu repositories.

Here is an example from the site that explains how to map mouse button 6 to the Alt + Left key combination.

Put this in ~/.xbindkeysrc , and pressing mouse button 6 will echo the Alt + Left key combination to the X server, which maps to "back" in Konqueror and Mozilla :

"echo -e 'KeyStrPress Alt_L\nKeyStrPress Left\nKeyStrRelease Left\n KeyStrRelease Alt_L' | xmacroplay &"
b:6

There is Shift_L and Control_L (as well as Shift_R and Control_R if you prefer the right versions of the keys instead of the left versions). Simply substitute these keys into the above command, change b:6 to be the actual mouse button you want to map to the key, and put the command in ~/.xbindkeysrc, and you should be all set.

Answer 3

Install xdotools and xbindkeys

sudo apt-get install xdotools xbindkeys

Then copy the following code into ~/.xbindkeysrc

"xdotool keydown shift"
        b:9
"xdotool keyup shift"
        release + shift + b:9
"xdotool keydown ctrl"
        b:8
"xdotool keyup ctrl"
        release + control + b:8

where b:x is the number of your button which you can find out using xev. As I don't want this bindig permanent everytime I need it I start a terminal and type xbindkeys -n. When I don't need it anymore I simply close the terminal.

Answer 4

System → Preferences → Keyboard shortcuts lets you map keys/buttons to commands; if that doesn't work xbindkeys is another great application for key mapping.