Microsoft Tilt Wheel Mice in X

tad · Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2004 7:15 am Post subject: Microsoft Tilt Wheel Mice in X

UPDATE: xorg-x11-6.7.0-r2 has evdev patched in by default, so step 4 may be unnecessary for some users.

I just got my Microsoft tilt wheel mouse (Cordless Optical Mouse 2.0) to
work in Xorg! Here's how:

1) The HID-input device driver doesn't have the capability to register the side-to-side tilt, so you'll have to apply the patch listed on this LinuxQuestions thread. The author says it applies to 2.6.6 kernels, but it patched fine in 2.6.7 for me.

2) Before you recompile your kernel, make sure evdev is either built-in or compiled separately as a loadable module. It's under Device Drivers --> Input Device Support --> Event interface.

3) Recompile and reinstall your newly patched kernel, then reboot. If everything's working, pressing the tilt wheel left/right during a

_puck_ · Posted: Sat Nov 20, 2004 7:42 pm Post subject:

Hello tad.

I was very happy to find your posting and went to the next store, to buy the mouse, I wanted to have since Feburar this year.

Unfortunatly I can't get it to work.

I tried various combinations. In xev I never ever get respones for the tilt wheel. So all the other buttons work just fine. Do you have any suggestions for me. If I cat the event-device I get some output, when pressing the tilt wheel.

binaural · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 02 Dec 2004 Posts: 138

tough spot, puck. i've got the mouse but i'm scared to try all that shit above. there must be a cleaner way...

_puck_ · Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2005 11:36 pm Post subject:

As I can say, the only way is over the event interface, where you can also make ALL your extra buttons from keyboards make working.

In theory, if your kernel has xev support, you only need to modify your xorg.conf to Point to that device.

In praxis I did not manage to get it working ... when I have some spare time, I will check for it again.
_________________
regards
puck
___________________________
#There is more than one way to do it.

kenyon · Posted: Mon May 30, 2005 3:21 am Post subject:

OK, I just got one of these mice today (the Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse 2.0) and got it working. By "working" I mean that vertical scrolling works, and the horizontal tilt is recognized as buttons 6 and 7, so Firefox goes back and forward using the tilt wheel. This took a lot of searching and trial and error.

Firstly, I didn't need to do all the patching as instructed in the first post in this thread. I'm using kernel 2.6.11-cko5-ck7, and it has the evdev option without patching. So I configured evdev as a module, did a make modules_install, and modprobe evdev. I didn't need to patch xorg-x11 either. I'm using xorg-x11-6.8.2-r1.

You also don't need to cat the different eventX devices to figure out which one is your mouse. Just cat /proc/bus/input/devices and look at the Handlers line for your mouse. It says which event it is. See mine for example:

tad · Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2005 11:20 pm Post subject:

Yeah, I started the topic before 2.6 had the tiltwheel functions fixed and X had evdev patched in by default. All that is needed now is a recent kernel and X.org install and the evdev driver listed in xorg.conf. Have fun, tiltwheelers!

rcxAsh · Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 1:48 am Post subject:

Hey! That's great! I'm trying to get it working.

However, I'm using a PS/2 connection, so the Phys setting is different for me.

The thing now.. my up and down scrolling is what triggers back and forth in Firefox. What happened? Is there a way that I can tell that the horizontal buttons are working? When I cat /dev/input/event1, I can _sometimes_ see things being printed when I rock left and right. Emphasis on the sometimes. It doesn't always seem to register. Up down, click, etc registers stuff immediately.

The vertical scrolling now scrolls horizontally in my FirstClass client though!

Umm. lol. Now I need the vertical scrolling to go vertical. Horizontal doesn't do anything there yet.

I'm just using the current stable Gentoo kernel sources.

Thanks for all your searching though! This is great

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rcxAsh

rcxAsh · Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 10:40 pm Post subject:

Yay! Disregard my last post! It seems that you should use USB for your mouse instead of PS/2. So I relocated my USB Bluetooth adapter to my USB hub and moved my mouse to the USB port.

