11

EDIT: recently I bought another trackball (ProtoArc EM03) and had to do this configuration again. So I thought in writing a detailed guide on how to configure any pointing device in Ubuntu based distros that organized the information in this question better. So I did I and as this post is viewed a lot by people trying to configure their pointing devices I thought in sharing it here. You can access it in this link: https://www.reddit.com/r/Trackballs/comments/1fp7upa/how_to_configure_any_pointing_device_on_ubuntu/

---Original question below---

I just got a Kensigton Slimblade Trackball and I'm trying to configure it. I'm adapting it from my old Logitech Marble configuration.

I want the configuration to be:

  • Left-Bottom: Left click
  • Left-Top: Backward
  • Right-Top: Right click and ball scroll lock
  • Right-Bottom: Middle click

The configuration I could set until now is:

  • Left-Bottom: Left click
  • Left-Top: Middle click
  • Right-Top: Right click and ball scroll lock
  • Right-Bottom: Backward

This is my configuration script:

xinput set-int-prop "Kensington Kensington Slimblade Trackball" "Evdev Middle Button Emulation" 8 1 xinput set-button-map "Kensington Kensington Slimblade Trackball" 1 2 8 4 5 6 7 xinput set-int-prop "Kensington Kensington Slimblade Trackball" "Evdev Wheel Emulation" 8 1 xinput set-int-prop "Kensington Kensington Slimblade Trackball" "Evdev Wheel Emulation Button" 8 8 xinput set-int-prop "Kensington Kensington Slimblade Trackball" "Evdev Wheel Emulation Axes" 8 6 7 4 5 xinput set-int-prop "Kensington Kensington Slimblade Trackball" "Evdev Wheel Emulation Timeout" 16 300

Before running this script, xev reports button numbers as:

Left-Bottom: 1, Left-Top: 2, Right-Top: 8, Right-Botom: 3

After running this script:

Left-Bottom: 1, Left-Top: 2, Right-Top: 8, Right-Botom: 8

So AFAIK, xinput set-button-map changes button order. In this page, I learned that the 2nd value corresponds to the middle mouse button, and the 8th to the Thumb1 (normally related to backward function). So I thought I should just use number 3 as the 2nd element and 2 as the 8th element like this:

xinput set-button-map "Kensington Kensington Slimblade Trackball" 1 3 8 4 5 6 7 2

but now the top-left button has right-click function and left-bottom is disabled. xev now reports

Left-Bottom: 1, Left-Top: 3, Right-Top: 2, Right-Botom: 8.

Anyone knows how I set the configuration as I intend ? I'm using Ubuntu 16.04. Thanks.

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3 Answers 3

Reset to default
8

A few minutes after I post the question I found the answer. Here goes in case anyone needs it (configuration for Mint 18/Ubuntu 16.04):

xinput set-int-prop "Kensington Kensington Slimblade Trackball" "Evdev Middle Button Emulation" 8 0 7 8 9 xinput set-button-map "Kensington Kensington Slimblade Trackball" 1 8 2 4 5 6 7 3 2 xinput set-int-prop "Kensington Kensington Slimblade Trackball" "Evdev Wheel Emulation" 8 1 xinput set-int-prop "Kensington Kensington Slimblade Trackball" "Evdev Wheel Emulation Button" 8 8 xinput set-int-prop "Kensington Kensington Slimblade Trackball" "Evdev Wheel Emulation Axes" 8 6 7 4 5 xinput set-int-prop "Kensington Kensington Slimblade Trackball" "Evdev Wheel Emulation Timeout" 16 300

Edit

After upgrading for Mint 19 (at home) and Ubuntu 18.04 (at office) I found the configuration above doesn't work. 18.04 uses a different library for these kind of devices (libinput) and even if I reinstalled Evdev some options don't work. After a painful search I found the solution. Create a a file with .conf extension in /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/ folder. In my case I named it 10-slimblade.conf. Put this configuration inside the file:

Section "InputClass" Identifier "Kensington Kensington Slimblade Trackball" MatchProduct "Kensington Kensington Slimblade Trackball" MatchIsPointer "on" MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*" Driver "libinput" Option "ButtonMapping" "1 8 2 4 5 6 7 3 2" Option "ScrollButton" "8" Option "ScrollMethod" "button" Option "MiddleEmulation" "on" EndSection

Restart session, and that's it.

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4

Thanks so much! Just to add on a bit, I was able to find that these are how the buttons are on the trackball:

--------- | 2 | 8 | --------- | 1 | 3 | ---------

And this is the order they are in the ButtonMapping string:

LeftClick MiddleClick RightClick ScrollUp ScrollDown ScrollLeft ScrollRight Back Forward

So, for me, I just wanted right and left on the bottom row, with back top left and middle top right:

Section "InputClass" Identifier "Kensington Kensington Slimblade Trackball" MatchProduct "Kensington Kensington Slimblade Trackball" MatchIsPointer "on" MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*" Driver "libinput" Option "ButtonMapping" "1 8 3 4 5 6 7 2 9" Option "ScrollButton" "8" Option "ScrollMethod" "button" EndSection

The documentation here is non-existent, so this is what I could piece together by running xev -event mouse.

Here is a map from button ID to its function:

Button Function
1 left click
2 middle click
3 right click
4 scroll up
5 scroll down
6 scroll left
7 scroll right
8 back
9 forward
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0

Beautiful, thanks guys! :) Had to modify slightly to make it work for me, though. Since on my system (Ubuntu 18.04) xinput reports the trackball like this:

$ xinput list | grep Kensington ⎜ ↳ Kensington Slimblade Trackball id=14 [slave pointer (2)]

I had to modify MatchProduct from your examples above to make that work for me. Also I slimmed it down a tiny bit. On my end it looks like this and that worked for me:

Section "InputClass" Identifier "My Kensington Slimblade Trackball" MatchProduct "Kensington Slimblade Trackball" Option "ButtonMapping" "1 8 3 4 5 6 7 2 9" Option "ScrollButton" "8" Option "ScrollMethod" "button" EndSection
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1
  • In "make it work" it's not clear what "it" refers to. Maybe improve than answer. And you don't have to add "thanks"; upvote instead. Commented Jan 8, 2022 at 23:53

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