[Note] New Keyboard and mouse - Linux middle mouse button emulation

This is a note on new keyboard and mouse I bought recently for my Linux desktop due to aging keyboard and mouse.

I've been using MS keyboard/mouse for many years (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CYX54C0/):

Pros:

• Most of key layout is great
• Ergonomic
• Perfect keyboard height and feeling of typing, quiet.

Cons: 

• Small function keys
• Strange layout of Insert/Del/Pg up-dn/Home/End keys.

I never got used to the mentioned keys as cons, and due to that, I always have to look at the keyboard for them.

Mouse is great, however, I like trackball for my wrist and shoulder over mouse, giving less stress on them.

 

I prefer keyboard with: 

• normal size keys and layout for the mentioned keys.
• non-bluetooth, wireless
• no number keypad

These are what I bought:

• Keyboard, https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084GMXD3S/

Pros: It's the old standard style keyboard - I can do touch type for function keys and insert/del/home/pg up-dn keys easily.  

Cons: The key height is little too tall -- I like laptop like keyboard height and feeling better.

These days, many OS/apps use much less of function keys, but it's great for IDEs and customize them to do whatever the user needs are.

• Mouse, https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0050SPZMK/

 
Everything is great, except that the location of buttons are a bit awkward, especially for the 2nd button.  It's too light, and can be pushed when clicking on buttons.  No 3rd button (middle button).

 

* * * * *

 

Note: emulating 3rd button

The track ball doesn't have middle button, and it can be emulated.  See https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/9973/configuring-mouse-for-rightleft-button-simulating-middle-click-for-copy-paste

 

# Find device number

xinput list

# Inspect device properties

xinput list-props 9

# Turn on the emulator for middle button

sudo xinput set-prop 9 "libinput Middle Emulation Enabled" 1

This setting can be in ~/.xstartup.  

 

Here are other ways that I haven't tried:

[1] Modify xorg.conf

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Configured Mouse"
        Driver          "mouse"
        Option          "CorePointer"
        Option          "Device"                "/dev/input/mice"
        Option          "Protocol"              "ImPS/2"
        Option          "Emulate3Buttons"       "true"
EndSection

[2] add in xorg.conf.d directory

Section "InputClass"
   Identifier "middle button"
   MatchIsPointer "on"
   MatchDriver "libinput"
   Option "MiddleEmulation" "on"
EndSection

xorg.conf file doesn't exist and xorg.conf.d is at /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/ for my Ubuntu 20.01.