There are some GUI-based tools worth mentioning, Piper which does not work at all, and EasyStroke Gesture Recognition which is very useful creating mouse gestures with custom actions. Please note that you can customize the buttons to any shortcut you require, like taking a screenshot, lock the screen, switch to different keyboard layout, run commands (Alt + F2), or switch applications.Īlso, you may consider using xte tool itself instead of xdotool to configure your shortcuts, or even another tool called xvkbd xte keys (man xte) Killall xbindkeys xbindkeys -f ~/.xbindkeysrc # Show Gnome overview 'xdotool key super' b:8 # Mouse Button #9 Then let’s open the configuration file and add our new shortcuts which will basically simulate keyboard buttons. Now, after getting the button codes we need to configure their actions, and we can do that with: xbindkeys and xdotool.īut first we need to run xbindkeys with the default configurations: Now let’s find the key-codes for the extra buttons we need to configure, here we will use: xev.īy clicking on the Event Tester window, You can get the mouse key-codes but using clicking on them. $ sudo pacman -Syu xbindkeys xorg-xev xdotool The “xev” program is small utility for Xorg that retrieve the mouse and keyboard events. Xdottool is a lightweight system utility which simulates or fake keyboard and mouse inputs. Xbindkeys is a tiny wrapper for Xorg’s xev that reports key-codes. Now let’s start oo customize the extra mouse buttons, In the begging we need to install 3 programs:

AmazonBasics Ergonomic Wireless PC Mouse.Here in this tutorial, I will explain how to configure extra mouse buttons to lunch my activity screen and display gnome application launcher.īut first, let’s review some mice with extra buttons that you can customize: While in macOS it’s easy through an application to customize the back and forward buttons to switch applications and open the Launchpad, In Linux, it requires digging deep and finding the right tools to do the job. Logitech M570 Wireless Trackball mouse (src: Logitech) I have been using Logitech M570 Wireless Trackball mouse for the last few years, on my MacBook Pro and my Linux machines. However, sometimes it’s difficult to find the answer or an easy pathway, as required customization becomes specific. In Linux, you are in full control when it comes to customization. When you have extra tools or let’s say extra buttons you will think about customizing their action.

Logitech m570 driver for ubuntu