Mouse buttons

This article describes how to configure a mouse with more than 3 buttons.

Related articles

Prerequisite testing mouse input in X

This page assumes you are using Xorg (X Window System) and not Wayland.

You will first want to check what X sees from your mouse. X events can be displayed by the xev utility. A window will pop up by running

$ xev -event button | grep button

Any xevents (like moving, resizing, or clicking in) that window will then be reported to the console you launched xev from. Since you are filtering for lines which contain "button" it will show mouse click and release events with their relevant button numbers. For most mice, this will be '1' for left button, '2' for middle, '3' for right. Other buttons will vary (e.g. for an Logitech MX Master 3 the scroll wheel is 4 & 5, thumb wheel is 6 & 7, the thumb-tip button is 9, and the inner-thumb button is 8).

Example output:

state 0x0, button 1, same_screen YES
state 0x100, button 1, same_screen YES
state 0x0, button 9, same_screen YES
state 0x0, button 9, same_screen YES

This corresponds to a left mouse click and release followed by a thumb-tip click and release.

You can use xev to confirm your mouse button numbers and to confirm that X is being notified of mouse clicks.

Rebinding mouse and keyboard functions

This section covers details of using various tools to rearrange mouse and keyboard functions.

xte

xte from xautomation comes handy when we want to bind keyboard buttons to mouse.

Here is example ~/.xbindkeysrc which binds Shift_R to mouse button 3 ("right click"):

~/.xbindkeysrc
"xte 'mouseclick 3'"
  Shift_R

xvkbd and xbindkeys

Let us say we want to bind some mouse buttons to keyboard ones. The problem we will encounter is that we do not know how to emulate a key press. Here comes in handy . We can use it along with . 

$ xbindkeys --defaults >> ~/.xbindkeysrc
$ xbindkeys

To restart xbindkeys type:

$ pkill -f xbindkeys
$ xbindkeys

Here is example config:

"xvkbd  -text "\[F8]""
       m:0x0 + b:8
"xvkbd  -text "\[Shift]\[Left]""
       m:0x0 + b:9
"xvkbd  -text "\[Shift]\[Right]""
       m:0x0 + b:10
"xvkbd  -text 2"
       m:0x0 + b:11
"xvkbd  -text 3"
       m:0x0 + b:12

If you want to check your mouse buttons number use xev. Do not forget to type capital letters in xvkbd -text usage and to escape opening bracket with \ or you get simply [Shift] written.

Here is an example for xbindkeys to enable x selection paste(third click pasting), you need both xsel and xvkbd installed, What it does it executes that command whenever button 13 of the mouse is pressed (in ~/.xbindkeysrc) :

"xvkbd -no-jump-pointer -text "\D1$(xsel)" 2>/dev/null"
b:13

This is an example for a keybinding for Meta+M:

"xvkbd  -text "\{+Super_L}m\{-Super_L}""
b:10

evrouter

Some programs, especially games, use different methods of reading input, so another program is needed: evrouterAUR.

For the command to be able to read the input devices, it will have to be run in the group (or as root). This can be achieved by adding yourself to that group:

# gpasswd -a user input

Now we can use the option to display what the button to be changed is called:

Now press the buttons that you wish to change:

Window "(null)": # Window title
# Window "(null)": # Resource name
# Window "(null)": # Class name
"Microsoft Trackball Explorer®" "/dev/input/event1" none key/275 "fill this in!"

Window "(null)": # Window title
# Window "(null)": # Resource name
# Window "(null)": # Class name
"Microsoft Trackball Explorer®" "/dev/input/event1" none key/276 "fill this in!"

The line that ends with "fill this in!" can be copied into the configuration file which by default is . For example, using the X11 key event emulator built into evrouter:

The 'event1' was changed to 'event*' in case udev gives it a different device number at boot. The 'none' was changed to 'any' so that the rule works even if any modifier keys are pressed when the button is pressed. To determine the key codes (in brackets) you can use

# xmodmap -pk

See for a full explanation of the fields.

