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pauljohn32
Asked: 2016-09-07 19:12:18 +0800 CST

configure mouse buttons in xfce4

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In Ubuntu 16.04, I use XFCE4 on a Dell Precision 5510 laptop. How to configure mouse+keyboard settings?

I want to change the Alt+middle mouse button behavior, which currently sends the clicked-on window to the bottom of the stack. I'd like to change this in both an external mouse but especially in the touchpad. I'd like to know how to alter all key+mouse combinations, but if I could only alter that one, I'd be a happy guy.

I have found 3 sets of configurations that affect the window manager, but none allow me to edit the mouse button/key modifier combinations. In the Settings panel, I see

  1. Window Manger
  2. Keyboard
  3. Settings Editor

There's a very nice summary of XFCE settings for keyboard here https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=212982 It has pointers to the configurators I mentioned. In the past, I've found ways to fiddle these settings in KDE, Compiz, and Gnome. But the XFCE4 is more difficult.

I'm using libinput as a device & touchpad driver. It seems to me I have a window manager / desktop configuration question, not a libinput problem here, but if you tell me otherwise, I'll believe you.

shortcut-keys

1 Answers

  1. I asked same question in the XFCE4 support forum. https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?pid=43174#p43174

    The answer is that the Alt-Middle click behavior (pushes window to bottom of stack) is hard coded in the xfwm4 source code. Only way to change it is to recompile xfwm4. Helpful person pointed at src file events.c line 928 for revision. I found easy to build new package and now have xfwm4 behaving the way I want!

    In case you have not tried this for yourself, the process is much more straightforward than one might expect. It seems quite a bit better than it was just 18 months ago. In brief, get the source for the package, fiddle the source code, try to rebuild, let it make a patch, then build again.

    $ sudo apt-get build-dep xfwm4
$ mkdir -p tmp/xfmw4
$ cd tmp/xfwm4
$ apt-get source xfwm4   
$ cd xfwm4-4.12.3/src
$ vi events.c

    In that file I made a correction that amounted to this patchfile. 

    +++ xfwm4-4.12.3/src/events.c
@@ -925,7 +925,8 @@ handleButtonPress (DisplayInfo *display_
         }
         else if ((ev->button == Button2) && (state) && (state == screen_info->params->easy_click))
         {
-            clientLower (c, None);
+            /* clientLower (c, None); */
+            button1Action (c, ev);
         }
         else if ((ev->button == Button3) && (state) && (state == screen_info->params->easy_click))
         {

    This causes the Alt-Middle and Alt-Left behaviors to be the same. I fiddle those lines in the source, then run

    $ dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot

    In new version of this program, there is a very handy feature. The builder notices you edited the file and it makes a patch for you and puts the patch in the debian directory, under patches. Read the output, it will be obvious what to do.

    $ dpkg-source commit

    Before running the builder again, edit the changelog to update the version. The easiest way is to use the helper named "dch"

    $ dch

    Opens a dialogue where you need to make sure you are incrementing the package name, so that when you install the new xfwm4 you will build, it gets a new number.

    Then run the builder again

    $ dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot

    If all goes well, then the new packages will be in the directory above.

    $ cd ..
$ sudo dpkg -i xfwm4_4.12.3-1ubuntu4_amd64.deb 
$ xfwm4 --replace &

    You'll see the effect of the change right away.

    If you've never rebuild a Debian/Ubuntu package, you might as well download the source and give it a try. This is one of the most satisfying parts of being a Linux user.

    This change in xfwm4 helps me quite a lot because this touchpad is, well, very difficult to use. Without looking down at the touchpad, I find it impossible to know for sure where the left button area ends and the middle button begins. My right thumb does not always reach far enough to find the left button. By making the left and middle button alt-click behaviors the same, I reduce the error rate quite a bit.

    In caveman talk, I'd say to Dell: "trackpad bad! buttons good!". I know I'm out of style here.

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