10 button Logitech Trackball "Cordless Optical Trackman" only works as 3 button.

[kubuntuforumsuser]

Hello,

The specs:
Dell Dimension 8300 (with all of its proprietary crap:MB, LAN etc...)
Pentium 4 2.6Ghz
1GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS/XT (Motherboard video not used)
User input devices:
Microsoft Ergonomic 102 keyboard
Logitech Trackball: Cordless Optical Trackman
Operating System:
Kubuntu v7.10 Gutsy Gibson

The Problem:
Logitech's trackball (Model name given above under "User input devices") does not seem to have any Linux drivers or support.

Requested Fix or Solution:
How can I get all 10 buttons of the trackball to be recognized in Kubutnu Gutsy Gibson v7.10, and less importantly how can I get the trackball's battery level to be reported to me?

Previous experiences trying to fix this problem:
I've reviewed and tried the suggested fixes listed in the following documents under Kmenu > Help > Application Manuals > Settings-Modules > Peripherals > Mouse > Table of Contents > Mouse > Logitech Support.
It did give me an extra tab that shows a battery level indicator, but it is grayed out, it does not report any information about the batter level of the trackball, and it does not allow me to select or edit anything.

I've also tried to implement some suggestions from resources that discussed editing Xconfig stuff and checking it via xev to see if the buttons had been mapped correctly, But those resources didn't include any information on how to map any of the buttons. Also those suggestions were for older Feisty and Breezy releases of the Operating System, and the implementation of the suggested fixes caused Gutsy Gibson to load without a GUI and at my level of experience with Linux, a fresh reinstall of Kubuntu off the Live CD was necessary in order to get it working again.

Notes about my Linux and programming skill level:
I'm not very knowledgeable about Linux other than the basics. My intention to develop some interest in learning to write code or scripts will have to wait until I am done with most of my required college courses, and will also likely be influenced by my current experiences with Linux.

Thank you for taking the time to read, or to read and respond to this post.

[Snowhog]

Re: 10 button Logitech Trackball "Cordless Optical Trackman" only works as 3 button.

Logitech trackball (Marble Mouse) on Breezy It 'may' provide some useful insight.

As well as How-to Scrollwheel Effect on Logitech trackball (Marble Mouse)

[kubuntuforumsuser]

Re: 10 button Logitech Trackball "Cordless Optical Trackman" only works as 3 but

Thank you for your quick response. I will need some time to research your suggestions. If I discover a possible solution I will respond with updates on the progress towards fixing or solving this issue. Thanks again for your response. I appreciate the input.

[Snowhog]

Re: 10 button Logitech Trackball "Cordless Optical Trackman" only works as 3 button.

You're more than welcome.

And, welcome to the Kubuntu Forums! 8)

[kubuntuforumsuser]

Re: 10 button Logitech Trackball "Cordless Optical Trackman" only works as 3 but

Ok, here is an Update.

I've located a forum post by IdoMcFly from 2005 that strongly implies he or she got all 10 buttons working on there Logitech trackball (model name: "Cordless Optical Trackman").
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-66608.html

One sad part about IdoMcFly's forum thread is that he or she gives a link, that is now broken, that supposedly helped him or her to get closer to a correct configuration for the trackball.

The saddest part is that no detailed information was given about how they were finally able to solve the problem. IdoMcFly mentions xvkbd - (A virtual (graphical) keboard for X Window system). How this is even remotely relevant to configuring a trackball may have been discussed in the broken link given earlier in IdoMcFly's post. ...this is frustrating but not completely worthless information.

Within IdoMcFly's xorg.conf file are the following two lines:

Option "Dev Name" "Logitech USB Receiver"
Option "Dev Phys" "usb-0000:00:02.0-8/input0"

The questions now become:

• How can I determine the Physical Address of my Logitech USB reciever (that recieves the signals from the wireless Trackball)?
• How do I determine and or change the device name given to my Logitech USB reciever by the OS?
• How is xvkbd relivent to solving this issue?
• If any one knows how to get all 8 buttons (10 if you count the up and down wheel) recognized, could you please post the answer here?

Thank you again for your time and patients in reading and or responding to this post.

[Snowhog]

Re: 10 button Logitech Trackball "Cordless Optical Trackman" only works as 3 button.

Maybe this is the link that ultimately you were looking for: Get all mouse buttons working

[kubuntuforumsuser]

Re: 10 button Logitech Trackball "Cordless Optical Trackman" only works as 3 but

To Snowhog:

Ah yes, I just found that link too. I was about to post it, but you beat me too it.
Thank you for being so expedient in your replies.

I've bookmarked that link and will go over the information provided there. Hopefully it will provide some useful information towards resolving the issue.
If something works or gets me closer to solving the problem I will post an update.

Thanks again.

