Ubuntu – How to enable Alt + middle mouse button window resizing in Xubuntu

GUI solution

Install the package gpointing-device-settings

Description-en: configuration tool for pointing devices
 GUI tool for setting pointing devices. Currently it can configure mouse type
 device (mouse, trackpoint etc.) and touchpads.
 .
 For mouse you can configure middle button emulation, wheel emulation and
 scrolling.
 .
 It can enable and disable touchpad, or scrolling on it as well as additional
 parameters like palm detection, locked drags, tapping and scrolling.
 .
 It is a successor of GSynaptics.

Console/terminal solution #1

Alternatively, try this:

gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.peripherals.mouse middle-button-enabled true

The alternative solution might require the installation of gnome-settings-daemon package.

Console/terminal solution(s) #2

Using synclient command you can view your synaptics touchpad options.

1. Run synclient and see what variables you have available.

2. You can set/change the synclient options using this command: syclient var=1 (where var is the variable you wish to change and 1 the value)

   Read the manual page about each variable: http://manpages.ubuntu.com/synaptics

What worked for me

Instead of figuring out how to press both buttons of the touchpad, keep/press two fingers on the touchpad and click on the left click button of the touchpad with a third finger. This emulates a middle button by default.

What worked for the original poster

a) Setting the TapButton variable works for the two fingered tap

b) If you still want to click both buttons and produce a middle button emulation, execute:

synclient EmulateMidButtonTime=100

EmulateMidButtonTime allows you to change the time required to produce a middle button (allowed time period to click both buttons). 100 means 100 milliseconds (ms).

You may set it to even higher values, such as synclient EmulateMidButtonTime=500 (500ms).

To disable window minimizing on middle mouse button, run the following command in terminal:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences action-middle-click-titlebar 'none'

To revert it back, run:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences action-middle-click-titlebar 'lower'

To disable browser's tab to close on middle click, see: https://superuser.com/questions/113048/how-do-i-prevent-firefox-from-closing-tabs-on-middle-click

You can also to use xbindkeys. To install it, run in terminal:

sudo apt-get install xbindkeys

Then the next two lines must be placed in ~/.xbindkeysrc file:

""    #don't do nothing
b:2   #mouse button 2

And finally, you must to clear current bindings with killall xbindkeys and then just execute xbindkeys to restart it.