Mouseemu uses strange defaults

[Tim Hull]

Binary package hint: mouseemu

When mouseemu is used - which it is in default installs on the MacBook - the F11 and F12 keys are used by default as middle-click and right-click.
This is a very odd and unintuitive choice for a default - most users don't expect to use F keys to do mouse clicks. Can a saner default be used in the next version? I figure left-Command (Apple) and right-Command are good choices - and Command-click would be good if the combination was workable. That would be closer to what is used on OS X (which is ctrl-click).

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

Left-Command and right-Command generate the same scancode and thus cannot be distinguished by the operating system.

We chose F11 and F12 ages ago, long before mouseemu, and it's been that way for six releases of Ubuntu on powerpc now as well as a release on Intel Macs. I can't help feeling that changing it now would be worse than just leaving it alone.

[Tim Hull (thully)]

In my experience, these keys do NOT generate the same scancode - on my MacBook one of them is 125 and the other is 126 (decimal - which mouseemu uses).
Anyway, I know F11 and F12 have been used for ever, but this is quite possibly one of the most common issues mentioned in install walkthroughs for Macs as well as
on the Ubuntu Mac (intel and PPC) forums. No one seems to think the defaults are intuitive...

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

OK, I admit I was trying on a PowerBook rather than a MacBook.

I think anything will be non-intuitive to some (when you first encounter a Mac, is Command-click really obvious? it certainly wasn't to me), but perhaps we can make both combinations work or something like that.

[Tim Hull (thully)]

I guess cmd-click isn't that intuitive either (it's actually ctrl-click on OS X, but ctrl is little-used on OS X, like command/meta on Ubuntu) It is, however, physically easier to use than F11/F12. The ideal way to do right-click with Macs on Ubuntu, though, is probably two-finger tap - which I will suggest enabling in a separate bug (filed against synaptics).

[FrejSoya (frej)]

Confirmed on hardy. First gen macbook pro.
F11 is used for fullscreen in gnome so it's really annoying and hard to figure out (google helps).
Two finger "click" on the touchpad works fine for right-click. Maybe that should be default instead :)

[Alex Murray (alexmurray)]

just wanted to say I got hit by this really unintuitive bug when installing intrepid on my new macbook pro - F11 is used in emacs for devhelp-word-at-point and so I cant use this without disabling mouseemu - I think this is totally bogus - F keys should do what they are - ie send F key events - to remap them as mouse clicks is too unintuitive. this should be disabled by default, and those that need it can enable it.