Bug#281518: Left handed mouse in X

[Rob Reilink <rob@reilink.net>]

I think I found the origin of this bug, causing X to react strangely to 
the mousebuttons when a left handed mouse is selected. On my 
installation (Sarge) /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 contains
--snip
Section "ServerLayout"
       Identifier      "Default Layout"
       Screen          "Default Screen"
       InputDevice     "Generic Keyboard"
       InputDevice     "Configured Mouse"
       InputDevice     "Generic Mouse"
EndSection
--/snip
As seen there are *two* input devices being a mouse. It seems only one 
of them is affected by the 'left handed' setting, so X receives both a 
LMB and a RMB click eacht time. The fix is therefore:
#       InputDevice     "Generic Mouse"
comment the Generic Mouse item.

Now the mouse can be selected left or right handed from the mouse 
setting in the gnome menu.

I think this fix is easier and neater than the gpm workaround.

Hope this helps anyone.

Regards,
Rob Reilink

Package: xfree86-common
Version: 4.3.0.dfsg.1-8
Severity: normal

Neither using xmodmap nor the gdm approach make it possible to have a
left-handed mouse under X for three-button + wheel mice.

gpm                 1.19.6-19
xfree86-common      4.3.0.dfsg.1-8

Left-handed mouse configuration is described at
http://necrotic.deadbeast.net/xsf/XFree86/trunk/debian/local/FAQ.xhtml#lefthandmouse
and in the following bug report
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=281504

If one uses the xmodmap approach
xmodmap -e "pointer = 3 2 1 4 5"
this produces unwanted behaviors. I cannot tell exactly how the
behaviors are wrong but the buttons are all wrong both in pure X
applications, as well as in Qt and Gtk applications. It is like the
"contextual button" is producing many events at the same time, both
selection and contextual trigger. I call "selection" button, what is
usually the left button, and "contextual selection" button, what is
usually the right button.

This xmodmap -e "pointer = 3 2 1 4 5" approach has worked for me for
years with the 3.x X series before I switched to Sarge and to Sid on
some machines.

The gpm approach, which is to feed X with the mouse data coming from
gpm, is not successful either while it should from what I've read from
some FAQs and mailing lists. This approach simply produces no effect at
all: it works alright, but as a right-handed mouse. And I'm sure that
in my case X really receives information from gpm since the mouse under
X doesn't work anymore if I do a "/etc/init.d/gpm stop".