It works great now! Horizontal scrolling in FireFox! Thank you so much! BTW, just in case it may not be clear to people, you should not copy kenyon's settings verbatim unless you have the same mouse as him.

It wasn't obvious to me at first, so just in case anyone is as slow as me, note that you should set the Dev Phys setting to that which you see when you cat /proc/bus/input/devices.

Also, one thing that you may want to note is that different mice may need different ZAxisMapping settings. When I copied kenyon's settings, I had my up and down scroll wheel scrolling left and right.. and my left and right scrolling up and down. Just rearrange the the 4, 5, 6 and 7 until you get it working for you.

Anyways. Thank you sooo much kenyon! I really appreciate all your hard work for us!
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rcxAsh

gaminggeek · Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 11:08 pm Post subject:

Awsome I have been looking for this one thing will this patch work on a 2.6.11 kernel?

rcxAsh · Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 11:55 pm Post subject:

gaminggeek · Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2005 6:14 am Post subject:

ok I got it working (YAY!) now how do I change forefox that is sidescrolls rater than chages page as mentioned above?

rcxAsh · Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2005 1:37 pm Post subject:

gaminggeek · Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2005 6:12 am Post subject:

ok now I have got it to work the only problem now is the fact that the tilt wheel is inverted....

rcxAsh · Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2005 6:18 am Post subject:

AwoL · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 11 Feb 2005 Posts: 110

How exactly do you configure Firefox's mouse wheel attributes using about:config? I don't even know what about:config is. Could anyone offer some assistance?

Thank you.

rcxAsh · Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2005 5:22 pm Post subject:

AwoL · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 11 Feb 2005 Posts: 110

Thanks, that did the trick.

DeathAndTaxes · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 27 Mar 2003 Posts: 124

I used this post to get my 9-buttoned Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer 4.0, model 1004 with that "3d" mouse-wheel-rocker thingie up and running. Everything I have gotten working so far can be found here. Not just trying to whore my own website, but I don't want to have to edit and retype all that stuff for you guys. ;-)

metalhedd · Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 6:47 pm Post subject:

I have awireless MS Intellimouse Explorer 2.0 with the tilt wheel. I've tried so many different suggestions but have been unable to get it working. I followed this one and in the end X Would die complaining about not having a core pointer device. the only place my setup varies from the one in this post is the phys dev. I have the mouse plugged in the USB port but when I cat /proc/bus/input/devices I get this:

DeathAndTaxes · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 27 Mar 2003 Posts: 124

metalhedd · Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 6:28 pm Post subject:

there is a PS/2 Keyboard plugged in, which also shows up in the output of /proc/bus/input/devices no other mouse though. I will try to get my wired USB Mouse working as you suggested and then come back.

bobpaul · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 09 Aug 2005 Posts: 148

Most of my trouble was I couldn't figure out how to get imwheel etc working. I got the buttons recognized in X (and thus in games, which you can't do with left and right scroll tap in windows!) but I couldn't get it to scroll left and right.

This wiki page helped out a lot. Got it working today, just pulled the " Alt| " out of their example .imwheelrc configs

Glasswalker · n00b Joined: 31 Mar 2003 Posts: 38 Location: NY

Hate to drag this post up again but.. I have a Wireless Intellimouse Explorer 2.0 and following kenyon's instructions i got the tilt wheel functions all working but now the side buttons don't work at all.. they don't even cause events in xev. i'd like to know how to get them working again if possible and how i can allocate them to forward/back in firefox since i'm used to that from winblows (recently converted linux user)

DeathAndTaxes · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 27 Mar 2003 Posts: 124

Glasswalker · n00b Joined: 31 Mar 2003 Posts: 38 Location: NY

thanks but i gave up.. not sure your solution would've worked since those buttons weren't causing events to be sent... i bought a much simpler trackball with 2 buttons + normal wheel.