The Tuesday 2005-02-01 at 22:57 -0500, Doug McGarrett wrote:
I have a message in to them asking whether the 3rd button can be programmed to emulate pushing the left and right button, so as to paste in Linux, but I'm almost sure the answer will be yes, since they specifically call out Unix as a supported OS.
You probably can do that with some configuration tweaking in /etc/X11/XF86Config or in kde or gnome.
One other note: all mice and trackballs are somewhat optical; the little wheels with the holes in them at the ends of the axles that the mouse/track ball drives send an interrupted optical signal to the detectors that tell the computer how far the mouse has gone, and in which direction.
Correct. Like relative motion sensors (not sure of the english name) used for motor positioning.
It's really fairly sophisticated electronics for a simple and low-cost device. If cleaning the mouse or t/b, make sure there is no gunk in the unit that the little wheel turns in.
The kind that reads the ball directly is more reliable in the presence of dirt. -- Cheers, Carlos Robinson