[sf-lug] btnx -- Utility to configure multi-button pointing devices...

[RBV]

Hi:

At today's SF-LUG meeting I described the use of btnx to configure multi-button pointing devices.  Some fellow attendees found this so interesting that I thought I'd share the information with the mailing list.

For a start, here's an overview of btnx: http://www.linux.com/feature/126295

As described on that page, btnx comes in two parts: the btnx daemon that does the behind-the-scenes work of managing mouse button events, and the btnx-config tool, a graphical front end that helps you configure mouse button actions.

More to the point, btnx provides a GUI-based way to identify a given pointing device's buttons, assign those buttons names (e.g., "Big Left", "Scroll", whatever you choose), assign those named buttons any of a very long list of custom functions, and finally save the entire setup as a named configuration.  It's a *wonderful* alternative to experimentally hand-editing xorg.conf to configure your mouse, trackball, or what-have-you...

That page also includes a link to the btnx home page: http://www.ollisalonen.com/btnx/

NOTE that I wasn't able to get the third-party .deb packages available from the site to work on Ubuntu Feisty, so I used the btnx Web site's installation instructions to download btnx's source and installation scripts and used them to install.

One little glitch then occurred because the btnx installation script didn't create the /etc/btnx/ directory and copy btnx's extensive mouse-buttons' events file into that directory. So I did that part manually, paying attention to root ownership of the directories and files, and everything started working beautifully...

Cheers & hope this helps,
Riley
x5633