How to configure Logitech Marble trackball

Question

You can configure it using xinput.

Answer 1

This is always what I've done. it works a peach for every trackman I've ever used. It's the last, simplest step from the official ubuntu page.

1. Save as ~/trackman.sh:

   #!/usr/bin/env bash
   DEVICE="Logitech USB Trackball"
   xinput set-button-map "${DEVICE}" 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
   xinput set-prop "${DEVICE}" "Evdev Wheel Emulation Button" 8 8
   xinput set-prop "${DEVICE}" "Evdev Wheel Emulation" 8 1
   xinput set-prop "${DEVICE}" "Evdev Wheel Emulation Axes" 8 6 7 4 5
   xinput set-prop "${DEVICE}" "Evdev Wheel Emulation X Axis" 8 6
   xinput set-prop "${DEVICE}" "Evdev Drag Lock Buttons" 8 9
   

2. Run: chmod +x ~/trackman.sh

3. Upon login (or in a startup script), run: bash ~/trackman.sh

Done. This script works better than the ~60mb windows installer.

Answer 2

i've got that configuration and it worked very well until i upgraded to Debian Stretch.... and what's happens ? 'evdev' is not used anymore; because 'libinput' replaced it.

Check the lib used :

xinput list-props "Logitech USB Trackball"

If you find many props starts with 'Evdev', forget my comment, ELSE if it starts with 'libinput', this line could do the thing :

xinput set-prop "Logitech USB Trackball" "libinput Button Scrolling Button" 8

Too, i recommend THIS for confort :

# Enable middle button (on 9) and disable all useless and conflicting buttons and others.
xmodmap -quiet -e "pointer = 1 0 3 4 5 6 7 0 2 0 0 0" 

( And NOT THIS : xmodmap -quiet -e "pointer = 1 0 3 4 5 6 7 8 2 10 11 12" which only says to use middle button (2) instead of Browser Next (9). You need to say to use only scrolling - then nothing - when you click on Browser Prev (8) )

RECAP So, with these modifications, you've got a ball and 4 usable buttons (1-BIG 2-small 3-small 4-BIG) on the trackball.

• A ball -> mouse move + mouse scroll if you press button 2.
• Button 1 -> classic left button
• Button 2 -> Press it to scroll with the ball
• Button 3 -> middle button (usefull to copy selection in linux)
• Button 4 -> classic right button

Answer 3

If your mouse is connected with a PS/2 -> USB adapter, you could try out the command

lsusb

For me it showed, among other things, that there is a

Bus 001 Device 018: ID 04d9:1400 Holtek Semiconductor, Inc. PS/2 keyboard + mouse controller

The first part of the USB identity code (04d9) identifies the manufacturer, and the second the product.

Now you can use that information to discover the identities of devices connected to that adapter by typing

xinput list --long | grep 04d9

What I got was

↳ HID 04d9:1400 id=9 [slave pointer (2)]

↳ HID 04d9:1400 id=8 [slave keyboard (3)]

I have no keyboard attached to the adapter, but there is my old trackball mouse, Logitech TrackMan Marble FX.

So I wanted to know more about the device identified above as id=9, and I used xinput command to get what I wanted:

xinput list-props 9

The first line of the listing was

Device 'HID 04d9:1400':

The listing also shows the properties of the device, and I used those to build commands needed for modifying those properties. What I ended with was two commands:

xinput set-int-prop "pointer:HID 04d9:1400" "Evdev Wheel Emulation Button" 8 3

xinput set-int-prop "pointer:HID 04d9:1400" "Evdev Wheel Emulation" 8 1

The first line turns Button 3 of the TrackMan mouse into a Wheel emulation button. (Button 4 a.k.a. "8" does not seem to work at all). "Pointer" in the commands refers to the mouse and prevents confusing things with "keyboard" that could be attached to the same adapter (not in my system).

Answer 4

The above answers are outdated.

Two settings:

• Acceleration to max. This can be set in gnome config, or via xinput set-prop "Logitech USB Trackball" 328 1.0 or via the equivalent in xorg conf, in general, I use the following /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-libinput.conf

Section "InputClass"
     Identifier "Marble Mouse"
     MatchProduct "Logitech USB Trackball"
     Driver "libinput"
     Option "ScrollMethod" "button"
     Option "ScrollButton" "8"
     Option "AccelSpeed" "1"
     # Option "TransformationMatrix" "2.4 0 0 0 2.4 0 0 0 1"
EndSection

as I also want scrolling with wheel by clicking on the left small button. The commented TransformationMatrix allows to skip pixels and move faster, but I prefer to change the DPI as below instead.

