Xubuntu 9.10: Quasi-functional Kensington Trackball Configuration

As mentioned there, Ubuntu prohibits having two mice with different handedness. Xubuntu enumerates the various mice and allows you to set their handedness separately.

This file swaps the upper two buttons.

The scroll ring operates intermittently. I no longer believe it’s a hardware problem, as I have two Kensington trackballs and both behave the same way. I’m guessing the evdev driver has trouble with button pushes from two devices, but that’s just a guess. Sometimes it works perfectly for hours on end, other times it jams up first thing in the morning. Restarting X helps, which indicates the hole isn’t in the trackball’s end of the boat.

Here’s my /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/20thirdparty/10-expertmouse.fdi file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<deviceinfo version="0.2">
 <device>
 <match key="input.product" string="Kensington      Kensington Expert Mouse">
 <append key="input.x11_options.ButtonMapping" type="string">3 8 1 4 5 6 7 2</merge>
 </match>
 </device>
</deviceinfo>

[Update: made the code block cut-and-paste-able. Sorry ’bout that…]