HOWTO: Microsoft Intellimouse in Linux - Matt's Blog

HOWTO: Microsoft Intellimouse in Linux

I have been attempting to get my USB Microsoft Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer to completely work in Firefox and Nautilus for years now. Here's how I did it (with the help of numerous forum posts which I have lost the links to now). Hopefully this will help someone else out.

 

1. Install imwheel from Synaptic
Make sure Universe is enabled to find this package. (See HOWTO: apt-get)

 

2. Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Change protocol to ExplorerPS/2, define number of buttons as 7, and reorder ZAxisMapping, by making your xorg.conf file like the one below.

Backup first:
 sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.bak
 sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Sample Mouse section from xorg.conf:

Section "InputDevice"
         Identifier  "Configured Mouse"
         Driver      "mouse"
         Option      "CorePointer"
         Option      "Device"        "/dev/input/mice"
         Option      "Protocol"      "ExplorerPS/2"
         Option      "Buttons"       "7"
         Option      "ZAxisMapping"  "6 7"
        EndSection

Your mouse section may be slightly different I am not sure.

 

3. Create file .imwheelrc in /home/username
 gedit /home/username/.imwheelrc
Paste in this code:

".*"
None, Up, Alt_L|Left
 None, Down, Alt_L|Right
 
 "(null)"
 None, Up, Alt_L|Left
 None, Down, Alt_L|Right

 

4. Backup and edit existing file /etc/X11/imwheel/startup.conf
 sudo cp /etc/X11/imwheel/startup.conf /etc/X11/imwheel/startup.conf.bak
 sudo gedit /etc/X11/imwheel/startup.conf

Find this line:
IMWHEEL_START=0

...and replace with:
IMWHEEL_START=1

 


5. This is the final piece in the puzzle:
 sudo gedit /etc/X11/Xsession.d/63xmodmap

and paste in this code:

killall imwheel
xmodmap -e "pointer = 1 2 3 6 7 4 5"
BINARY=$(which imwheel)
$BINARY -k -p -b "6 7"

 

6. Save this file and then change the permissions so that it can be executed:
Code:
 sudo chmod 777 /etc/X11/Xsession.d/63xmodmap

 

7.Restart x server with Control+Alt+Backspace, re-login to X, and the mouse buttons and wheel should be working in Firefox and Nautilus!

Published Tuesday, July 12, 2005 11:27 PM by matt
Filed under: ,

Comments

# re: HOWTO: Microsoft Intellimouse in Linux

Sunday, August 07, 2005 12:58 AM by Borisz
It works perfectly with my MS IntelliMouse Optical 1.1A.
Thanks for this HowTo.

# re: HOWTO: Microsoft Intellimouse in Linux

Wednesday, December 07, 2005 10:42 PM by thehamburgian
hi matt, thanks for the tip. i did all of the above, but ubuntu still does not recognize my ms intellimouse explorer. am i missing something really basic like telling the os that i'm sticking a usb stick in its ear?

a happy newbie,

thehamburgian

# re: HOWTO: Microsoft Intellimouse in Linux

Monday, December 19, 2005 1:54 PM by David
Thanks, Matt - my mouse wheel now works great!

But I still can't use my back and forward mouse buttons :-(

# re: HOWTO: Microsoft Intellimouse in Linux

Tuesday, December 20, 2005 1:05 PM by David
Now I have the mouse buttons working, too. I had to redo all the above for some reason and it worked.

Thanks, again!

# re: HOWTO: Microsoft Intellimouse in Linux

Sunday, May 07, 2006 7:16 PM by guttersnipe
I've been using ubuntu for a few months now and I'm glad I can finally use my IntelliMouse Explorer 2 to its full use.

Thanks so much for the article!

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