Logitech Pilot Wheel mouse configuration

The Logitech Pilot Wheel mouse is not offered as an option when installing Redhat 7.1. This may be due to the mouse being known under another name in the U.S. market. Possibly selecting one of the other Logitech mice offered during the installation process will set up the X configuration file correctly. This page details the modifications needed to a generic PS/2 mouse X-configuration to enable the wheel to provide useful functionality; use of the mouse with the serial port is not covered.

Generic functionality

The mouse provides basic pointer and selection functions when plugged into the PS/2 port under RedHat 7.1 if installed as a generic PS/2 mouse. The wheel can be depressed to act as a middle button.

Additional wheel functionality

Scrolling the wheel has no effect if configured as a generic PS/2 mouse. The modifications and additions to the X configuration file needed to enable the wheel are detailed below.

These modifications were made to the InputDevice section of the XF86Config-4 file which resides in the /etc/X11/ directory. Only the root user can modify this file.

Section "InputDevice"
  Identifier  "Mouse0"
  Driver      "mouse"
  Option      "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
  Option      "Device" "/dev/psaux"
  Option      "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
  Option      "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
  Option      "Buttons" "5"
EndSection
The changes made from the default configuration were:

Protocol option changed from PS/2 to IMPS/2
ZAxisMapping option line added
Buttons option line added

Further modifications

A range of applications have native wheel functionality e.g. the standard gnome-terminal program and the mozilla web-browser. Additional modifications detailed here can add scroll-wheel functionality to other X applications.
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