Easy way to make the trackball click be a left mouse button

uConsole
1

It seems odd that it’s a middle button. I’m always trying to use it to click in menus and other places.

This works on the CM4 at least, not sure about the other options.

Anyway:

🙂 dsegel@uconsole:~ % xinput list 
⎡ Virtual core pointer                    	id=2	[master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer              	id=4	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ ClockworkPI uConsole Consumer Control   	id=7	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ ClockworkPI uConsole Mouse              	id=9	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ vc4                                     	id=10	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ vc4                                     	id=11	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                   	id=3	[master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard             	id=5	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ axp20x-pek                              	id=6	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ ClockworkPI uConsole Keyboard           	id=8	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ ClockworkPI uConsole Consumer Control   	id=12	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ vc4                                     	id=13	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ vc4                                     	id=14	[slave  keyboard (3)]```

Get the name for the trackball. In this case, it’s “ClockworkPI uConsole Mouse”.

🙂 dsegel@uconsole:~ % xinput get-button-map "ClockworkPI uConsole Mouse" 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

The second number, 2, is the middle button on a mouse.

🙂 dsegel@uconsole:~ % xinput set-button-map "ClockworkPI uConsole Mouse" 1 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Now it’s a left button.

Make it automatic by putting into your user cron:

🙂 dsegel@uconsole:~ % crontab -e

Add this line to your cron:

@reboot /usr/bin/xinput set-button-map "ClockworkPI uConsole Mouse" 1 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Now it’ll run on every boot.

4 Likes
Mouseball Clicking Inoperable
2

Cool hack! For what it’s worth, a click on a mouse wheel has always defaulted to a third (middle) mouse button in X. In Linux, you can also accomplish this with systemd’s hardware database management tool:

1 Like
3

You can actually change it on source. Download Arduino IDE and the keypad code, compile it and flash it.

4

Yeah, I actually did that afterwards, along with making the trackball work as a scroll wheel with the Fn key, but some people may want a simpler approach.

2 Likes
5

Right, but using it depends on which window manager you’re using, and I didn’t think anybody was still doing that kind of thing.

I tried doing it with various other methods like you posted but it either didn’t work or wasn’t as simple as I would like. I ended up just modifying the firmware anyway, but this is still an easy way to switch it back and forth.

1 Like
6

can you share the code changes you made for both left click and scroll with fn?

edit –

I guess _MOUSE_MID, // Mouse.press(2) to become _MOUSE_MID, // Mouse.press(1)
to fix the left click. but then fn to scroll, i’m not that good at reversing code, or writing… i can only do basic deduction

7

Sure, there are two changes.

  1. In trackball.ino:
    OLD:
    const auto mode = dv->state->moveTrackball();
    NEW:
    const auto mode = dv->Keyboard_state.fn_on == 0 ? TrackballMode::Mouse : TrackballMode::Wheel;

This is about line 70 in the current version.

  1. In keymaps.ino:
    OLD:
 case _TRACKBALL_BTN:
   dv->Mouse->release(MOUSE_MIDDLE);
   break;

NEW:

 case _TRACKBALL_BTN:
   dv->Mouse->release(MOUSE_LEFT);
   break;

This is about line 433 in the current version.

Make both those changes, select Sketch->Export compiled Binary and you should get a .bin file in the same directory as the files. Copy that to the uConsole and run the flash utility (uconsole_keyboard_flash.tar.gz) with it. This is all using the code found under Code->uConsole Keyboard in the github repo.

1 Like
8

Awesome! Thanks so much for the info! So often I keep using that ball to left click, and the fn scroll is a great idea.

Thanks again!

9

Hi! could you share please your pre-build FW? was unable to build it by myself( wanna make my trackball click as left mouse

10

I think it’s this:

Try that and if it doesn’t work how you want, let me know.

11

already did. trackball press there acting as a middle button. I figured out why my build did not flashed. I had to use exact board lib version as listed in sources, not the last one. Updated code and set both press and release events as left button - and now it works

1 Like
12

I’m using Bookworm 6.12.45 on an RP5. When I do xinput list

I get

Virtual core pointer     
    Virtual core XTEST pointer
    xwayland-pointer:15 
    xwayland-relative-pointer:15 
    xwayland-pointer-gestures 
Virtual core keyboard 
    Virtual core XTEST keyboard 
    xwayland-keyboard:15

Only the pointer and relative pointer have buttons associated with them. I tried changing both from 2 to 1 in the second position but no dice. Any thoughts?

13

easy mouse button remapping works in X11, but you are using wayland.

in wayland buttons remapping should handle your windows manager so it may not work.

  1. so the easiest way is to switch back to X11 via sudo raspi-config

  2. for wayland check libinput related tools (if your DM is using libinput (most probably)):

(3. as an alternative hardware solution you can tune QMK firmware, compile it and flash into keyboard)

14

Hi, I am running a Trixie image on my uConsole.

Can i do the changes to the trackball settings somehow within my image ?

Without installing the altered image ?