Tip: Rules can apply only to specific windows, see evrouter(1) for details.

After setting up the configuration file, run it as a daemon:

$ evrouter /dev/input/event*

To stop the daemon:

$ evrouter -q
$ rm -f /tmp/.evrouter*

User tools

This section outlines hardware-specific tools which are useful for configuring mouse settings, and in particular their buttons. For the generic remap tools, see Input remap utilities.

  • for Logitech MX mice will help you set the proper resolution, enable or disable smart scroll (with boot time support too!), etc. Be sure to look at and set up the the options you want to be automatically applied when the mouse gets loaded by udev.
  • is a tool for configuring Logitech mouses (Logitech Options for Linux). It may remap buttons to actions, support gestures, smart shift and so on.

evdev Xorg.conf setup

This section explains setting up mice with more than 3 buttons using . There are other ways to achieve this, but some of the notes and tools described here may be useful for people with other needs. Some parts may help getting extra mouse buttons working using other drivers as well.

We will be using the evdev driver for Xorg. EVentDEVice is an advanced driver for USB input devices which offers much greater power over the standard Xorg driver. It is also more "direct" than the driver, allowing lower latency and less translation issues.

  • Note that is both a kernel module and an Xorg input driver. All the Arch kernels come with the module.

With the Xorg 11R7.0 or newer, only the following changes to need to be made.

Finding the mouse name
Note: To get accurate information it is sometimes required to execute this command from a boot where no Xorg or mouse drivers have been loaded.

The first step is to find the name of the mouse / mice. To do this, execute the following command:

$ grep -E "Name|Handlers" /proc/bus/input/devices | grep -E -B1 'Handlers.*mouse'

This should output something like this:

N: Name="Logitech USB Gaming Mouse"
H: Handlers=mouse0 event0 ts0

Or this if you have more than one mouse:

N: Name="Kensington Kensington Expert Mouse Wireless"
H: Handlers=event0 mouse0 
--
N: Name="Logitech USB Receiver"
H: Handlers=kbd event2 mouse1

The mouse is the one that has the , so the name of the device is Logitech USB Gaming Mouse.

Copy the name of the device, and open up .

Configuring Xorg

Now, we need an entry in that tells X how to use this mouse. It should look something like this:

Section "InputDevice"
  Identifier      "Evdev Mouse"
  Driver          "evdev"
  Option          "Name" "Logitech USB Gaming Mouse"
  Option          "evBits"  "+1-2"
  Option          "keyBits" "~272-287"
  Option          "relBits" "~0-2 ~6 ~8"
  Option          "Pass"    "3"
  Option          "CorePointer"
EndSection

Replace the option with the name you copied from above. You may also omit the option if you use multiple mice or experience errors when attempting to load Xorg. The other options are all basic mouse configurations for evdev and should work with most mice.

Next, we need to tell X to use the mouse, so look in for .

Modify the section to use "Evdev Mouse" as the device. When you are done, it should look something like this:

Section "ServerLayout"
  Identifier     "Default Layout"
  Screen 0       "Monitor0" 0 0
  InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
  InputDevice    "Evdev Mouse" "CorePointer"
EndSection

The only thing you should change in the layout is the line that refers to your mouse.

That should be all that is required.

  • Edit by: xxsashixx

This is for Logitech G5 Mouse users. I have not tested this for other mice, but if you do not add this, your mouse MAY not work. If you do not need to add this, then do not.

Put 

Option "Device" "/dev/input/event[#]"

in the InputDevice section or else the mouse will not be picked up.

