Pointing device - scrolling by buttons

[Ric Moore]

On Wed, 2011-06-01 at 00:31 +0200, A. Kromic wrote: 
> On 05/31/2011 08:56 AM, A. Kromic wrote:
> > I think this should be an easy question to answer, but it puzzles me
> > nevertheless...
> >
> > I have a USB trackball with no scrolling options, but it has two buttons
> > for browsing numbered 8 and  9 (by default used as Forward/Back); I'd
> > like to use those for scrolling instead. In the old days I'd do the same
> > as for enabling the wheel, but with different numbers - add
> > "ZAxisMapping 8 9" (or perhaps "9 8") to the pointer section of the X
> > config file. However nowadays X neither has configfile by default, and I
> > also have trouble identifying the device when I do generate one for this
> > purpose...
> >
> > Since I'm yet to regain the skill of configuring X, I'd appreciate some
> > help for this; thanks in advance.
> >
> Ok, found a solution using xorg.conf. First of all, I had to do it under
> InputClass, not InputDevice section; and the simplest solution is to add:
>         Option "ButtonMapping" "1 2 3 8 9 6 7 5 4"
> 
> so the buttons 8 and 9 exchange the 4 and 5, which are normally defined
> with ZAxisMapping (I actually first tried to override that as I wrote in
> the first post, but it didn't work) - this way I easily got the desired
> behavior. Now, if only existed some option to tweak the scroll rate...
> Supposedly VertScrollDelta option should do it, but it doesn't work.
> 
> I would have also been satisfied if I could define both 8 and 9 buttons
> for EmulateWheelButton (for using the ball for scrolling), but
> unfortunately the option accepts only one button, X accepts that option
> only once, and it seems the ButtonMapping option can't be used to define
> same button twice. Ah well...

There was a very simple text based application that would test your
mouse, and allow you to dink with those settings to come up with the
absolutely correct setup, pressing the various buttons and it would
report what X would see it as. Alas, I forget the name of it. Maybe
someone will recall it? Ric


-- 
My father, Victor Moore (Vic) used to say:
"There are two Great Sins in the world...
..the Sin of Ignorance, and the Sin of Stupidity.
Only the former may be overcome." R.I.P. Dad.
Linux user# 44256