Linux mouse pointer settings

[halifax]

We were talking about this in a prior thread, and I wrote a small Perl script to automate using xinput+xset directly on any connected mice:

https://github.com/Vangamar/LinuxMouseSettings/blob/master/setLinuxMouse.pl

It's been working pretty good for me after some tweaks, so I made a small github place for it.

I'd be interested if it works well for others on other distros, or if there's glaring errors in how I handle the mouse. The main issue I have with the default mouse settings GUI in most distros I've tried is they have no or too little of a deceleration profile (extra precision when moving the pointer slowly), just an acceleration component.

[The Muppet Surgery Special]

What does it do again?

This is to basically configure a mouse on Linux?

[halifax]

Originally posted by The Muppet Surgery Special:

What does it do again?

This is to basically configure a mouse on Linux?

An example run would be something like:

desktop@steamos:~/linux_mouse_settings$ ./set_linux_mouse5.pl 
⎡ Virtual core pointer                    	id=2	[master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer              	id=4	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Valve Software Steam Controller         	id=10	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Lite-On Technology Corp. Wireless Device	id=8	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Lite-On Technology Corp. Wireless Device	id=9	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                   	id=3	[master keyboard (2)]
Select Mouse String Identifier:
  ---> 1: 'Lite-On Technology Corp. Wireless Device'
  ---> 2: 'Valve Software Steam Controller'
  ---> 3: 'Virtual core XTEST pointer'
   ---> 1: Lite-On Technology Corp. Wireless Device
Select Mouse Acceleration+Sensitivity profile:
  ---> 1: High Sensitivity (3.5, 4, 2)
  ---> 2: Medium Sensitivity (3.0, 4, 1)
  ---> 3: Acceleration Off (1.0, 1, 1)
   ---> 2: Medium Sensitivity (3.0, 4, 1)
Running xinput+xset settings for mouse: ID='8' with parameters: 3.0, 4, 1
Running xinput+xset settings for mouse: ID='9' with parameters: 3.0, 4, 1
desktop@steamos:~/linux_mouse_settings$ 

It uses text based menus to automate calling xinput and xset directly, let's you "can" presets, and runs your settings against both numerical mouse IDs that xinput finds, because I've found it's hard to tell which ID xinput commands take effect on.

You have to really be a stickler for acceleration precision and handling. If you are, you may notice most Debian based distros lack a good enough deceleration adjustment (extra precision when moving the pointer slowly).

You can get around this by setting your mouse DPI lower than normal and setting the acceleration slider a little higher, but it's not a good solution overall - especially since the Linux kernel mouse drivers do include a proper handling of mouse deceleration parameters - which this script exploits.

[The Muppet Surgery Special]

So... any UI that doesn't resemble a MUD game or text adventure comming soon?

Why not directly integrate with the control settings on Linux desktops?

[halifax]

I love my bash shell terminals and true command line driven UNIX like scripts+programs, but who doesn't also like GUIs? Especially Linux GTK+ etc. GUIs that leave out the bloatware ridiculousness and just keep the no nonsense best utility? :-)

I was looking at Glade and gtk2-perl, but there is a disconnect in the Debian repositories right now between those two packages. Summed up in a bit of rem code I left in another testing file:
# $ sudo apt-get install libgtk2-perl
# $ sudo apt-get install libgtk2-gladexml-perl
# $ sudo apt-get install glade (now at Glade 3.14, doesn't work with Perl gtk2)