[#] = The number you got from:

grep -E "Name|Handlers" /proc/bus/input/devices
  • Edit by: bapman

With the above method, your mouse might not to work after reboot (event number changes). To fix this, you can use symlinks in . For example:

Option      "Device" "/dev/input/by-id/usb-Logitech_USB_Receiver-event-mouse"

To find the appropriate id, do:

ls /dev/input/by-id/
  • Edit by: Diamir

With a Desktop type keyboard-mouse, this does not work because there is only one USB attachment and contains only the keyboard. In this case, we can create a udev rule to get a consistent link. The following rules create the link which points on the correct event entry:

KERNEL=="event[0-9]*", BUS=="usb", SYSFS{modalias}=="usb:v045Ep008Ad7373dc00dsc00dp00ic03isc00ip00", SYMLINK+="input/usbmouse"

You can call it and put it in

The cryptic value to use for can be gotten in the following way:

enter the command

You will find the keyboard and the mouse and see event4 is the mouse in this case: 

I: Bus=0003 Vendor=045e Product=008a Version=0111
N: Name="Microsoft Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop� 1.00"
P: Phys=usb-0000:00:10.0-2/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:10.0/usb1/1-2/1-2:1.0/input/input3
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd event0 
B: EV=120013
B: KEY=1000000000007 ff800000000007ff febeffdff3cfffff fffffffffffffffe
B: MSC=10
B: LED=107
I: Bus=0003 Vendor=045e Product=008a Version=0111
N: Name="Microsoft Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop� 1.00"
P: Phys=usb-0000:00:10.0-2/input1
S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:10.0/usb1/1-2/1-2:1.1/input/input4
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd mouse0 event1 
B: EV=17
B: KEY=3000000000000 0 1f0000 f8400244000 601878d800d448 1e000000000000 0
B: REL=7c3
B: MSC=10

So I enter the following command (adapt event # to your particular case):

grab the ATTRS which becomes with usb: to complete "SYSFS{modalias}== " entry

And finally, use as the Device Option in :

Option "Device" "/dev/input/usbmouse"

Google Chrome

It works. Horizontal scroll works out of the box - push the scroll wheel left or right. Thumb buttons also work as next/previous page.

Opera

It works. Note: buttons can be mapped to functions easily in . For example, to bind button 8 to back:

  1. Navigate to mouse set-up and expand the Application drop-down
  2. In the input column, type: Button 8
  3. In the actions column, type: Back
Horizontal scroll

To get back and forward enabled, instead of scroll left/right, change the following settings in about:config:

mousewheel.default.action.override_x         2
mousewheel.default.delta_multiplier_x       -100

Thumb buttons - forward and back

To do this we need to map keystrokes to the desired mouse buttons and install and .

In most modern applications which use back/forward features, XF86Back is mapped to back and XF86Forward is mapped to forward by default. On most MX mice the thumb buttons resolve to 8 & 9. If your mouse is different, check button numbers using xev and replace the numbers used in the example (b:8 & b:9).

So if you have an MX mouse you would create the file ~/.xbindkeysrc, containing:

# Mouse Buttons
"xvkbd -xsendevent -text "\[XF86Back]""
m:0x0 + b:8 
"xvkbd -xsendevent -text "\[XF86Forward]""
m:0x0 + b:9

Now to test... Run the following command and if it works as expected remember to add xbindkeys to or somewhere where it will be executed each time X starts. Also, this should work with Epiphany and Konqueror without any additional configuration or use of IMWheel.

xbindkeys

Since xvkbd is not available from the official repositories here is another example using xte from the xautomation package

# Mouse Buttons
"xte "key XF86Back""
m:0x0 + b:8
"xte "key XF86Forward""
m:0x0 + b:9

xmodmap tweaking
Note: None of the below is necessary with evdev, but it is here for non-evdev users. Unless something does not work on your mouse, ignore this whole section.

It may prove to be more comfortable for some to change the ordering of button codes, as the case may be for left-handed people. Depending on the environment you use, the button codes can be configured in two different ways. If you use to load X, then add this to (change for the number of buttons you have):

 xmodmap -e "pointer = 1 2 3 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 4 5" &

Note that buttons 4 and 5 must go on the end or else your scroll wheel will not work.

