How To Enable Mouse Wheel Scrolling in Ubuntu Hardy on VMware Fusion

by Peter Cooper on April 26, 2008

I was having problems installing VMware Tools on Ubuntu Hardy (8.04) under VMware Fusion but got to the bottom of it.

The next problem was trying to get the mouse scroll wheel to work. I did some Googling and most of the guides suggested I change a single line in xorg.conf (namely, set the "Protocol" of the mouse device to "ImPS/2"). It didn't work. On a limb I thought I'd try changing the driver from "vmmouse" to "mouse" and this solved the problem, but the mouse tracking and acceleration was TOTALLY different between OS X and Linux.. eugh!

With some perseverance, I've found a solution. You can use the vmmouse driver, keep the synchronized mouse tracking and acceleration, and use your mouse wheel as it was intended.

I have been told this technique works on VMware Workstation and VMware Player on the PC too, but I haven't tried it on there myself.

Steps to Enable Mouse Wheel Scrolling in Ubuntu Hardy under VMware Fusion

Launch a Terminal (Applications menu -> Accessories -> Terminal).

Type:

sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Scroll down (it's not far, perhaps 20 - 30 lines) till you see a block that looks like this:

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "vmmouse"
[.. blah blah blah ..]
EndSection

Replace that whole section with this:

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "vmmouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "Buttons" "5"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Save the file, then close all your apps and hit Ctrl+Alt+Backspace. X restarts within a few seconds, and you're back up and running. Scrolling should now be possible!

I haven't gotten to the bottom of horizontal scrolling yet. I thought a ZAxisMapping of "4 5 11 12" would do it, but I suspect either VMware Fusion's mouse driver does things a different way, or maybe it's mouse specific (not likely). I'll update this post if I work it out.

{ 8 trackbacks }

Enable Mouse Wheel Scrolling in Ubuntu Hardy 8.04 Under VMWare | The Number 42
April 30, 2008 at 4:25 am
Ubuntu Mighty Mouse Scroll Wheel | iTechster
May 23, 2008 at 8:22 pm
things & stuff » Blog Archive » Mouse Scroll Wheel in Ubuntu in VMware
June 20, 2008 at 12:04 am
Not So Wise
August 6, 2008 at 8:10 am
Настройка интерфейса Ubuntu на VMWare Server | Computer Experiments Exposed
October 8, 2008 at 10:52 am
Christina’s Notes » Blog Archive » Oo also.
November 7, 2008 at 9:06 pm
CSastra’s Blog » Blog Archive » Enable Scroll Mouse Pada Ubuntu
December 4, 2008 at 5:54 am
Ubuntu in VMware Fusion « LEMP test
January 9, 2009 at 3:12 am

{ 133 comments }

1 johnny July 25, 2008 at 4:56 am

Thank Cooper, It worked for me too.
VMware Workstation ACE 6.0 / xp / UbuntuStudios
(= Ubuntu 8.04 - the Hardy Heron)

2 ErikZ July 26, 2008 at 5:52 pm

Thanks! This was driving me crazy!

Crazy!

3 Bram July 28, 2008 at 11:16 pm

I can verify that this works like a charm on VMWare Workstation on PC. Thanks a bunch!

4 Sid July 31, 2008 at 3:06 pm

Woot.

Gracias.

OS X Leopard (10.5.4)
Fusion 1.1.3
Hardy with all updates (as of 7/31/08)

5 Muzkmn July 31, 2008 at 3:38 pm

Thanks! IT WORKS!

6 oguz August 2, 2008 at 2:06 pm

Thanks......!

7 HeitaAdvildids August 2, 2008 at 10:07 pm

Thanks !

8 dan August 3, 2008 at 2:10 am

you absolutely rock.

I just finished installing ubuntu 8.0.4 and the very first thing I noticed was the scroll didnt work on my mouse. your site is the first I came across and this worked right away.

THANKS!

9 Jmchugh August 5, 2008 at 6:25 am

using the option Drive "vmmouse" resulted in some limited horizontal scroll function like 6 lines at a time and then I would have to pause. replacing "vmmouse" with "mouse" and the scroll wheel behaves as it should. Windows XP with VMware workstation 6 running Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron with MS Wireless desktop Elite Keyboard and mouse NOTE: keyboard scroll function not yet working :(

10 ramy August 6, 2008 at 8:20 am

thx peter for this article it worked well but the os display in the beginning that the mouse need some thing like Assistive Technologies
i don't know what this but the wheel now works and I'm very happy with that

11 tantalos August 6, 2008 at 7:34 pm

Works great! I was going crazy trying to get this to work and had given up hope until I stumbled across your article. Thank you for figuring this out and sharing your discovery.

12 livingindoubt August 9, 2008 at 8:05 am

i can't click the scroll button, any suggestions?

13 Christoph August 9, 2008 at 11:36 am

Thank you very much for this. It worked great.

Christoph

14 hiro August 11, 2008 at 4:59 am

Thank you very much.
It's great.

15 Honest Sy August 14, 2008 at 9:16 am

Fantastic thank you. I had tried all sorts of things to get this working and your suggestion worked straight away.

Cheers

16 Jim shorts August 14, 2008 at 6:22 pm

Great, thanks.

Worked fine with OSX Leopard/VMWare 1.1.1

17 klisse August 16, 2008 at 2:24 pm

Thank You, Peter. This worked for me.

