(This should be the end of the series. If you have questions, suggestions for topics I forgot, etc., now is the time to pester me.)
10 — Trackballs and Windows-ware
So far, no project has seen fit to offer a simple configuration for trackballs. The most popular device is Logitech’s Marble Mouse and instructions do exist for Linux. While Ubuntu does have a page for this, the instructions are oddly incomplete. Once you take a look at the diagram and understand how it’s supposed to work, let me offer a competing solution. (The nitty-gritty details can be found here but still pretty complicated.)
First we’ll cover for right-handed users. The “8” button (left small button) should be for scrolling, a click-n-hold operation in conjunction with rolling the ball. The “9” button (right small button) should be the middle-mouse button — mouse paste. In a browser that last one also opens a link in a new tab. The larger buttons already have standard functions. Here’s where you do some serious system tinkering. Open Konsole again. Navigate to the portion of the system where the oddball configuration files are kept:
cd /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d
If you run ls you’ll see a collection of files whose names start with 10 or 50. We need to add one of the latter. You’ll need your sudo powers for this and you’ll need to use Nano. Refer to this link again if you need help using Nano. You shouldn’t pretend to use Linux without some familiarity with it.
sudo nano 50-marblemouse.conf
This will open a new file with nothing in it. Using your pointing device, highlight the text below and pasted it in the file.
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Marble Mouse"
MatchProduct "Logitech USB Trackball"
MatchIsPointer "on"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Driver "evdev"
Option "EmulateWheel" "true"
Option "EmulateWheelButton" "8"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "ButtonMapping" "1 9 3 4 5 6 7 2 2"
EndSection
The format with the indentations are pretty important. I can’t control all the details of how cut-n-paste works in every context, but the idea is that the first and last line are flush left and everything in between is indented by one TAB space. If it so happens you want to use this for the left hand, you need a few small changes to reverse all those buttons:
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Marble Mouse"
MatchProduct "Logitech USB Trackball"
MatchIsPointer "on"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Driver "evdev"
Option "EmulateWheel" "true"
Option "EmulateWheelButton" "9"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "ButtonMapping" "3 8 1 4 5 6 7 2 2"
EndSection
Now, first we tell Nano to save it. The command is CTRL+O (not zero). Then we close it with CTRL+X. You’ll have to reboot for this to take proper effect.
You’ll notice that instructions are out there for just about anything if you know how to search. As with Windows, chances are someone else has needed the same thing you do and has already been through it. That’s the nature of DIY and Open Source.
Most of the common activities are already provided in your menu system. If you simply must run Windows software, there are two ways to go. One is WINE — a system that helps Linux pretend it runs Windows stuff natively. Install the package wine with its huge collection of dependencies. The people who develop WINE keep a database listing of what has been tested here. You’ll need to enter the name of the software package and search for it. Frankly, much of it is out of date, but it does indicate something useful about what’s likely to work. For example, I know for a fact that the version of WINE you get with Kubuntu will run MS Office 97, 2000 and probably 2003. It may run later versions, but not Office XP. To be honest, I use WINE only so I can run Notepad++, a very fine Open Source text editor for Windows. It works perfectly that way and nothing in Linux compares for the features.
The other way is to run a virtual machine (VM). That is, you will create an artificial virtual computer on your system and install Windows on it. This requires some extra power, so if you have less than 2GB of RAM I would recommend against it. However, it’s the easiest way to run your old XP. If you allow it to connect to the Internet through your machine, you’ll need the usual anti-virus, etc. Otherwise, it’s perfectly safe and stable and you can close it up when you don’t need it — suspending it is the preferred method. While there are several different VMs available, for the sake of simplicity I’ll recommend you use VMWare Player (it’s free). You can find the Ubuntu guide here, but they miss a couple of points. Once you make the bundle executable, you have to run with sudo powers. Also, it now automatically creates all the necessary changes in one fell swoop, instead of in two steps. Just run it as sudo, give it a minute to show up in the menu, then start it up and install whatever version of Windows you like. It works with most other operating systems, too.
Be aware that the extra tools that make it all work smoothly can be installed automatically, but pay close attention to the messages from VMWare about them. Don’t download and try to install them before the OS is installed. Install the OS first and reboot, then wait until you are logged in as a user on Windows. Then click the prompts to install the tools, which amounts to special drivers to make it integrate with your desktop. If you look through the configuration menus, you’ll find out that you can elect to let your installed Windows guest OS share folders with your Linux system. I keep a Projects folder in my Home directory just for this.
That’s about as much as I can put in an introduction of this sort. Welcome to Linux and DIY computing.
