Does any Linux distribution support setting mouse scroll wheel sensitivity

gnomekdemousescrollingxfce

I have tried Ubuntu 13.04 and Linux Mint 15 and both DO NOT HAVE optinos for setting mouse scroll wheel sensitivity.

They had only mouse acceleration and sensitivity, but the scroll wheel speed you cannot set in these distributions.

It's frustrating, to not be able to set this thing.

Is this only a problem of Gnome distros or KDE and Xfce has the same problems too?

Best Answer

Yes, Kubuntu is one of them. The mouse scroll setting is not specific to any Linux distribution, but rather supported by the desktop environment.

Linux distribution (distro)

Kubuntu runs KDE Plasma 5, beginning from 14.10 release. The mouse scroll setting can be found in KDE as early as KDE 3.5, and probably TDE also, and has continued to exist in KDE Plasma 4 and newer.

Go to Settings > Input Devices
Select Mouse - Advanced and look for the last option "Mouse wheel scrolls by"
Use the spinner (up-down control) to change the value (default: 3)
Click Apply to finish.

Lubuntu runs LXQt, beginning from 18.10 release. LXQt is a relatively new desktop environment that shares some components from KDE. The mouse scroll setting like KDE can be found in LXQt.

Go to Settings > Keyboard and Mouse Settings
Select Mouse and look for the option "Wheel scroll lines"
Use the spinner (up-down control) to change the value (default: 3)
Click Close to finish.

Besides Kubuntu and Lubuntu, any Linux distribution that runs KDE or LXQt will most likely have the mouse scroll setting similarly.

Distribution-agnostic

There are distro-agnostic solutions, such as using a tool called imwheel or libinput as suggested in this answer, using Xorg configuration which is often hardware-dependant, and may be more.

Is this only a problem of Gnome distros or KDE and Xfce has the same problems too?

I had used legacy KDE 3 and GNOME 2 back then, but I've come to liking Xfce because it has "sufficient" options out-of-box. And yet, Xfce doesn't have the mouse scroll setting. The reason? That is likely what has been decided by the project team, although this is concurred from my opinion.

Linux distributions that run KDE or LXQt have the mouse scroll setting, mainly because their desktop environment offers extensive options for out-of-box customization. That being said, not all distros are created equal.

Related Solutions

Mouse scroll wheel speed far too sensitive

If it's a Microsoft mouse, try resetmsmice, which will fix this problem, without having to unplug and replug the mouse receiver. Many thanks to the author Paul F Richards, also the Ubuntu launchpad bug report

How to set mouse sensitivity, not just mouse acceleration

Just force the pointer to skip pixels, here's how:

First list input devices:

$ xinput list
⎡ Virtual core pointer                          id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ PixArt USB Optical Mouse                  id=10   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad                  id=15   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                         id=3    [master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard               id=5    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                              id=6    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Video Bus                                 id=7    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Sleep Button                              id=8    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ USB2.0 UVC 2M WebCam                      id=9    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Asus Laptop extra buttons                 id=13   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard              id=14   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳   USB Keyboard                            id=11   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳   USB Keyboard                            id=12   [slave  keyboard (3)]

In the example we see the mouse is PixArt USB Optical Mouse. Next list its properties:

$ xinput list-props "PixArt USB Optical Mouse"
Device 'PixArt USB Optical Mouse':
        Device Enabled (140):   1
        Coordinate Transformation Matrix (142): 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
        Device Accel Profile (265):     0
        Device Accel Constant Deceleration (266):       1.000000
        Device Accel Adaptive Deceleration (267):       1.000000
        Device Accel Velocity Scaling (268):    10.000000
        Device Product ID (260):        2362, 9488
        Device Node (261):      "/dev/input/event5"
        Evdev Axis Inversion (269):     0, 0
        Evdev Axes Swap (271):  0
        Axis Labels (272):      "Rel X" (150), "Rel Y" (151), "Rel Vert Wheel" (264)
        Button Labels (273):    "Button Left" (143), "Button Middle" (144), "Button Right" (145), "Button Wheel Up" (146), "Button Wheel Down" (147), "Button Horiz Wheel Left" (148), "Button Horiz Wheel Right" (149)
        Evdev Middle Button Emulation (274):    0
        Evdev Middle Button Timeout (275):      50
        Evdev Third Button Emulation (276):     0
        Evdev Third Button Emulation Timeout (277):     1000
        Evdev Third Button Emulation Button (278):      3
        Evdev Third Button Emulation Threshold (279):   20
        Evdev Wheel Emulation (280):    0
        Evdev Wheel Emulation Axes (281):       0, 0, 4, 5
        Evdev Wheel Emulation Inertia (282):    10
        Evdev Wheel Emulation Timeout (283):    200
        Evdev Wheel Emulation Button (284):     4
        Evdev Drag Lock Buttons (285):  0

By changing "Coordinate Transformation Matrix" property we can increase the pointer speed. Documentation says it is used to calculate a pointer movement. Quoting:

By default, the CTM for every input device in X is the identity matrix. As an example, lets say you touch a touchscreen at point (400, 197) on the screen:
⎡ 1 0 0 ⎤   ⎡ 400 ⎤   ⎡ 400 ⎤
⎜ 0 1 0 ⎥ · ⎜ 197 ⎥ = ⎜ 197 ⎥
⎣ 0 0 1 ⎦   ⎣  1  ⎦   ⎣  1  ⎦
The X and Y coordinates of the device event are input in the second matrix of the calculation. The result of the calculation is where the X and Y coordinates of the event are mapped to the screen. As shown, the identity matrix maps the device coordinates to the screen coordinates without any changes.

So, we want to increase X and Y values, leaving the rest unchanged. An example from my PC:


$ xinput set-prop "PixArt USB Optical Mouse" "Coordinate Transformation Matrix" 2.4 0 0 0 2.4 0 0 0 1

Play a bit with this until you're satisfied with the speed.

thanks go to Simon Thum from Xorg mailing list for giving a hint about the matrix.

UPD: note, some Windows games running in Wine may start exhibiting odd pointer behavior (e.g. it was noted that crosshair in Counter Strike 1.6 declines down until it stares the floor no matter how you move the mouse), in this case just reset X and Y of CTM back to 1 before running the game.