VMWare-Player 2.04 on Vista Ultimate SP1 32bit
Guest-OS: Ubuntu 8.04.1-JeOS with xubuntu-desktop
Logitech Cordless Lasermouse

18 eric db August 17, 2008 at 8:34 am

another success, thanks!

vmfusion
macbook trackpad and mighty mouse both work

19 smbt August 18, 2008 at 10:22 pm

Thanks for the info.

Works a treat on my Mac Pro, VMWare Fusion 1.1.3 running Ubuntu 8.04 (64 bit) with wireless mighty mouse.

20 Max August 20, 2008 at 4:14 pm

Now if only I'd found this a few days ago... Great work. It fixed the problem and worked a lot better than my method!

21 Chris August 24, 2008 at 2:53 pm

Worked for me on xp and hardy thanks!

22 Mike H August 25, 2008 at 3:41 pm

Works great, thanks a lot!

23 Kevin August 25, 2008 at 9:29 pm

worked like a charm Vista x64 host, Workstation 6

24 Aaron August 26, 2008 at 12:26 am

I followed the same but had to be modified a little to the following:

Section “InputDevice”
Identifier “Mouse0”
Driver “mouse”
Option “CorePointer”
Option “Device” ”/dev/mouse”
Option “Protocol” “ImPS/2”
Option “Buttons” “5”
Option “ZAxisMapping” “4 5”
EndSection

25 Aaron August 26, 2008 at 12:27 am

Sorry forgot to mention that it works great. Thanks for posting this

26 Matt August 26, 2008 at 2:35 am

Thanks, works like a charm. Vista x64 host OS.

27 Tushar August 26, 2008 at 9:20 am

Thnx for tip.........m using XP through VMWare it works fine...

28 Stephan August 28, 2008 at 11:11 am

works great for me!
host 64bit ubuntu 8.04.1
guest 32bit ubuntu 8.04.1

29 boehmi August 30, 2008 at 9:41 am

Thanks a lot.
It works perfectly ;-)

30 Chris September 1, 2008 at 3:50 am

Genius, I spent quite some time trying to get this to function, I first thought it was an issue with the VMware driver, then I stumbled onto your link and this fix resolved my issue, many thanks.

Chris

31 David September 2, 2008 at 3:37 pm

1. Have an annoyance with the scroll wheel not working
2. Do a search in google
3. This article comes up first
4. Follow the steps
5. Everything works perfectly

Thank you

32 Hans September 3, 2008 at 8:10 am

Thanks very much. Now all works! Mac Mini, 10.5.4, Ubuntu and XP of course with VMware. Now my bluetooth mouse and bluetooth Mac keyboard work great with Ubuntu. Keep uo the good work.

33 Valery September 7, 2008 at 5:23 pm

Thanks, Peter! Worked like a charm.

34 Suhit September 9, 2008 at 12:17 pm

Great job mate...works great now

35 Erling September 13, 2008 at 11:39 am

Yes, this did the job on my CentOS 5.2 64 bit host, VMWare Server 4 and Ubuntu 8.04 64 bit guest, thank you!

36 Erling September 13, 2008 at 11:39 am

Yes, this did the job on my CentOS 5.2 64 bit host, VMWare Server 1.0.4 and Ubuntu 8.04 64 bit guest, thank you!

37 george_byron September 13, 2008 at 12:41 pm

Cheers mate, it worked a charm! BTW, where did you learn these 'system administration' skills? Ubuntu forums, or, Google, or, a really good Linux book or ALL of the above? ;-)

38 Philip September 13, 2008 at 4:43 pm

Thanks a lot...

39 Don September 15, 2008 at 3:44 pm

works for me on VMWare Workstation 6.x. thanks man!

40 patrick September 15, 2008 at 7:43 pm

Thanks worked for me

41 no name September 16, 2008 at 12:35 am

You're the man or woman. Thanks

42 jaims September 17, 2008 at 10:03 am

Thanks, it also worked for me :-)

43 Marv September 18, 2008 at 8:21 am

Sadly this works not for me.
VMWare Player 2.05 with Ubuntu 8.04 on WinXP Pro WITH DUAL MONITOR. Maybe this issue is caused by the dual monitor system?!? I did not installed the original VMWare Tools! I just activated the vmvideo and vmmouse packets in the manager. Could this be relevant?

kind regards, Marv

44 Raykd September 18, 2008 at 2:17 pm

it worked like a charm with Ubuntu 8.04 in VMware Player on a Windoze XP Pro computing machine. thanks!

45 Andrew September 19, 2008 at 3:20 pm

Word! Worked like a charm on Vmware Workstation w/ Ubuntu 8.04 Desktop.

46 Joerg September 23, 2008 at 10:22 am

Hi !
Thanks very much. Works on vmware 6.0 as well.

47 Alex September 23, 2008 at 9:29 pm

Thanks, this work perfect, very easy, and fast!.

48 Christian September 28, 2008 at 1:25 am

It worked for me!!

windows xp running ubuntu 8.04
I just had to alter the following line from:
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
to
Option "Protocol" "ImUSB"

because I have a usb mouse and not a ps/2 and all was good.

Thanks for the help.

49 Jack September 28, 2008 at 1:34 pm

I guess everyone else has already said it all THANKS! I have been spending hours searching for the answer to fix this mouse issue. Everything is now working great.

50 tylerw September 29, 2008 at 8:51 pm

Worked! Thanks.

Comments on this entry are closed.