I have a Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 6000. The extra back and forward buttons on the mouse work in Firefox, but nowhere else in the system or in any other application.
I was told I needed to install xbindkeys and xautomation and to configure them to get the extra buttons working. I can’t seem to find any information… how do I do this?
For some reason xorg.conf always shows up empty when I try to edit it as root. Grrr…
Disregard the previous post. Editing it just broke stuff. Now the extra buttons don’t work at all, and pressing both the left and right buttons at the same time acts as… copy and paste. O.o
I’m sorry I can’t be much help to you. I just use a cheapo basic mouse, it’s all I need and I tend to avoid anything that is ‘Microsoft’.
Did you follow the links at the bottom of the page I quoted earlier. May be they will lead to something.
I’m still reading through it but it’s really darn confusing.
Not to mention, even after reverting changes to xorg.conf, clicking both left and right buttons simultaneously or clicking the middle button (scroll wheel) still acts as copy and paste. How do I fix this? 
EDIT: I ran this in the terminal: xmodmap -e “pointer = 1 2 3 8 9 4 5 6 7 10 11”
Shockingly, it got the extra buttons working. HOWEVER, now the scrolling doesn’t work! WTH.
Editing xorg.conf is generally troublesome, especially in an active X session. I generally make a backup before I ever edit it. FYI: Since installing 11.1 I haven’t edited mine once yet. Sometimes, if you have not altered default settings for gedit or kwrite or kate, you will find a back up created automatically, but it’s only any use to you if you have only edited the xorg file just this once on this occasion. I would open the file and choose save as xorg_backup
Logout and back in, may bring things back
While the media keys work in 11.2, the extra buttons on the mouse still do not. >:(
I would be unbelievably grateful if some person could lend me a hand here. While 11.2 is incredible so far IMO, this is so frustrating.
[FAQ] Getting Mouse Side Buttons to work in Linux - Overclock.net - Overclocking.net](http://www.overclock.net/linux-unix/193927-faq-getting-mouse-side-buttons-work.html)
Might be of help, at least I remember having that imwheel application doing something useful.
Have to say it’s quite impressive that both the Gnome and KDE devs all seem to be using the cheapest of the cheapest $5 mice. As the $15 ones come with thumb buttons.
Only 3 applications that I’ve found to use them by default are Firefox, Chrome and SMPlayer. (Somehow they’re all among my favorite applications as well!)
If I recall, wasn’t xorg.conf ditched? The file doesn’t even exist in my install of 11.2. Would creating the file even work?
I dont think so, I too have side buttons on my mouse that are used for back/forward but they only seem to work with firefox.
Not a big deal in my mind though, I can use traditional point and click.
Oh heavens no! That’s like having a TV but no remote! lol!
But in all seriousness, I’d really like to have the side buttons working.
I had not thought about it, because mine MS Lasermouse 5000 just works. It even works in Nautilus. If I boot to KDE, it doesn’t work. I always had to jumpt through hoops to get it to work in KDE, but Gnome set up all the buttons perfectly. The only problem I have is the wheel is way too sensitive, but I should be able to fix that somewhere. Still finding my way around Gnome.
Strange, I remember using regular Ubuntu and Nautilus was able to use the side buttons… but it still wasn’t system-wide. The only applications I had that could use them were Neutilus and Firefox.
AFAIU, configuring input devices is now done by way of fdi files, located in usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/10osvendor/ directory (or similar).
Anyway, typing
hwinfo --mouse
should return useful data, including the name of your mouse(s)
The ‘xinput’ utility may be helpful with dynamic adjustments. (Refer ‘man xinput’ or ‘xinput --help’ for more details).
Maybe we can learn a bit about this from our Ubuntu friends:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Config/Input
Similar problem outlined here.