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Clicking the middle button doesn't allow me scroll the page. Is there any way to fix this behavior?

Information:

  1. Ubuntu 10.10
  2. Chromium 9.0.597.94
  3. Logitech MX518

Update: also Chrome, and the other Chromium based ones.

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5 Answers 5

Reset to default
80

In Linux based/Mac systems, Google Chrome / Chromium hasn't got this feature. You have to get an extension, eg.: AutoScroll AutoScroll.

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11
  • 2
    Great tip - worked for me.
    – Mark Rooney
    Feb 26, 2011 at 10:14
  • 22
    It's a real shame they don't have this in by default.
    – Jeggy
    Aug 14, 2012 at 21:30
  • How do you control the speed?
    – Raffi Khatchadourian
    Mar 30, 2015 at 14:27
  • Isn't it in settings?
    – antivirtel
    Mar 30, 2015 at 14:29
  • 1
    Good answer, but why are you asking me to click on an image, and not just provide a regular link?
    – mwfearnley
    May 21, 2016 at 12:47
33

This will work with all your applications without the need of installing anything.

Get your input deviceId number

xinput list

To list available properties, use xinput list-props $deviceId. If you are using libinput (the future/present) almost all properties will start with libinput (also check libinput list-devices).

Test: You can always test your input devices with libinput debug-events, xev, evtest, evemu-record or xinput --test $deviceId.

With libinput

Since 17.04 Ubuntu uses libinput, so to set mouse properties:

# xinput device option setting
xinput set-prop $deviceId "libinput Scroll Method Enabled" 0, 0, 1  # _button_ as scroll method
xinput set-prop $deviceId "libinput Button Scrolling Button" 2      # Using middle buttpn. Already 2 by default

xinput set-prop $deviceId "libinput Natural Scrolling Enabled" 1    # OPTIONAL, for natural scrolling. You can also get this with gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.mouse natural-scroll true

Description from man libinput:

  • libinput Scroll Method Enabled 3 boolean values (8 bit, 0 or 1), in order "two-finger", "edge", "button". Indicates which scroll method is currently enabled on this device.
  • libinput Button Scrolling Button 1 32-bit value. Sets the button number to use for button scrolling. This setting is independent of the scroll method, to enable button scrolling the method must be set to button-scrolling and a valid button must be set.

With evdev

xinput --set-prop $deviceId 'Evdev Wheel Emulation' 1
xinput --set-prop $deviceId 'Evdev Wheel Emulation Button' 2
xinput --set-prop $deviceId 'Evdev Wheel Emulation Axes' 6 7 4 5
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13
  • Doesn't work for me on Ubuntu 16.04; running the first of the proposed evdev commands gives me "property 'Evdev Wheel Emulation' doesn't exist, you need to specify its type and format"
    – Mark Amery
    Feb 3, 2018 at 17:36
  • @markAmery I'm using Ubuntu 16.04 too. Probably you are using libinput. List device properties. Don't forget upvote if it help you.
    – Pablo Bianchi
    Feb 3, 2018 at 18:17
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    This is the best answer and should be accepted.
    – jtolds
    Mar 10, 2018 at 19:00
  • evdev worked like a charm. Just to note my mouse device was numbered 10 not 11.
    – piepi
    Mar 12, 2018 at 11:45
  • @piepi I edit my answer to be more clear, 11 was just in my case. Don't forget to upvote if you found it useful.
    – Pablo Bianchi
    Mar 12, 2018 at 18:09
5

TLDR:

Use this flag on Chrome/Chromium/Electron or anything Chromium-based

--enable-blink-features=MiddleClickAutoscroll

Make sure to close all Chrome instances before running this.

To make this permanent, you can edit the .desktop file and add this flag in the end of the Exec= line (Browsers typically have many Exec= lines for right click actions, the main one is under [Desktop Entry] but you might want to change them all).

For Chrome, the desktop file can be found in this path:
/usr/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop

Explanation:

The code for disabling middle mouse autoscroll on Linux/Mac is here. This basically says if it's running on Windows, enable this blink Runtime Enabled Feature.

According to the Chromium wiki you can use --{enable,disable}-blink-features to enable or disable blink Runtime Enabled Features.

As found here the feature is called MiddleClickAutoscroll so that would be --enable-blink-features=MiddleClickAutoscroll.

The only caviar is this warning message which appears when you use this flag. Other than that it works perfectly on Chrome/-ium, Chromium-based browsers (like Brave) and Electron apps (Discord, Slack, etc).

Notes:

  1. I only tested this on Linux but it might as well work on Mac the same way.
  2. Using the enable-features and blink-enable-features flags is neither recommended nor supported by Chrome/Chromium or whatever you are using. This is why the warning message is displayed, these options are intended for testing use only. If you encounter any bugs after enabling this flag, make sure to disable it before sending a bug report.
  3. It seems there is a reason this is disabled by default (on Linux at least). If you are using Xorg (x11) and you try to use autoscroll while a textbox is selected, it will paste the last selected text to it. A way to fix this is to "disable" the selection clipboard.
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  • 1
    Please note that for --enable-blink-features=MiddleClickAutoscroll to work you need to close all Chrome instances first. If you are trying this in a new window while you keep this one opened to also try the other answers, it won't work. CLOSE ALL CHROME INSTANCES BEFORE RUNNING THIS!. Also worth noting the chrome's executable file can be found at /opt/google/chrome/chrome in Ubuntu, so you would run /opt/google/chrome/chrome --enable-blink-features=MiddleClickAutoscroll
    – Adrian
    Mar 25 at 18:24
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    The path of the Chrome's desktop file is /usr/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop
    – Adrian
    Mar 25 at 18:41
3

I recommend another couple of addons, that allows "Scroll a page as if a scrollbar is under your mouse." I found that give us more control over the scroll move.

With both addons you just click and hold secondary button pressed to scroll pages moving the mouse up and down and even horizontally.

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1
  • Extensions named as "Scrollbar Anywhere" is working better then "AutoScroll", because it doesn't blocking mouseDown js-event on website'spages if it needn't.
    – faiwer
    Jan 20, 2017 at 8:58
-1

I have Ubuntu 14.04 and mouse wheel stopped working on one of my Chrome instances. I followed the tip here and it works great. When I go into the page about::flags, the "Smooth Scrolling" option was enabled. I disabled it and it works.

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