• Set a custom DPI through /etc/udev/hwdb.d/71-mouse-local.hwdb

# Logitech Marble Mouse
#id obtained by: mouse-dpi-tool  /dev/input/event4
mouse:usb:v046dpc408:name:Logitech USB Trackball:
# keep space below
 MOUSE_DPI=100@125

and then udevadm hwdb --update, udevadm control --reload-rules && udevadm trigger and unplug, plug mouse. The DPI of 100 may be too sensitive for some, you could replace by 200@125.

Answer 5

The Logitech_Marblemouse_USB page is quite exhaustive. When my trackball stopped scrolling due to connecting through a USB hub, I fixed the issue as follows on X11 (might not work for Wayland):

1. Open a terminal.

2. Verify X11 is the windowing system by typing:

   echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE 
   

   The output should show x11 (not wayland).

3. List all the devices in the system by typing:

   xinput list
   

   The output will show something similar to:

   ⎡ Virtual core pointer                       id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
   ⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                 id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
   ⎜   ↳ ATEN KVM V1.2.116                          id=10   [slave  pointer  (2)]
   ⎣ Virtual core keyboard                      id=3    [master keyboard (2)]
       ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard                id=5    [slave  keyboard (3)]
       ↳ Power Button                               id=6    [slave  keyboard (3)]
       ↳ Power Button                               id=7    [slave  keyboard (3)]
       ↳ Unicomp Inc Ruffian6_x Kbrd v3_xx          id=8    [slave  keyboard (3)]
       ↳ ATEN KVM V1.2.116                          id=9    [slave  keyboard (3)]
   

   This indicates that the mouse pointer is device id 10.

   Next, let's configure the device properties.

4. List all available properties by typing:

   xinput list-props 10
   

   Note the line:

   libinput Button Scrolling Button (288): 2
   

   This indicates that button 2 operates the scroll feature; however, the following diagram shows that there is no button 2:

   

   My preference is to hold the small right-hand button when scrolling.

5. Configure the small button as follows, where 10 is the device and 9 is the button number:

   xinput set-prop 10 "libinput Button Scrolling Button" 9
   

6. Add that line to $HOME/.xsessionrc so that it activates upon login.

Here is my .xsessionrc:

# Enable click+hold small right mouse button for scrolling trackball.
xinput set-prop 10 "libinput Button Scrolling Button" 9
Disable horizontal trackball scrolling.
xinput set-prop 10 "libinput Horizontal Scroll Enabled" 0
Forward small left click; backward small right click.
xinput set-button-map 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 9 8

This is for a left-handed setup. Change the button numbers to suit your own preferences.

Answer 6

The way you're doing this isn't quite correct. .bashrc is executed when you start bash shell. Unless you're only using it from within a terminal emulator running within an X session, it will give you errors each time you log in or open a new terminal.

You may want to look at the solution I provided here

Answer 7

I tested this in 11.10 and it works very nicely. This selection is from "Ubuntuwiki"

Avoid using Hal for this release because it has known issues. Put the following into terminal, using gedit:

Edit $HOME/bin/trackball.sh using this command:

gedit $HOME/bin/trackball.sh

Then paste this into the file:

#!/bin/bash
dev="Logitech USB Trackball"
we="Evdev Wheel Emulation"
xinput set-int-prop "$dev" "$we Button" 8 8
xinput set-int-prop "$dev" "$we" 8 1

# xinput set-int-prop "$dev" "$we" 8 1
# xinput set-int-prop "$dev" "$we Button" 8 9
# xinput set-int-prop "$dev" "$we X Axis" 8 6 7
# xinput set-int-prop "$dev" "$we Y Axis" 8 4 5
# xinput set-int-prop "$dev" "Drag Lock Buttons" 8 8 

Make sure trackball.sh begins with #!/bin/bash. Make the script executable by running this:

chmod +x $HOME/bin/trackball.sh`

Add the following lines to $HOME/.bashrc, using gedit $HOME/.bashrc and put this in the file even if it is empty:

xmodmap $HOME/.Xmodmap > /dev/null 2>&1
$HOME/bin/trackball.sh

Edit $HOME/.Xmodmap using: gedit $HOME/.Xmodmap

pointer = 1 8 3 4 5 6 7 9

Log out and back in and viola!