Logitech MX518 & Hardy Heron

May192008

Currently, I’m using Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) as my 2′nd OS. It had been a while that I stick with Ubuntu since my first venture with it on the 5.04 release. And by far, I can say that each releases, promise an enhancement (be it major or not). My previous Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) had been solid for me even up to the point that I feel kinda reluctant to upgrade it (but I do it anyway). When the Hardy is up, not facing any major problem but when I’m browsing the net (using Firefox 3 beta), it seems my Logitech MX518 can’t work properly; I can’t use my back & forward button. At first I thought it was the upgrade causing my Xorg configuration been reverted to the default one, but when I checked it, no…nothing changed; all my previous settings still intact in it.

So, is it the Firefox the true culprit? It’s possible since it’s a beta build, but somehow I don’t think so. I’m doing my own researching and after a while I found out that many other users that face the same problem already found out the solution. I initially assumes there will be a little ’sudo-ing’ here and there but again, I’m wrong; the solution just simply removing/deleting/commenting a couple of lines in the xorg config. Below is my original counterpart config of the mouse section:

Section “InputDevice”
Identifier “Configured Mouse”
Driver “mouse”
Option “CorePointer”
Option “Device” “/dev/input/mice”
Option “Protocol” “ExplorerPS/2″
Option “ZAxisMapping” “4 5″
Option “Emulate3Buttons” “true”
Option “ZAxisMapping” “4 5″
Option “ButtonMapping” “1 2 3 6 7 4 5 6″
EndSection

And below is the line that need to be remove; it’s a line to indicate mapping of the buttons. Do the changes, log off, login back, and voila…works like a charm.

Section “InputDevice”
Identifier “Configured Mouse”
Driver “mouse”
Option “CorePointer”
Option “Device” “/dev/input/mice”
Option “Protocol” “ExplorerPS/2″
#Option “ZAxisMapping” “4 5″
Option “Emulate3Buttons” “true”
#Option “ZAxisMapping” “4 5″
#Option “ButtonMapping” “1 2 3 6 7 4 5 6″
EndSection

My 2 Cents
At first I thought it was a bug. Is it really a bug? But when it’s actually doesn’t need a config to work, can it be called as a bug? Why anybody doesn’t mention that on this release it doesn’t need a config to work? Or something like “it will not work if you had it configured” type of warning or announcement ? Nevertheless, glad it works again…although I’m also kinda like it to work on the other screen/windows/apps (not just browser), but not with the needs to tinker some files or some add on. Hey, they already did that with the browser and why not expand it a little further?