If you use GDM/SDDM/XDM instead of , then create the file and add this to it (change for the number of buttons you have):

 pointer = 1 2 3 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 4 5
  • GDM/SDDM/XDM read the file if it is present, whereas does not. Another solution would be to add this to your : . This would allow you to use *DM and while only having to edit when you need to make changes.

You may have to play with these numbers a bit to get your desired behavior. Some mice use buttons 6 and 7 for the scroll wheel, in which case those buttons would have to be the last numbers. Keep playing with it until it works!

xinput tweaking

For debugging purposes can be used as it is able to change the button map on the fly in userspace. The following line corrects the button mapping (there have been reported cases with Logitech M505/B605 mice and possibly others) so the received events are mapped correctly:

 $ xinput set-button-map "$(xinput | awk -F'[=]' '/Logitech M505\/B605/ {print $2}' | awk '{print $1}')" 1 2 3 4 5 8 9

Device-specific configuration

Logitech G600

It is known that in xorg-server 1.18.0-3 side buttons of G600 are not recognized as a separate keyboard device, but another mouse which causes strange (moving mouse cursor to an edge of screen when one of main mouse buttons are clicked) behavior. To force xorg to recognize them as a keyboard buttons, add following section to your :

Section "InputClass"
    Identifier "G600 misconfiguration fix"
    MatchProduct "G600"
    # Match just the keyboard section of the G600
    MatchIsKeyboard "true"
    # evdev assumes it is a mouse when it sees the absolute axis. Stop that from happening. 
    Option "IgnoreAbsoluteAxes" "on"  
EndSection

Mad Catz Mouse

Mad Catz Mouse

Logitech M560/M545/M546

These mice are designed for Windows 8 and have non-conventional behavior: the mouse appears as a mouse and keyboard and some buttons do not emit the standard mouse button event but a combination of keyboard and mouse button presses instead. This prevents "comfortable" use of this mouse under Linux.

The appropriate driver allows the mouse to be used like an ordinary mouse:

See also Xbindkeys for mouse button mapping.

Logitech G5 mouse: Binding + and -

If you want to bind the buttons + and in G5/7 mouse, which normally changes DPI, you have to use released by a lomoco author.

wget http://piie.net/temp/g5_hiddev.c
gcc -o g5hack g5_hiddev.c
./g5hack /dev/usb/hiddev0 3

This will change your DPI to 2000, light the 1st LED and disables DPI on-the-fly changing, so you can use it with evrouter. If you would use it frequently I suggest you to copy it to the directory:

# cp g5hack /usr/bin/

If you want to bind your + and buttons you must copy the line at the bottom (one with the comment '"-" button does not function anymore' above) to the mode you will be using, like, for example, under the "case 3:" you can put it on the line with the comment 'turn on third led' above (deleting the old one before of course).

For the newest G5 mouse which is reported as "product 0xc049" original hack does not work. You have to simply change the to #define MOUSE_G5 0xc049 and recompile.

You can execute the g5hack tool at system start up using systemd unit. See Systemd#Writing unit files for detail.

If Arch is a guest virtual machine

If you want to support more than two or three mouse buttons, the capability will depend on your hypervisor software.

VMware workstation

For your Arch-based guest VM, add the below lines to its .vmx configuration file:

mouse.vusb.enable = "TRUE"
mouse.vusb.useBasicMouse = "FALSE"
gollark: So it does actually work now.
gollark: I like it and it was really easy to serde it.
gollark: So my highly advanced service manager is now even more highly advanced and can load service-spec TOML files.
gollark: ```rustuse std::process::Command;fn main() { loop { println!("Starting"); let mut child = Command::new("/bin/env") .arg("python3") .arg("test.py") .spawn() .unwrap(); child.wait().unwrap(); }}```
gollark: Okay, done, it has no error handling whatsoever.
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