ImExPS/2 Generic Explorer Mouse / Trackballs in 13.1

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Since 11.1, this device identifier has been usable to set the buttons for our trackballs; unfortunately, in 13.1 it seems to have changed. Tried to run xorg -configure to generate a configuration that could be tweaked, but it borked X and forced a reinstall.

The log shows a three button mouse with scroll wheel being detected:

180.419] (II) Using input driver ‘evdev’ for ‘Generic USB K/B’
180.419] () Generic USB K/B: always reports core events
180.419] () evdev: Generic USB K/B: Device: “/dev/input/event1”
180.419] (–) evdev: Generic USB K/B: Vendor 0x13ba Product 0x17
180.419] (–) evdev: Generic USB K/B: Found 3 mouse buttons
180.419] (–) evdev: Generic USB K/B: Found scroll wheel(s)
180.419] (–) evdev: Generic USB K/B: Found relative axes
180.419] (–) evdev: Generic USB K/B: Found x and y relative axes
180.419] (–) evdev: Generic USB K/B: Found keys
180.419] (II) evdev: Generic USB K/B: Configuring as mouse
180.419] (II) evdev: Generic USB K/B: Configuring as keyboard
180.419] (II) evdev: Generic USB K/B: Adding scrollwheel support
180.419] () evdev: Generic USB K/B: YAxisMapping: buttons 4 and 5
180.419] () evdev: Generic USB K/B: EmulateWheelButton: 4, EmulateWheelInertia: 10, EmulateWheelTimeout: 200
180.419] (**) Option “config_info” “udev:/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:12.0/usb5/5-1/5-1:1.1/input/input1/event1”
180.419] (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device “Generic USB K/B” (type: KEYBOARD, id 9)

But none of this functionality is working, … so the question is, how does one properly configure a trackball in 13.1?

TIA!

Lee
2

Much has changed with the X-server since openSUSE 11.1. Have you investigated/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-evdev.conf?

I’m not familiar with your trackball hardware , but this archlinuxpage shows how a Marble Mouse can be configured using this Xorg configuration file. Maybe that will be of help.

3

Use the following to get a list of detected input devices

xinput --list

From this you can get a list of attributes reported for a particular device eg for device id=10

xinput --list-props 10
4

From this you can get a list of attributes reported for a particular device eg for device id=10

xinput --list-props 10

Figured out it was device 9:
$ xinput --list-props 9

$ xinput --list-props 9
Device 'Generic USB K/B':
    Device Enabled (133):    1
    Coordinate Transformation Matrix (135):    1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
    Device Accel Profile (256):    0
    Device Accel Constant Deceleration (257):    1.000000
    Device Accel Adaptive Deceleration (258):    1.000000
    Device Accel Velocity Scaling (259):    10.000000
    Device Product ID (251):    5050, 23
    Device Node (252):    "/dev/input/event1"
    Evdev Axis Inversion (260):    0, 0
    Evdev Axes Swap (262):    0
    Axis Labels (263):    "Rel X" (143), "Rel Y" (144), "Rel Vert Wheel" (255)
    Button Labels (264):    "Button Left" (136), "Button Middle" (137), "Button Right" (138), "Button Wheel Up" (139), "Button Wheel Down" (140), "Button Horiz Wheel Left" (141), "Button Horiz Wheel Right" (142)
    Evdev Middle Button Emulation (265):    0
    Evdev Middle Button Timeout (266):    50
    Evdev Third Button Emulation (267):    0
    Evdev Third Button Emulation Timeout (268):    1000
    Evdev Third Button Emulation Button (269):    3
    Evdev Third Button Emulation Threshold (270):    20
    Evdev Wheel Emulation (271):    0
    Evdev Wheel Emulation Axes (272):    0, 0, 4, 5
    Evdev Wheel Emulation Inertia (273):    10
    Evdev Wheel Emulation Timeout (274):    200
    Evdev Wheel Emulation Button (275):    4
    Evdev Drag Lock Buttons (276):    0

So, setting the input buttons worked with:


$ xinput set-button-map 9 2 1 3

Any pointers on how to get the scroll wheel working? Thanks!

5

evdev seems to have miscellaneous devices, … however, after scanning the archlinux page, it is more obfuscated as to how the device (in this case ‘Generic USB K/B’) can be reconfigured to operate properly.

Any pointers would be appreciated!

6

I can only offer general advice, as I don’t own this hardware, and have never had to configure mouse/trackball hardware. I’m assuming that you’ll need to enable ‘Evdev Wheel Emulation’, and set related parameters as discussed here

https://ask.fedoraproject.org/en/question/10608/enable-mousewheel-emulation/

You will have to experiment with the settings to suit your hardware.

The ‘xinput’ commands correspond to evdev driver options that can be added to a custom Xorg configuration file eg /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/30-trackball.conf

http://www.x.org/archive/X11R7.5/doc/man/man4/evdev.4.html

Here’s an example configuration file (change the identifier to match your hardware)

http://superuser.com/questions/374504/configure-a-trackball-under-linux-without-editing-xorg-conf

Hope this helps.