Pointing device - scrolling by buttons

[A. Kromic]

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...

-- 
A.Kromic
-
No trees were harmed in the sending of this message;
however, a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.


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