The 3 Button Serial Mouse mini-HOWTO

• Index
• Disclaimer
• Introduction
• Serial Ports
• Switched Mice
• Normal Mice
• Switching a Mouse to 3-Button Mode
• Wheeled mice
• Using gpm to Switch Mouse Modes
• Using two mice
• XF86Config and Xconfig file examples
• Cables, extensions and adaptors
• Miscellaneous Problems and Setups
• Models Tested
• Further Information
• Mouse Tail

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2. Introduction

The most recent version of this document can always be found at http://kipper.york.ac.uk/mouse.html

There is a Japanese translation at http://jf.gee.kyoto-u.ac.jp/JF/JF-ftp/euc/3-Button-Mouse.euc; and a French one at http://www.freenix.fr/linux/HOWTO/mini/3-Button-Mouse.html. Other translations may be available - check your local LDP mirrors.

Most X applications are written with the assumption that the user will be working with a 3 button mouse. Serial mice are commonly used on computers and are cheap to buy. Many of these mice have 3 buttons and claim to use the Microsoft protocol, which in theory means they are ideal for the X windows setup. (The record for the cheapest working 3 button mouse currently stands at $1.14!)

Most dual-protocol mice will work in two modes:

• 2-button Microsoft mode.
• 3-button MouseSystems mode.

This document leads you through the different steps needed to configure your mouse in these two different modes, especially the steps needed to use the more useful 3-button mode.

As distributions become easier to set up, some of the problems ought to go away. For instance, RedHat have a mouseconfig program to set things up for you. However, some versions of RH5.0 had a bug in mouseconfig, so make sure you check for patches.

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