Can't set mouse speed (only acceleration and treshold)

[Daniel Robitaille]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg

initially sent to the ubuntu-users mailing list when reported by the user using reportbug

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Antti Miranto <email address hidden>
To: Ubuntu Bug Tracking System <email address hidden>
Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2006 17:50:27 +0300
Subject: xserver-xorg: Can't set mouse speed (only acceleration and treshold)
Package: xserver-xorg
Version: 7.0.0-0ubuntu45
Severity: normal

I can't set default mouse speed with xset only acceleration and
threshold. The problem aroused when I upgraded my mouse from Logitech
MouseMan wheel Optical to Logitech LX7. New mouse is unacceptable fast
and I can't rate it down.

On old mouse it took 7cm (~3inch) to move cursor across screen with out
acceleration but with new mouse the distance is less than 2cm (~2/3inch)
which is too fast and with no accuracy. If I use xset to tone the speed
down I still lose accuracy and speed, because there is no speed
multiplayer in xset.

I have tried to use uvdev, PS2, Option Resolution N, psmouse
resolution=30,... and all proposed solutions which I could find with
google, but there seems to be no solution only people with same problem.
http://www.proxc.com/index.cgi/ttf/2006-01-03
http://tinyurl.com/nmjnq
Also these solutions for kernel module or X.Org server configuration
file are not user accessible so users can't set their own values as they
wish.

I also posted to Finnish Linux user group sfnet.atk.linux, but no one
seems to know the answer. http://tinyurl.com/ejng9

Proposed solution: please add speed multiplayer to xset so than I can
rate pointers normal speed down as it was with old mouse.
xset [m[ouse] [accel_mult[/accel_div] [threshold] [speed multiplyer]]
Ass being the last optional option it would not break any existing
applications.

Or if you know the answer I would be very pleased to hear it. Also if
there is anything that I could for this problem I am happy to help, but
I am not C programmer.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
 APT prefers dapper-security
 APT policy: (930, 'dapper-security'), (900, 'dapper'), (500, 'dapper-backports')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.15-25-k7
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=fi_FI.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)

