I’m new to Lubuntu and I’m struggling with what seems like a very basic issue. I cannot seem to find the correct setting for the sensitivity/speed of the mouse. Is there a graphic dialog that allows me to set this?
Thanks,
Tenaya
G’day & welcome to the Lubuntu discourse/forum.
As you’ve not mentioned a release; I’ll assume the latest stable release which is Lubuntu 22.10 or the 2022-October release, thus my links will be for that release. If you’re using another release; adjust the URLs as appropriate, and in future if you provide your release we’ll attempt to use links that match your release.
Have you tried following the manual? ie. https://manual.lubuntu.me/stable/3/3.2/3.2.8/keyboard_and_mouse.html or is this what you’ve tried, and thus want a GUI alternative?
Thank you for your response.
As near as I can tell, the setting dialog box shown in " Chapter 3.2.8 Keyboard and Mouse" does NOT include a speed setting. Acceleration, yes, click, yes, scroll, yes, but sensitivity/speed seemse to be missing.
Am I missing something?
Tenaya
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BTW, I am using what I believe to be the latest Lubuntu version, downloaded today.
Can anyone suggest a solution?
Most modern distros are using libinput in place of evdev (library level).
You get less options with libinput. But even with evdev, there was never really any emphasis on setting the ‘speed’.
Instead all the configs are geared to setting the acceleration and modifying it’s behaviour. And you would tweak these until you were satisfied with the ‘feel’.
What can you set with libinput?
With regard to pointers, we are left with just the Acceleration and Profile.
(This could be by design to dumb down and simplify or maybe that development hasn’t reached a stage to offer more options.)
Acceleration
This is what you see in;
Preferences > LXQt Settings > Keyboard and Mouse > Mouse and Touchpad > Acceleration Speed
It’s a value between -1 and 1 with 1 being the maximum.
A negative value is actually deceleration. So -0.99 hardly moves the pointer.
You may think that a value of 0 turns acceleration ‘off’ ?, but it depends on the profile.
Profile
With libinput, you get only two. “Adaptive” and “Flat”.
“Adaptive” is the default and is pretty wild. For most mice, you need to compensate with a negative Acceleration. You should first try this until it’s near the speed you want and see if you’re happy.
“Flat” will give you the closest feel for constant speed.
Note that the speed is still affected by Acceleration, but now the pointer isn’t so wild. So now Acceleration is more like ‘speed’.
But where do you change the Profile ?
Although you can change this with xinput, this can only effectively be done with an Xorg conf file. If you don’t already have one, then create it.
e.g /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/45-mouse.conf
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "mouse"
MatchDriver "libinput"
MatchIsPointer "yes"
Option "AccelProfile" "flat"
EndSection
and needs a reboot.
(disclaimer: playing with Xorg conf files can lead to not booting at all).
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Hmmm.
I’m not particularly comfortable with Linux. Yet.
I’m trying to repurpose an old PC for a limited set of tasks (64-bit Pentium 4 with 2GB RAM). Searching for a solution, much of what I’ve read looks to me like a mix of Chinese, Cuneiform and Marathi.
Regarding distros leaving out the ability to easily adjust the “speed” of the mouse; that’s completely foreign to me. In a previous life, I worked for a company that designed, built and marketed various of pointing devices, some of which were mouse shaped. If engineering had ever come to me and said they were intentionally leaving out the pointer speed setting, a WTF fight would have ensued.
It seems odd to me to adjust a bunch of other parameters to achieve the “speed” you want. To me that would be like adjusting the idle screws and metering jets on a carburetor instead of just the throttle.
Further, I am more than a little leery of messing with a file that can lead to not booting at all. Modifying such a sensitive file is generally made safe by having the utility actually modify the file (I no longer type as accurately as I once did and let’s not talk about my eyesight). Did I mention I’m a Linux newbie?
Is there REALLY not a graphical utility for Linux (Lubuntu, actually) that resembles what/how Windows does this seemingly basic function? I thought I had found one in Piper, but it doesn’t find any devices. Piper either ignores regular mice (two of them, one wireless and one Microsoft USB mouse) or I messed up its installation in some way.
Tenaya
PS: My apologies for bringing WinDoze into a Linux bar, but, like many, that’s where I come from and, therefore, what I know.
Tenaya
Forgive me if this is silly, but did you already try adjusting the acceleration setting? I’m not entirely certain, but I think that the acceleration setting is the speed setting.
Edit: Just tested it on my Lubuntu desktop, adjusting the acceleration seems to adjust the mouse speed for me (the pointer moves much faster if I increase the acceleration to 1.00, though I’m still able to control the pointer relatively easily).
Hmmm. I’ll have to try that again.
Thx
Well, I fooled around with the mouse settings and finally got something I can live with.
Thanks to all who contributed.
Tenaya
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For what it’s worth, you can get cheap mice that have variable DPI settings. Meaning you can make it faster or slower. A higher DPI means the mouse moves further on the screen with the same motion on the mouse end. A lower DPI of course is the opposite. You have to move the mouse further physically to make the pointer move on the screen.
I find those easiest/best for my needs.
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Thank you, that may eventually become my solution.
Tenaya
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