[SOLVED] Middle-button scrolling – multiple directions

barto · 2011-07-03 13:10:05

Firefox has a nice feature: Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> General -> Use autoscrolling.
With the middle mouse button hold down, it is possible to scroll oversize contents of a window in any direction.

I would like to have the same functionality in any program, any window. I have learnt xinput and found this in Thinkwiki (and some other sites alike), and found these to be helpful. (I am trying to help a friend of mine with a Thinkpad, but I am experimenting with a mouse. I suppose trackpoint and mouse can be considered analogous in this regard.)

So now I have these commands in an autostart script:

xinput set-prop $device "Evdev Wheel Emulation" 1
xinput set-prop $device "Evdev Wheel Emulation Button" 2
xinput set-prop $device "Evdev Wheel Emulation Axes" 6 7 4 5

where $device is the name/number of the corresponding pointer device from “xinput list”.

So far, so good, it does what needed, except one thing: scrolling works in only the 4 main directions. If the pointer is moved e.g. in the NW direction, the page is scrolled either just upwards or just to the left.

Does anybody have an idea how to “enable” all the other directions, like it works in Firefox?

Thanks in advance.

Last edited by barto (2011-07-09 08:35:17)

triplesquarednine · 2011-07-05 21:59:15

i have no idea, on the all directions thing. but thank you so much for this tip.

i use a stylus, and i had been looking for a solution such as this a few months ago, but obviously didn't look hard enough

i'm going to test this out right now!

barto · 2011-07-07 08:27:10

Oh, I’m glad that at least you found what you needed.
Let us know whether your tests succeeded, maybe we can extend the mouse–trackpoint analogy to stylus too…

triplesquarednine · 2011-07-07 13:49:09

barto wrote:

Oh, I’m glad that at least you found what you needed.
Let us know whether your tests succeeded, maybe we can extend the mouse–trackpoint analogy to stylus too…

i did mess around with this, but in the end - instead, i have reconfigured 'Easystroke' Gesture recogniton software to emulate a mouse wheel/Micorosft Windows middle-button scroll.

basically, my middle-mouse button is for gestures (when i hold it down), if i tap it and then touch/hold the stylus on the pad (first mouse button), then i can drag up or down. (maybe left and right too, but i haven't really checked). there is basically a rule you can set in easystroke called 'ignore', which allows this to ignore my gesture button unless i am holding it down.

it works for me. in the past i had tried this method, but didn't like it- but i think that had more to do with buggy driver / xorg. it's fine now though

triplesquarednine · 2011-07-09 01:07:14

Hey Barto,

easystroke does allow multiple direction scrolling by default. i just thought of it now, and tested it out.

if you don't get your method figured out, you could always test easystroke, with the added bonus of being able to do some gestures (although with a mouse, it's only easy to have basic-gestures - it still might be useful though)

i just thought i should let you know

cheerz

barto · 2011-07-09 08:34:46

Hey, Triplesquarednine, thank you very much!

I gave it a try, and yes, easystroke does wheel emulation the way I was looking for: multiple directions.
(I used this exact tip from its documentation.)
It has a bit much dependency, I would prefer some more resource-friendly solution, but I think we can live with it. I hope also my friend will be satisfied with easystroke.

Anyway, I mark it as solved, thank you again!

triplesquarednine · 2011-07-09 14:18:01

No Problem,

i thought you might find that useful

and yes, easystroke does use some resources, but it is gesture recognition software - so that should be expected, in my thinking anyway. maybe you and your friend can figure out some basic gestures to use to make it more worthwhile to have around, rather than just for middle-scroll.

then, you probably wouldn't be too concerned about the resources being used. I use it heavily on my desktop, so it doesn't bother me...

cheerz

Arch Linux

#1 2011-07-03 13:10:05

[SOLVED] Middle-button scrolling – multiple directions

#2 2011-07-05 21:59:15

Re: [SOLVED] Middle-button scrolling – multiple directions

#3 2011-07-07 08:27:10

Re: [SOLVED] Middle-button scrolling – multiple directions

#4 2011-07-07 13:49:09

Re: [SOLVED] Middle-button scrolling – multiple directions

#5 2011-07-09 01:07:14

Re: [SOLVED] Middle-button scrolling – multiple directions

#6 2011-07-09 08:34:46

Re: [SOLVED] Middle-button scrolling – multiple directions

#7 2011-07-09 14:18:01

Re: [SOLVED] Middle-button scrolling – multiple directions

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