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I am using Ubuntu 16.04 and I cant find any ways to change the the mouse pointer/courser speed.

The mouse is too sensitive and it moves too fast and I cant find any ways to adjust it without installing any third party apps. In Settings/Mouse&Touchpad it only has the option to change the primary click button and the double click speed.

Thanks in advance for any help given.

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  • What's wrong with using a commandline at the terminal? – L. D. James Apr 24 '18 at 4:01
  • I'm not very good with command lines and I get easily confused. – SomeBloke Apr 24 '18 at 5:24
  • Please dit your question with the version of Ubuntu you are using – Graham Apr 24 '18 at 5:33
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Is this not what you are looking for?

enter image description here

Accessed from System Settings > Mouse and Touchpad.

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    Interesting. The mouse pointer speed doesn't exist on my computer. It just shows the "General" category. – L. D. James Apr 24 '18 at 6:47
  • @L.D.James but what version of Ubuntu are you using? Certainly (as seen from the graphic in my answer) it is present in 16.04 LTS – Graham Apr 24 '18 at 6:52
  • DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS". The latest LTS with all updates. I used to use the slider. Some versions ago when I had to start using a *.desktop autostart to set the mouse. Been using it for years (askubuntu.com/a/700967/29012) . Didn't know the problem was just my computer. This is my System Settings screen. – L. D. James Apr 24 '18 at 7:03
  • Bizarre. Maybe if you ask a question, someone may come up with an answer as to why the difference. – Graham Apr 24 '18 at 7:09
  • I thought I had asked the question sometime in the past when I first experienced the problem. But now since I know it's a glitch in my system and not a chance, I'm sure I can figure it out. I thought it was due to some change. Thanks! Maybe it'll be resolved in 18.04, which I'll be upgrading to in two days. – L. D. James Apr 24 '18 at 7:14
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If the GUI option doesn't show up (which the acceleration option doesn't show up in my mouse settings menu), the terminal command is rather seamless.

From your comment, it appears that your main objective is to reduce the speed of the mouse acceleration. The content of your question also suggests the same.

From the terminal (Ctrl+Alt+t), you can check your current mouse settings with:

$ xset q

Look at the pointer control new the bottom. Change the acceleration to a lower number.

$ xset mouse 4 0

I like my acceleration to be fast so that I don't have to move my hand too much to cover my four monitors. The first number in the command is the acceleration speed. The second number is the threshold.

Run xset and test the speeds. Set it to one you are comfortable with. You can also fine tune it using fractions.

This will slow your speed substantially:

$ xset 1 0
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  • Thanks for that. How hard would it be to make a slider to control the mouse speed in the system settings under settings/Mouse&touchpad and would it be a good first project? – SomeBloke Apr 24 '18 at 6:00

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