How to enable natural scrolling with mouse in 17.04?

Question

previously worked

echo "pointer = 1 2 3 5 4 7 6 8 9 10 11 12" > ~/.Xmodmap && xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap 

didn't work

Answer 1

In my case, there was no need to remove any package. The only line which was missing in /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/40-libinput.conf was:

Option "NaturalScrolling" "on"

so the whole section looked as the following:

  Section "InputClass"
          Identifier "libinput pointer catchall"
          MatchIsPointer "on"
          MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
          Option "NaturalScrolling" "on"
          Driver "libinput"
  EndSection

After restart of X session my mouse worked correctly.

Answer 2

For me, the solution was to leave xserver-xorg-input-libinput installed, and instead remove xserver-xorg-input-synaptics, then reboot. It seems as if the upgrade installed both and was choosing synaptic by default, which doesn't seem to have a natural scrolling option.

(I'm running Ubuntu Gnome 17.04 on a Dell XPS 15 9530, btw)

Answer 3

I just upgraded from Ubuntu 16.10 to 17.04 and several things are broken, including natural mouse scrolling. note - I have a regular mouse (Evoluent) on a desktop, not a trackpad. I previously used this solution for Ubuntu 16: Reverse two finger scroll direction (natural scrolling)?, but this did NOT work in Ubuntu 17. Here is what worked for me in Ubuntu 17.04:

first, delete xserver-xorg-input-libinput package:

sudo apt remove xserver-xorg-input-libinput

then create file /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-natural-scrolling-mouses.conf with this content:

Section "InputClass"
    Identifier "Natural Scrolling Mouses"
    MatchIsPointer "on"
    MatchIsTouchpad "off"
    MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
    Option "VertScrollDelta" "-1"
    Option "HorizScrollDelta" "-1"
    Option "DialDelta" "-1"
EndSection

then restart your computer.

Answer 4

The xinput command can be used to change this also. Put it in your .profile so it's executed on every startup. Here's what I put in mine:

#
# Set natural scrolling with apple mouse
# for usage information, type xinput by itself.  Other useful commands are
# xinput list-props 10   -- to find out settable property numbers (275)
# xinput list            -- to find out that 10 is the device ID of the mouse
#
xinput set-prop 10 275 -1 1 1

Answer 5

In Ubuntu 18 the xinput properties for Kensington Trackball changed. Now to reverse the scroll ring direction you can use:

xinput set-prop 'Primax Kensington Eagle Trackball' 303 1

Answer 6

Not entirely sure this will translate from Ubuntu 16.04(LTS) to 17.04 and beyond, but it's a different solution than any of the other suggestions. It seems worth mentioning:

Use dconf editor

Find the setting: org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.mouse and check the box for "natural-scroll". The default is unchecked (false).

Not all options provided in dconf schemas are exposed in the UI. My guess is an attempt to keep the UI simple, which is IMO a worthy endeavor.

NOTE: It's unclear to me how dconf will interact with a previously configured xinput. Is dconf twiddling the same xinput settings? Is dconf an actual layer on top of xinput such that if you changed the setting in both places it would be effectively undone? It only matters if you forget and try both things...

Answer 7

In newer versions of Ubuntu (Ubuntu 21.04, for instance), you can change this setting like this:

1. Open "Settings"
2. Navigate to "Mouse & Touchpad" in the left sidebar
3. Enable "Natural Scrolling"