How I got the Logitech LX8 Mouse to work in Linux

Today was black friday and I scored a new Logitech wireless laser mouse (LX8) for $15. However I was a little disappointed when my new Debian Lenny setup did not recognize at as anymore than a generic wheel mouse. Logitech is no help – it ignores the penguin in the house. But Google is my friend – at first a few dead ends, then I found these two sites that held the keys to get all of my mouse buttons working.

http://www.linux-gamers.net/modules/wiwimod/index.php?page=HOWTO+Mouse+Buttons

http://linugadgetech.blogspot.com/2008/08/review-logitech-lx8-wireless-laser.html

After some head banging and scratching, I took ideas from each and came up with this in my /etc/X11/xorg.conf file.

I added this section:

Section “InputDevice”
Identifier  “Mouse[5]”
Driver      “evdev”
Option      “Device” “/dev/input/event5″ # (cat /proc/bus/input/devices)
Option      “Name” “Logitech LX8″
Option        “ButtonMapping”   “1 2 3 4 5 8 9 6 7″ #RH
EndSection

and replaced the system configured mouse entry in the ServerLayout Section like this:

Section “ServerLayout”
Identifier    “Default Layout”
Screen        “Default Screen”
InputDevice    “Generic Keyboard”
#InputDevice    “Configured Mouse”
InputDevice    “Mouse[5]”
EndSection

The key was using Linerd’s button mapping option with Linux-Gamers’ xorg.conf section.
Be sure that you get your own event number for the line: Option      “Device” “/dev/input/event5″  from cat /proc/bus/input/devices . Mine was 5, yours may be different.

Also I did not have success until I removed my orignal mouse. At first I had them both plugged in and I think it was messing with me.

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6 Responses to How I got the Logitech LX8 Mouse to work in Linux

  1. Pingback: gamer keyboard | Dell.com

  2. Linerd says:

    Thanks for the link.

    Were you able to get the side scrolling to work?

  3. Ken says:

    I thought that the side scrolling was working, at least in Firefox, but now I see that is not working. I wonder what happened?

  4. Ken says:

    Side scrolling is working again. Tested in Firefox and Konqueror.
    I found that the mouse was no longer being identified as /dev/input/event5, but rather is coming up as /dev/input/event1
    I edited xorg.conf and changed the event5 to event1 and now the side scrolling works and the back and forward buttons also work in FF.
    It must have happened when I moved the receiver from my usb hub to the back of my machine. It survived a reboot, so I think it will be stable now. However, if it moves around again, I will have to see if a udev rule can make it stick.

  5. Linerd says:

    Got my side scrolling working using the “evdev” driver however the “ButtonMapping” line doesn’t appear to have any effect on my machine. I’m using Ubuntu 8.04. I had to create a .Xmodmap file in my home directory to get the side scrolling going in the proper direction. I’m working on making this global.

    I also figured out that you can make the device configuration persistent by using the listing under /dev/input/by-id. Here’s my mouse section of xorg.conf.
    Section “InputDevice”
    Identifier “LX8″
    Driver “evdev”
    Option “Device” “/dev/input/by-id/usb-Logitech_USB_Receiver-event-mouse”
    EndSection
    And the ServerLayout section looks like this.
    Section “ServerLayout”
    Identifier “Default Layout”
    screen 0 “Screen0″ 0 0
    Inputdevice “Generic Keyboard”
    Inputdevice “LX8″
    EndSection
    And finally, my .Xmodmap file contains the single line:
    pointer = 1 2 3 4 5 7 6 8 9

  6. Pingback: Update: Logitech LX8 in Ubuntu : Tux Tweaks

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