[kubuntuforumsuser]

Re: 10 button Logitech Trackball "Cordless Optical Trackman" only works as 3 but

Update:

The bash command: "cat /proc/bus/input/devices" is part of what was needed here.
The following mouse related sections were copied and pasted from the file devices:

I: Bus=0017 Vendor=0001 Product=0001 Version=0100
N: Name="Macintosh mouse button emulation"
P: Phys=
S: Sysfs=/class/input/input0
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=mouse0 event0
B: EV=7
B: KEY=70000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
B: REL=3

I: Bus=0003 Vendor=046d Product=c508 Version=0110
N: Name="Logitech USB Receiver"
P: Phys=usb-0000:00:1d.1-2/input0
S: Sysfs=/class/input/input2
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=mouse1 event2
B: EV=20007
B: KEY=ff0000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
B: REL=103
B: LED=ff00

Questions:
Is it a problem that there are 2 sections related to a mouse in the devices file?

[Snowhog]

Re: 10 button Logitech Trackball "Cordless Optical Trackman" only works as 3 button.

I'd say no. One seems to be the mouse emulator while the other is the receiver you referred to.

You may also end up finding the information about evdev(4) - Linux man page useful. Particularly, the section on Relative Axis Configuration

[kubuntuforumsuser]

Re: 10 button Logitech Trackball "Cordless Optical Trackman" only works as 3 but

Update:

I know this is a typical problem, but I'm just not seeing a way around it.
Every time I edit the mouse section of the xorg.conf file it somehow disables the kdm, and I'm forced to restart in repair mode to put xorg.conf back the way it was.

Later on when I have some more spare time, I'll try changing the xorg.conf file one line at a time between each reboot to try and figure out which line is causing the problem. When I figure it out I'll come back to ask about it.

[kubuntuforumsuser]

Re: 10 button Logitech Trackball "Cordless Optical Trackman" only works as 3 but

Update:

If evdev is used in the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file then kdm will not start and it hangs just after the line in the bootup process where you see something like:
"* Loading bootup scripts /etc/rc.login [OK]"

Here is the default working copy of the "InputDevice" section from /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier   "Configured Mouse"
    Driver     "mouse"
    Option     "CorePointer"
    Option     "Device"    "/dev/input/mice"
    Option     "Protocol"   "ImPS/2"
    Option     "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
    Option     "Emulate3Buttons"    "true"
EndSection

Both of the following codebox examples hang or freeze the system during the bootup screen on whatever line comes after something like:
"* Loading bootup scripts /etc/rc.login [OK]"

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier   "Configured Mouse"
    Driver     "evdev"
    Option     "CorePointer"
    Option     "Device"    "/dev/input/mice"
    Option     "Protocol"   "ImPS/2"
    Option     "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
    Option     "Emulate3Buttons"    "true"
EndSection

OR

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier   "Configured Mouse"
    Driver     "mouse"
    Option     "CorePointer"
    Option     "Device"    "/dev/input/mice"
    Option     "Protocol"   "evdev"
    Option     "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
    Option     "Emulate3Buttons"    "true"
EndSection

Note: If this happens to you while you are trying to configure xorg.conf, don't panic and reinstall Kubuntu. It's not necessary. There are at least 2 options for solving the problem without having to reinstall the OS: (The following options assume you have logged in to your root account via the recovery mode option in GRUB or some other boot loader.)
Option 1:
At the command prompt, either restore your backed up copy of xorg.conf by typing:

cd /etc/X11
cp xorg.conf.backup xorg.conf

Where "xorg.conf.backup" is the name you gave to your backup copy of the original xorg.conf file.
OR
Option 2:
Use pine, or pico to edit your xorg.conf file to a configuration that you know should work. You do this at the command prompt with the following:

cd /etc/X11
pico xorg.config

Pico, and Pine are a little difficult to use at first because they have limited editing features compared to Emacs, Kate, and Kwrite, etc...
Its been a while since I've used Pine, but in Pico, if you want to save the changes you've made after editing the file, you have to exit via "CTRL+X" it will then ask if you want to save the changes before exiting.

Questions:
Why is evdev causing this problem for me and it seems to be working for others?
I've read the man pages for evdev, and xorg.conf, and I can't seem to find an entry in either of those man pages for the use of [Option "Protocol" "protocolname"] as listed in the above code examples. Any suggestions or idea's on which man page or help file might have the information I'm looking for might help me to get a step closer to solving this problem.

Thanks.

[Snowhog]

Re: 10 button Logitech Trackball "Cordless Optical Trackman" only works as 3 button.