Versions of packages xserver-xorg depends on:
ii discover 1.7.15ubuntu1 hardware identification system
ii dmidecod 2.7-3 Dump Desktop Management Interface
ii laptop-d 0.12.1-ubuntu2 attempt to detect a laptop
ii mdetect 0.5.2.1 mouse device autodetection tool
ii x11-comm 7.0.0-0ubuntu45 X Window System (X.Org) infrastruc
ii xresprob 0.4.23 X Resolution Probe
ii xserver- 1:1.0.2-0ubuntu10 X.Org X server -- core server
ii xserver- 7.0.0-0ubuntu45 the X.Org X server -- output drive
ii xserver- 1:1.0.1.5-0ubuntu1 X.Org X server -- APM display driv
ii xserver- 1:0.5.0.5-0ubuntu1 X.Org X server -- ark display driv
ii xserver- 1:6.5.7.3-0ubuntu7 X.Org X server -- ATI display driv
ii xserver- 1:1.0.1.3-0ubuntu1 X.Org X server -- Chips display dr
ii xserver- 1:1.0.0.5-0ubuntu1 X.Org X server -- Cirrus display d
ii xserver- 1:1.0.0.5-0ubuntu1 X.Org X server -- Cyrix display dr
ii xserver- 1:0.1.0.5-0ubuntu1 X.Org X server -- dummy display dr
ii xserver- 1:0.1.0.5-0ubuntu1 X.Org X server -- fbdev display dr
ii xserver- 1:1.0.1.3-0ubuntu1 X.Org X server -- Glint display dr
ii xserver- 1:1.1.0.5-0ubuntu1 X.Org X server -- i128 display dri
ii xserver- 1:1.0.0.5-0ubuntu1 X.Org X server -- i740 display dri
ii xserver- 1:1.4.1.3-0ubuntu6 X.Org X server -- Intel i8xx, i9xx
ii xserver- 1:1.0.0.5-0ubuntu1 X.Org X server -- IMSTT display dr
ii xserver- 1:1.2.1.3-0ubuntu1 X.Org X server -- MGA display driv
ii xserver- 1:1.0.0.5-0ubuntu1 X.Org X server -- Neomagic display
ii xserver- 1:0.1.4.1-0ubuntu1 X.Org X server -- Newport display
ii xserver- 1:2.7.6.5-0ubuntu1 X.Org X server -- NSC display driv
ii xserver- 1:1.0.1.5-0ubuntu4 X.Org X server -- NV display drive
ii xserver- 1:4.0.1.3-0ubuntu1 X.Org X server -- Rendition displa
ii xserver- 1:0.3.5.4-0ubuntu2 X.Org X server -- legacy S3 displa
ii xserver- 1:1.8.6.5-0ubuntu1 X.Org X server -- S3 ViRGE display
ii xserver- 1:2.0.2.3-0ubuntu1 X.Org X server -- Savage display d
ii xserver- 1:1.3.1.5-0ubuntu1 X.Org X server -- SiliconMotion di
ii xserver- 1:0.8.1.3-0ubuntu1 X.Org X server -- SiS display driv
ii xserver- 1:0.7.1.3-0ubuntu1 X.Org X server -- SiS USB display
ii xserver- 1:1.1.1.3-0ubuntu1 X.Org X server -- tdfx display dri
ii xserver- 1:1.0.0.5-0ubuntu1 X.Org X server -- TGA display driv
ii xserver- 1:1.0.1.2-0ubuntu1 X.Org X server -- Trident display
ii xserver- 1:1.0.0.5-0ubuntu1 X.Org X server -- Tseng display dr
ii xserver- 1:1.0.1.3-0ubuntu1 X.Org X server -- VESA display dri
ii xserver- 1:4.0.0.5-0ubuntu1 X.Org X server -- VGA display driv
ii xserver- 1:0.1.33.2-0ubuntu4 X.Org X server -- VIA display driv
ii xserver- 1:10.11.1.3-0ubuntu1 X.Org X server -- VMware display d
ii xserver- 1:1.0.0.5-0ubuntu1 X.Org X server -- Voodoo display d
ii xserver- 7.0.0-0ubuntu45 the X.Org X server -- input driver
ii xserver- 1:1.0.0.5-0ubuntu1 X.Org X server -- ELOGraphics inpu
ii xserver- 1:1.1.2-0ubuntu3 X.Org X server -- evdev input driv
ii xserver- 1:1.0.1.3-0ubuntu3 X.Org X server -- keyboard input d
ii xserver- 1:1.0.3.1+cvs.20060109-0ubuntu1 X.Org X server -- mouse input driv
ii xserver- 1:0.7.2-0ubuntu6 X.Org X server -- Wacom input driv

xserver-xorg recommends no packages.

-- debconf information excluded

[nanophase (nanophase)]

I agree with it. It is pretty hard to adjust a mouse with these 2 settings. Some users just want a linear speed configuration and that's all. I can not use my Logitech Cordless MouseMan Optical because I either:
* set sensitivity high, but then movement is slooooow
* set sensitivity low, then it's fast but unaccurate as a serial ball-mouse 10 years ago

I tried to adjust it somewhere in between, no acceptable effect there.
My other mice are somewhat better, but I must ass they all work perfectly under windows (they only have "speed").

I see this as a big problem, but probably in X itself.

[Simon Strandman (nejsimon)]

As a workaround, try running this in a terminal:
xset m 14/10 0

Setting the threshold to 0 enables a different kind of acceleration more like in Windows or Mac OS X which works much better for modern mice. The "14/10" part sets the speed, if it's to slow try with 16/10 or something higher.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

Is this still an issue? Where is the bug exactly.. xset command or elsewhere?

[Antti Miranto (software-antti)]

This is not actually bug. It is critically missing feature which renders all new high resolution mouses useless.

Is this still valid? Probably, but there have been progress in upstream. New X (7.3) which seem to be included to upcoming Hardy will allow more elaborate settings in xorg.conf. As xorg.conf is only root configurable there is still no way normal user can set the mouse speed (only acceleration). This upcoming release will solve my problem but not those who don't have root access to machine which they are using.

So problem is: if mouse pointer moves to fast how to slow it's base speed down whith out losing acceleration functionality. New X 7.3 will solve this if you have root access, but not without it.

http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=8583
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2927

[Connor Imes (ckimes)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. You reported this bug a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering is this still an issue for you? Can you try with latest Ubuntu release? Thanks in advance.

[Connor Imes (ckimes)]

We are closing this bug report because it lacks the information we need to investigate the problem, as described in the previous comments. Please reopen it if you can give us the missing information, and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to "New". Thanks again!