Configuring mouse buttons [Solved]

[rodgoslin]

This might be simple, but I'm not finding it so. Quite some time back, my centre mouse button (scroll wheel), at a click, would, I so assume, add whatever (text) was highlighted to the buffer. At an unspecified time, this option disappeared. It was a minor inconvenience, there were other ways of copying data. However, this action seems to impinge on the family tree application (Ftree) that I use. Here, it's more important. The manual indicates that clicking the centre button will select any name, under the cursor, as the active entry. It can still be done, either by the 'find' option, which in my case involves scrolling up and down over a thousand entries, fortunately alphabetically arranged, or stepping up, down or across the tree to get from the current active individual to the new one. I'm only guessing that the two are connected, but the function I describe used to work, and now it does not. System Settings seemed to be the obvious choice to select mouse button options, but 'Input Devices/mouse only has options for L/R hand, or single/double click action. I've seen the options, somewhere. But where?

[doktor5000]

Copying text via middle mouse button is core X functionality, that's the regular X clipboard. Can you post your /etc/X11/xorg.conf and contents of any files in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d please?
Also the output as regular user from

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xinput list
xinput get-button-map <id of your mouse here from xinput list>

Also please mentioned what mouse make/model you use.

[rodgoslin]

Contents of /etc/X11/xorg.conf as follows:-

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[rod@down ~]$ more /etc/X11/xorg.conf
# File generated by XFdrake (rev 262502)

# **********************************************************************
# Refer to the xorg.conf man page for details about the format of
# this file.
# **********************************************************************

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option "DontZap" "False" # disable <Ctrl><Alt><BS> (server abort)
    AllowMouseOpenFail # allows the server to start up even if the mouse does not work
    #DontZoom # disable <Ctrl><Alt><KP_+>/<KP_-> (resolution switching)
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load "v4l" # Video for Linux
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier "monitor1"
    VendorName "Plug'n Play"
   
    # TV fullscreen mode or DVD fullscreen output.
    # 768x576 @ 79 Hz, 50 kHz hsync
    ModeLine "768x576"     50.00  768  832  846 1000   576  590  595  630
   
    # 768x576 @ 100 Hz, 61.6 kHz hsync
    ModeLine "768x576"     63.07  768  800  960 1024   576  578  590  616
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "device1"
    VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce 420 series and later"
    Driver "nouveau"
    Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "screen1"                                                                                             
    Device "device1"
    Monitor "monitor1"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier "layout1"
    Screen "screen1"
EndSection
[rod@down ~]$


/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d holds only one file 00-keyboard.conf, contents as :-

[rod@down xorg.conf.d]$ more 00-keyboard.conf
# Read and parsed by systemd-localed. It's probably wise not to edit this file
# manually too freely.
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "system-keyboard"
MatchIsKeyboard "on"
Option "XkbLayout" "gb"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbOptions" "compose:rwin"
EndSection
[rod@down xorg.conf.d]$

xinput list returns :-

[rod@down xorg.conf.d]$ xinput list
bash: xinput: command not found
[rod@down xorg.conf.d]$

Mouse make and model :- Logitech M210, which in all normal aspect functions correctly

[doktor5000]

[rod@down xorg.conf.d]$ xinput list
bash: xinput: command not found

You may need to install xinput package and then try again.

[rodgoslin]

xinput installed. Results now :-

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[rod@down ~]$ xinput list
⎡ Virtual core pointer                          id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Logitech USB Receiver                     id=9    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                         id=3    [master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard               id=5    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                              id=6    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                              id=7    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Logitech USB Receiver                     id=8    [slave  keyboard (3)]
[rod@down ~]$ xinput get-button-map 9
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
[rod@down ~]$


[doktor5000]

Ahh so you have one with a unifying receiver ...
What happens if you select a different mouse type via drakmouse - http://doc.mageia.org/mcc/5/en/content/mousedrake.html ?
Keep in mind that you would need to restart the X server after selecting a different type - logout and login to desktop environment should be sufficient for that.

Also please provide information whether you have some kind of clipboard manager running, e.g. klipper, parcellite or similar. What desktop environment do you use ?

[rodgoslin]

Changing the mouse type using drakmouse does not work, or, at least has no effect. Changing from the current 'Universal>Any ps2 & USB mouse', to, say 'USB>wheel', and clicking OK. On going back into Drakmouse, the option is still with Universal>Any ps2..etc. Any action leaves the selected (Current) option still in effect. logging out and back in again, too, had no effect on the default setting. As to clipbpoard managers, I did find, to my surprise that Klipper was open. This is odd, since such things, like Klipper, I avoid, like the plague, as unneeded, and would never have opted for it knowingly. The desktop environment, is KDE, and presumably the issue that Mga5 installed with.

[doktor5000]

Klipper also offers an option to sync with the primary clipboard, which is the X clipboard. You could try enabling or disabling that.

Otherwise, if you manually write something to the X clipboard, and paste via middle mouse, does that work? E.g. install xclip,
and then as regular user pipe something to the X clipboard.

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echo test | xclip

After that, press middle mouse. Does it paste "test" ?

[rodgoslin]

Installed xclip
Executed command 'echo test | xclip'
'click' middle mouse button elicits no response.

I'm assuming the xclip writes "test" to the clipboard, but this does not appear to be the case. If I have something in the clipboard, eg "hello world", this in not replaced, and a 'paste' command (Right click>paste) or Ctl +shift+v, will print "hello world" to the screen and not "test"

[rodgoslin]

I thin that I've sorted out this problem. Or at least found a solution that works. I've replaced the old mouse with a spare, a Logitech M505, and this works in all aspects. The centre button (wheel), when depressed, deposits highlighted text at the cursor, in a shell. And more importantly if Ftree (A family history database), depressing the centre button brings any item under the cursor into the active mode. The keyboard still works, on it's own from the 'dongle. Rather a pity, in some respects, the old mouse had a nice fit in the hand. I'll signify this matter as 'Solved', in the usual way. It's well worth noting that this combination of mouse/keyboard does not wok in all aspects in Mageia