I would like to submit to you a new version of the proposed text. This text was containing errors.
The new version is based on what could be found in /usr/share/doc/xserver-xfree86/NEWS.Debian.gz as suggested by Aaron M. Ucko <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (thanks!) in http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=281518 ========================================================================= How do I set up the mouse buttons for left-handed use? Thanks to "ulisses" for suggesting this question for the FAQ, and providing some of the information given. Use one of the following command depending on how many buttons your mouse has. xmodmap -e "pointer = 2 1" (for two-button mice) xmodmap -e "pointer = 3 2 1" (for three-button mice) xmodmap -e "pointer = 3 2 1 4 5" (for three-button + wheel mice) Note that the 4 and 5 buttons represent the wheel up and down actions and thus should not be modified. To have the pointer buttons remapped for all of your X sessions, add the following line to your $HOME/.Xmodmap file (creating the file if necessary): pointer = 2 1 (for two-button mice) pointer = 3 2 1 (for three-button mice) pointer = 3 2 1 4 5 (for three-button + wheel mice) and call xmodmap $HOME/.Xmodmap from your $HOME/.xsession file. Note, however, that the system administrator can configure the X Window System such that users' .xsession files in their $HOME directories are ignored. See the Xsession.options(5) manual page for more information. For more information about xmodmap, see xmodmap(1x). This xmodmap approach for setting a left-handed mouse only works for the XFree86 3.x series. It produces bad behaviors (button confusion) when used for the XFree86 4.x series. If you are running a XFree86 4.x series, you should use the gpm approach. The following information is courtesy of Osamu Aoki. The gpm approach is to feed X with the mouse data coming from gpm, a cut and paste utility and mouse server for virtual consoles. The gpm utility is of interest here because it can be configured to handle left-handed mouse. This approach as the drawback that all the users of the system have to share the same gpm configuration, while with xmodmap every user could have his own .Xmodmap file. To use the gpm approach, two files need to be modified. The provided configuration is for a Logitech three-button + wheel mouse. One can easily adapt this configuration by changing "device", "type" and "Option Protocol" according to the type of the mouse you are using. /etc/gpm.conf ------------- device=/dev/input/mice repeat_type=ms3 type=imps2 append='-B 321' /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 --------------------- Section "InputDevice" Identifier "gpm mouse" Driver "mouse" Option "CorePointer" Option "Device" "/dev/gpmdata" Option "Protocol" "IntelliMouse" Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5" EndSection Note that the mouse driver in XFree86 4.3.0 has been rewritten in such a way that using any protocol other than "IntelliMouse" on the XFree86 side and "ms3" on the GPM side does not work well. If you are using anything other than "ms3" as the repeating protocol, you will likely want to change it to "ms3". If XF86Config-4 file is automatically handled by debconf and uses /dev/gpmdata as the port for the configured mouse, the protocol will automatically be migrated to "IntelliMouse" if necessary. ========================================================================== -- Marc-Aurèle DARCHE <http://www.cynode.org/> AFUL <http://www.aful.org/> Association Francophone des Utilisateurs de Linux/Logiciels Libres French speaking Linux and Libre Software Users' Association
