Left handed mouse settings no longer working after system update

The same problem here. Can't switch to lefthanded anymore.

Same release, same Gnome version, same problem.

Thank you for your bug report. Could you please post the output of "xinput list".

Thanks

Chris, as requested the output of "xinput list" :

"Virtual core pointer" id=0 [XPointer]
 Num_buttons is 32
 Num_axes is 2
 Mode is Relative
 Motion_buffer is 256
 Axis 0 :
  Min_value is -1
  Max_value is -1
  Resolution is 0
 Axis 1 :
  Min_value is -1
  Max_value is -1
  Resolution is 0
"Virtual core keyboard" id=1 [XKeyboard]
 Num_keys is 248
 Min_keycode is 8
 Max_keycode is 255
"AT Translated Set 2 keyboard" id=2 [XExtensionKeyboard]
 Type is KEYBOARD
 Num_keys is 248
 Min_keycode is 8
 Max_keycode is 255
"Power Button" id=3 [XExtensionKeyboard]
 Type is KEYBOARD
 Num_keys is 248
 Min_keycode is 8
 Max_keycode is 255
"Power Button" id=4 [XExtensionKeyboard]
 Type is KEYBOARD
 Num_keys is 248
 Min_keycode is 8
 Max_keycode is 255
"Macintosh mouse button emulation" id=5 [XExtensionPointer]
 Type is MOUSE
 Num_buttons is 5
 Num_axes is 2
 Mode is Relative
 Motion_buffer is 256
 Axis 0 :
  Min_value is -1
  Max_value is -1
  Resolution is 1
 Axis 1 :
  Min_value is -1
  Max_value is -1
  Resolution is 1
"Dell Premium USB Optical Mouse" id=6 [XExtensionPointer]
 Type is MOUSE
 Num_buttons is 18
 Num_axes is 2
 Mode is Relative
 Motion_buffer is 256
 Axis 0 :
  Min_value is -1
  Max_value is -1
  Resolution is 1
 Axis 1 :
  Min_value is -1
  Max_value is -1
  Resolution is 1

The requested "xinput list".

Here is my "xinput list".

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-settings-daemon - 2.27.92-0ubuntu2

---------------
gnome-settings-daemon (2.27.92-0ubuntu2) karmic; urgency=low

  * debian/patches/91_git_update_fix_left_hand_setting.patch:
    - git change to fix left handed setting (lp: #426675)

 -- Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden> Thu, 10 Sep 2009 11:34:59 +0200

Thanks for fixing the problem.

Hilarious: "urgency=low"

For 10% of humanity this is nearly as bad as catastrophic data-loss, but it's only of low urgency. This is one of those "how on earth did this even get thru smoke tests" kind of bugs.

"urgency=low" has nothing at all to do with importance, but can be used to prioritize builds in Debian. AFAIK, the build daemons ignore this in Ubuntu, so it has absolutely no relevance here.

And this bug only affected a development release which isn't even Beta yet, so I don't see what your problem is. People run a development release to find issues like this. It's not like it happened in a stable update or anything.

Fix worked, thanks!

Works well Thanks for fixing.

Hum. Actually, it fixed the mouse, but not the touchpad. And I just confirmed it, by attaching a mouse to my laptop. Mouse works leftie all right (heh), touchpad is still inverted.

Chris, would you like a new bug, or should I reopen this one?

Did the touchpad work ok before you attached the mouse?

Both mouse and touchpad worked perfectly until the regression. After the fix being released, only the mouse is leftie.

could you give details on the touchapd issue? see bug #27724

Yes, this is Working As Fixed (TM)... touchpad, at least currently, will not be leftie. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=483639 explains this:

Comment #10 From Bastien Nocera 2009-04-29 16:44:15 EDT -------

(In reply to comment #9)
> This package does not work.
>
> What it did was to have the same effect as the original package in changing
> both the mouse and the touchpad from right to left-handed,

That'd be because you were still running the old code.

> but worse was that
> when logging back in it had reverted to right-handed behaviour despite the
> gnome preference still showing it was left-handed!

Yes, the touchpad will be right-handed because we can't separate the mapping
for tap and for the physical buttons. So you get one or the other. If this
isn't good enough for left-handed users, I'll close this and we'll have to wait
for the driver to be fixed.

I have the same problem having upgraded to Ubuntu 9.10.
USB mouse is (correctly) left-handed, but touchpad buttons cannot be re-mapped to be lefty, - permanently stuck in right-hand mode.

It seems installing gpointing-device-settings resolves this. Just installed it, as per comments from the RedHat bug I mentioned earlier.

Still to be verified, though.

I have the same problem since upgrading to 9.10, installing gpointing-device-settings unfortunately didn't solve it.

Indeed it does not.

temporary workaround:

- run "xinput list"
- Find the name of your touchpad (above the line "Type is TOUCHPAD")
- run xinput set-button-map "<your touchpad name>" 3 2 1

The problem is not completely fixed for the mouse either:

In fact, it is possible to switch to a left-handed mouse by using the corresponding setting in the mouse control panel and it works. However it does not work if you use the gconf-editor to activate the left-handed gconf key. If you set the mouse to left-handed by using the corresponding gconf key, you can see the setting in the mouse control panel reflecting the change, but the mouse does not behave as a left-handed mouse: for example a click with the left mouse button does not show the contextual menu.

I do not know whether it is related to the problem with the touchpad.

Does anybody know whether it is an Ubuntu specific bug or if I should also file a bug for it at bugzilla in GNOME?