I believe you overlooked part of the instructions for modifying the xorg.conf file. Your modified section looks like this:

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "evdev"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection

and you say this crashes. Yeah, if what I think the cause is, is true. You need to try this:

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "evdev"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/event0"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection

where event0 is replaced by the corresponding event# for the mouse in:

cat /proc/bus/input/devices

[kubuntuforumsuser]

Re: 10 button Logitech Trackball "Cordless Optical Trackman" only works as 3 but

So... if I have the following 2 mouse sections listed from cat /proc/bus/input/devices:

I: Bus=0017 Vendor=0001 Product=0001 Version=0100
N: Name="Macintosh mouse button emulation"
P: Phys=
S: Sysfs=/class/input/input0
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=mouse0 event0
B: EV=7
B: KEY=70000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
B: REL=3

I: Bus=0003 Vendor=046d Product=c508 Version=0110
N: Name="Logitech USB Receiver"
P: Phys=usb-0000:00:1d.1-2/input0
S: Sysfs=/class/input/input2
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=mouse1 event2
B: EV=20007
B: KEY=ff0000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
B: REL=103
B: LED=ff00

Questions:
Is the event number for the mouse taken from the first section, or the second section? Is the number I'm looking for found in the line that looks like "B: EV=n" where "n" is the number I'm looking for?

If I were to follow IdoMcFly's example from another forum post, should the "InputDevice" section for the mouse in this computers xorg.conf file look something like the following?:

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier "Configured Mouse"
	Driver "evdev"
	Option "Dev Name" "Logitech USB Receiver"
	Option "Dev Phys" "usb-0000:00:1d.1-2/input0"
	Option "CorePointer"
	Option "Device" "/dev/input/event7"
	Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
	Option "Buttons" "10"
	Option "Emulate3Buttons" "false"
	Option "ZAxisMapping" "9 10"
	Option "AngleOffset" "-32"
EndSection

So far, I have tried, events 0, 1, and 2. All of which conflicted with the keyboard and made for a very interesting exercise in trying to get the computer to reboot from the desktop. Keyboard key's did unexpected things, and moving the trackball selected unexpected keys or key combinations from the keyboard. Error messages, shells and help files were opening ever time I pressed a key or moved the trackball. At one point I got really lucky because the KMenu opened up and I was able to get a reboot.

That was fun, but hopefully I can get closer to a correct configuration with the next attempt.

[Snowhog]

Re: 10 button Logitech Trackball "Cordless Optical Trackman" only works as 3 but

Is the event number for the mouse taken from the first section, or the second section? Is the number I'm looking for found in the line that looks like "B: EV=n" where "n" is the number I'm looking for?

No. It's taken from the H: Handlers= line. As to which section to take it from, it would be my 'guess' that you would use the first one, which is identified (by the N: Name=) as "Macintosh mouse button emulation". I say that, because the second section is identified as "Logitech USB Receiver".

So I would make the Section "InputDevice" look like this:

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "evdev"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/event2"
Option "Name" "Logitech Trackball Cordless Optical Trackman"
EndSection

Then of course, you still need to follow the rest of the instructions on the other site (5. Xmodmap). Did you by chance, also follow:

You can see the event device at the Handler and test it with a little tool you can get here.
Copmile it with gcc -o evdev-key-btn-test evdev-key-btn-test.c an run it with the following command
$ evdev-key-btn-test /dev/input/eventX where X = input device number

Do keep always in mind, and as the other site posts right up front:

Warning: This HOWTO comes with no explicit or implicit warranty whatsoever. Use at your own risk!

[kubuntuforumsuser]

Re: 10 button Logitech Trackball "Cordless Optical Trackman" only works as 3 but

It does not appear to matter what event handler is used with evdev. Any use of evdev at all seems to cause this computer to hang or freeze during the bootup process.

The following configuration, that you were kind enough to provide me with (thank you <--Not sarcasm, I'm serious, thank you for your input I really appreciate it.) caused the bootup process to freeze or hang just after the line:
"*Running local bootup scripts /etc/rc.local [OK]"

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier   "Configured Mouse"
    Driver      "evdev"
    Option     "CorePointer"
    Option     "Device" "/dev/input/event2"
    Option     "Name" "Logitech Trackball Cordless Optical Trackman"
EndSection

Notes:
Even if I change, the event handler to 0, 1 or possibly any other number, as long as evdev is being used, it freezes the computer during bootup. If however, I use the mouse driver, it makes it through the bootup process, but Event handler 2 causes a severe conflict with the keyboard. The mouse driver seems to get the closest to a working configuration because its at least getting a signal from the trackball, where as evdev freezes the bootup process so there's no way to tell if it works.

Questions:
Currently it is pointless to try and see the event device at the Handler when there is no event to see or Handler to locate if the bootup process is freezing. The first step needs to be getting past the bootup process with evdev, but currently I have not been able to find a resource for solving that problem. So why is evdev causing the bootup process to hang?