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I am using a Logitech Anywhere Mouse MX on my Ubuntu. Mouse works well, but I can't assign the actions to the extra buttons available on it. What I miss the most is the "back" and "forward" actions assigned to the scroll wheel tilt left and right.

How can I activate these features?

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5 Answers 5

Reset to default
19

I have this same mouse, and I wanted to bind the two buttons on the side of the mouse to forward and back. Here is how I solved this:

1) Use the utility "xev" to determine what numbers the buttons you are wanting to remap correspond to. You may have to install this package using 

sudo apt-get install xev

Once xev is installed type "xev" into a terminal, and an X window that is white with a black box will pop up. Moving your mouse into that window will begin registering events to the terminal. Reading the output of that carefully will tell you the numbers of your mouse buttons. On my mouse, the left and right tilt map to buttons 6 and 7 respectively.

2) Now we are going to use the utility "xbindkeys" to remap the mouse buttons to key presses. If you don't already have this installed you may have to install it with 

sudo apt-get install xbindkeys

3) Create a file in your home directory called ".xbindkeysrc". This is what xbindkeys will read to see what you are remapping. The contents of my .xbindkeysrc file are:

 "/usr/bin/xvkbd -xsendevent -text "\[Alt_L]\[Left]""
   m:0x0 + b:8

 "/usr/bin/xvkbd -xsendevent -text "\[Alt_L]\[Right]""
  m:0x0 + b:9

So this tells my computer to send the keyboard button presses "Alt+Left" or "Alt+Right" to the system using the virtual keyboard (xvkbd) whenever button 8 on mouse 0 is pressed or button 9 on mouse 0 is pressed respectively. These keys correspond to the the forward and back keys in most applications. This will work, for example, in Nautilus, chrome/

Note: you may need to install xvkbd if not already present on your system. sudo apt-get install xvkbd

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  • Thanks. Running the xev utility I do see lots of info, however, although the scroll up and down functions are mapped to keys 4 and 5, I do not get any event when I tilt the scroll wheel, nor when I click the two side buttons. Any ideas why?
    – ysap
    Feb 3, 2012 at 19:04
  • It's possible that for some reason your system doesn't recognize the signals sent from the mouse. If this is the case, you should see error codes either in /var/log/messages or in dmesg. Read more about this problem and how to fix it at this url jveweb.net/en/archives/2011/01/… If that is not the problem, we will have to look into it more.
    – jarvisschultz
    Feb 5, 2012 at 17:58
  • ok, I looked at the dmesg log. it is a pretty long list of messages. What exactly should I be looking for?
    – ysap
    Feb 6, 2012 at 4:54
  • BTW, I did not mention it in the question but it may help - I am using Ubuntu as a guest OS on VMware Player on Windows 7. From my experience with a few devices, the emulation is pretty good, do Ubuntu should definitely see all messages sent by the mouse.
    – ysap
    Feb 6, 2012 at 4:56
  • 1
    Could it be possible a sudo apt-get install xvkbd is missing here?
    – c_korn
    Oct 13, 2013 at 19:41
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I use xbindkeys in combination with xdotool.

Create a .xbindkeysrc file in your home directory. It must contain: 

# Mapping BACK to mousewheel left on old Logitech
"xdotool key Alt_L+Left"
m:0x0 + b:6

# Mapping FORWARD to mousewheel right on old Logitech
"xdotool key Alt_L+Right"
m:0x0 + b:7

However with VMware you don't have to do anything else except adding

mouse.vusb.enable = "TRUE"

to the .vmx file in your host system. It's what VMware opens every time you start your guest system.

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  • Thanks. I will test the vmx line next time I restart the system (doesn't happen too often).
    – ysap
    Mar 25, 2013 at 14:34
  • Just tried the vmx file hack - and it doesn't seem to work. What I see is that when I do a restart, VMware erases the line I just added, as if it has a default file template that is being reset every time you start the machine.
    – ysap
    Apr 4, 2013 at 9:57
  • ok, it looks like I had to go all the way and shut down the machine, rather than just restart. Now the settings is preserved. Unfortunately, working remotely right now, the mouse wheel seem ineffective (same on the host machine). I'll check again when at the remote site and report the results.
    – ysap
    Apr 4, 2013 at 10:08
  • Oh yeah - just checked, and it works!
    – ysap
    Apr 4, 2013 at 13:19
  • Obviously, you need to run xbindkeys after the setup.
    – HongboZhu
    Feb 12, 2016 at 15:22
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Here is what I did. No sudo commands or new packages necessary:

  • I tested my buttons with xev --> all buttons correspond to a certain value, which means they are recognized by the system
  • inspect devices with xinput list --> the mouse is listed with ID 9 in my case
  • xinput list-props 9 shows current mapping and especially tells about button labels --> seems like foreward / backward corresponds to button 8 and 9 which I do not have (wheel tilt is 6 and 7 and mapped to horizontal scrolling)
  • remapping bindings via xmodmap as interpreted by X is most convenient solution for me. First five buttons should not be changed (left right middle click and scolling up and down), but those reporting as button 6 & 7 should navigate foreward / backward
  • executing xmodmap -e "pointer = 1 2 3 4 5 8 9 6 7 10 11 12 13 14 15 16" in a terminal swaps buttons 6 and 7 with 8 and 9 (virtually)
  • if this mapping does not work for you restore defaults with xmodmap -e "pointer = default" and try a different mapping
  • Now I have the button swap command in my Startup Applications to be executed after login
  • it also seems possible according to man xmodmap to store this command in a file called ~/.xmodmaprc or append the instruction to ~/.bashrc

Worked for me. Hope this helps.

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  • 1
    +1: This xmodmap approach worked immediately for me, but... is it possible to modify mapping for a specific mouse?
    – MestreLion
    Sep 19, 2013 at 12:40
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This is what worked for me:

1) Install xbindkeys

sudo apt-get install xbindkeys

2) Install xautomation

sudo apt-get install xautomation

3) Create a file .xbindkeysrc in your home directory with this inside:

# History Back & Forward
"xte 'keydown Alt_L' 'key Left' 'keyup Alt_L' "
  b:6
"xte 'keydown Alt_L' 'key Right' 'keyup Alt_L' "
  b:7

4) Go to Startup Applications and add program with xbindkeys command.

5) Log out & log in

Source: Ubuntu Forums

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  • Thanks, B-Scan. I assume you meant the file to be put in my home directory. I placed it there and added a xbindkeys entry to Startup Apps, logged out and in and... it does not work :-(
    – ysap
    Oct 25, 2012 at 23:02
  • Yes, home directory. Now I saw that you are using VMware. Maybe could be related to this?
    – B-Scan
    Oct 26, 2012 at 13:47
1

Easystroke is, well easy to configure.

sudo apt-get install easystroke
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