The issue described there has been fixed before karmic, could somebody summarize what is broken right now?

Seb, to my understanding left-handed mice are working on Karmic /Lucid-- hell, I *use* it. What is still broken, and seems will be so for a while, is the touchpad, which can only be right-handed. See comment #17.

the touchpad is a different case and seems to be wanted, see comment #16

comments also suggest that the issue is not a gnome-settings-daemon one

I don't know for the touchpad, but it is simple to reproduce the problem for a normal mouse on the current karmic:

Simply open the configuration editor and activate the left_handed gconf key and click with the left mouse button some item: the contextual menu does not appear, but the item gets selected as if a primary click occurred instead of a secondary click.

However, if I used the Mouse control panel instead of the configuration editor to activate the left handedness of the mouse, the problem does not occur.

Finally, I have been told that the problem is fixed in some 2.29.x version in GNOME, but for the moment I have not been able to verify it with Ubuntu lucid, as lucid does not start up properly here.

why would users use the gconf-editor rather than the mouse capplet? it doesn't seem to be a priority issue...

It is an accessibility issue: for example, the onscreen keyboard that ships by default with Ubuntu toggles the left handedness gconf key to let the users that can only use one mouse button perform secondary clicks. But it does not work because of the issue described above.

As a work around, I assume that these users can keep the Mouse control panel open to toggle the handedness of the mouse.

The issue, about the left handedness of the mouse not working when activated by using the gconf key, does not occur anymore on the development version of Ubuntu lucid.

Closing since that works now

Still doesn't work in Karmic. I just upgraded from 9.04 to 9.10 yesterday. I checked, I have the latest version of gnome-settings-daemon, but I still can't switch to left-handed. I have a Dell Inspiron 1545, if it matters.
Makes it mildly tempting to switch back to Windows.

man xmodmap as suggested earlier offers a Temporary solution. i have entered this line in the terminal to change over to a left handed setup

EXAMPLES
       Many pointers are designed such that the first button is pressed using
       the index finger of the right hand. People who are left-handed fre‐
       quently find that it is more comfortable to reverse the button codes
       that get generated so that the primary button is pressed using the
       index finger of the left hand. This could be done on a 3 button
       pointer as follows:
       % xmodmap -e "pointer = 3 2 1"

however I am unable to change back to a right handed mouse in the sys>pref>mouse and further still the . g.i. there does not recognize that there is a difference in input L or R

I am not a programmer so im grateful that i didnt get stuck with an inoperable touchpad or mouse.

can someone please forward this to bugs for a fix or the author for an update.
I understand this is in transit to bugs now just thought i might take a chance and try to help solve this.

i am also unsure of the language in this example as it states a 3 button pointer as i stated originally i only have two buttons with my pad unless this is counted as the third(pad)

https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/107718

sorry if this is redundant i did see a similar suggestion further up the report

also when i set up another user account the "patch" if you will did not affect the other users setting just for fact dont know if that matters.

thanks for all the attention to this

I'm on 10.04. I'm right handed, but I use the left handed option some times to give my right hand a break. Been using my right hand for a few months now so decided to switch over today but there was no change with system->preferences->mouse. xmodmap does work.

Output from xinput list is:

⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)]
⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ USB Optical Mouse id=8 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ Microsoft Natural® Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 id=10 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ Macintosh mouse button emulation id=11 [slave pointer (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard id=3 [master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard id=5 [slave keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button id=6 [slave keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button id=7 [slave keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Microsoft Natural® Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 id=9 [slave keyboard (3)]

11.10 and this is back. Just installed Ubuntu today. Set the mouse to left handed, worked fine. Rebooted, and it's never worked again. xinput:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ xinput list
⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)]
⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ Kensington Kensington Expert Mouse id=8 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ Microsoft Natural® Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 id=10 [slave pointer (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard id=3 [master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard id=5 [slave keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button id=6 [slave keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button id=7 [slave keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Microsoft Natural® Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 id=9 [slave keyboard (3)]

It still doesn't work on Precise.
The "left-handed" option in the system settings has no effect.
I even changed the value of "left-handed" to "true" in the following file.
～/.gconf/desktop/gnome/peripherals/mouse/%gconf.xml
However, it didn't change anything.

BTW, I was using Arch with gnome 3 before. The left-handed option has been of no use since that time.
I installed ubuntu 12.04 yesterday in place of arch and attached the previous "/home" partition to the new system.
The first time I logged into the desktop, the left-handed option was selected by default because of the old config file, but the actual behavior of the mouse was still right-handed.

Nevertheless, I "tried ubuntu without installing" in the U-disk, the option worked.

and the xinput list

⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)]
⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ 2.4G KB 2.4G Mouse id=10 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ PS/2 Mouse id=12 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint id=13 [slave pointer (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard id=3 [master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard id=5 [slave keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Video Bus id=6 [slave keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button id=7 [slave keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Sleep Button id=8 [slave keyboard (3)]
    ↳ 2.4G KB 2.4G Mouse id=9 [slave keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard id=11 [slave keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Dell WMI hotkeys id=14 [slave keyboard (3)]

GNOME has switched from gconf to gsettings. It might be well possible that the corresponding key is now handled by gsettings. You can have a look at the gsettings keys by using the dconf-editor.

The "left-handed" option is also ticked in the dconf-editor. Anyway, it's ok now. Here's how I solved it:

Open dconf-editor, find org--gnome--settings-daemon--plugins--mouse, then tick "active".