Thursday, March 24, 2011

Configuring Lenovo TrackPoint Mouse Wheel Emulation Scrolling in Ubuntu

I have a Lenovo X120e and have grown accustomed to using the once-loathed TrackPoint (also known as the nubbin, the navigation nipple, the eraserhead, and others) for scrolling through Web pages, windows, etc. as I would with a mousewheel. Here is how you would do it in Ubuntu (in this case 11.04 Natty Narwhal, but it should apply to anything Maverick or later:

Open up a terminal and type:
gpointing-device-settings
UPDATE (8/13/11): The package isn't installed by default in 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot, so you'll have to install it first, either through Synaptic package manager or by typing
sudo apt-get install gpointing-device-settings
Select the TrackPoint device from the pane on the left. Mine is called "TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint." In the middle of the window, you'll see a checkbox labeled "Use wheel emulation." Check the box, along with the ones labeled "Enable vertical scroll" and "Enable horizontal scroll" as you see fit.
You'll also need to select your scroll button from the pull-down menu. In my case, it was button 2, but YMMV.

While you're here, you can also switch to the TrackPad options and disable your trackpad, if that's what you're into.
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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousMarch 31, 2011 at 7:01 PM

    Nice tip. Keep them coming!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Monsieur MaxApril 4, 2011 at 12:49 PM

    Hi,

    did you, by any chance, find a way to make the settings permanent ?

    Thanks for any tip ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hunter K.April 4, 2011 at 2:12 PM

    Hi Monsieur Max, I didn't have to do anything to make it permanent. It just stuck. I'll look around and see if I can find anything that would cause it to forget the settings, though, and update the post if I find anything.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousMay 3, 2011 at 7:02 PM

    Thanks a ton! You really helped out an Ubuntu noob.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousOctober 31, 2011 at 8:31 AM

    For me, Oneiric (11.10) comes up with trackpoint scrolling enabled, even if I have disabled it via gpointing-device-settings. Since this interferes with middle clicking, I have to toggle the checkbox back on and off to disable it. Perhaps this is why things "just stuck" for you?

    ReplyDelete