How to add natural (/inverted) mouse-scrolling in i3 window manager?

Question

As you can maybe see, this is my first post. So, I have already been trying and researching a lot, but I still can't solve this problem.

---

I really enjoy natural scrolling, but not only on my touchpad, but also on my mouse - but this did not work so far. My current setup is Ubuntu 18.04.2 on a late 2012 (first hidpi) MacBook with i3 wm and I use a performance MX logitech mouse. This is a pretty new setup I installed yesterday.

I did invert my touchpad scrolling with synaptics and tried to modify my mouse keys with xmodkeys, but it did not work.

xmodmap -e 'pointer = 1 2 3 5 4 6 7 8 9 10 11 12'

The strange this is, that my mouse buttons are actually inverted (4 and 5) when I test it with xev, but this does not affect the scrolling behaviour. I could also remap other mouse keys, but the scrolling seems not changeable.

xinput
⎡ Virtual core pointer                      id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Logitech Performance MX                   id=10   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ bcm5974                                   id=13   [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)]
    ↳ Video Bus                                 id=7    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                              id=8    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Sleep Button                              id=9    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in):            id=11   [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad id=12   [slave  keyboard (3)]

xinput list-props 10
Device 'Logitech Performance MX':
    Device Enabled (143):   1
    Coordinate Transformation Matrix (145): 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
    libinput Natural Scrolling Enabled (278):   0
    libinput Natural Scrolling Enabled Default (279):   0
    libinput Scroll Methods Available (280):    0, 0, 1
    libinput Scroll Method Enabled (281):   0, 0, 0
    libinput Scroll Method Enabled Default (282):   0, 0, 0
    libinput Button Scrolling Button (283): 2
    libinput Button Scrolling Button Default (284): 2
    libinput Middle Emulation Enabled (285):    0
    libinput Middle Emulation Enabled Default (286):    0
    libinput Accel Speed (287): 0.000000
    libinput Accel Speed Default (288): 0.000000
    libinput Accel Profiles Available (289):    1, 1
    libinput Accel Profile Enabled (290):   1, 0
    libinput Accel Profile Enabled Default (291):   1, 0
    libinput Left Handed Enabled (292): 0
    libinput Left Handed Enabled Default (293): 0
    libinput Send Events Modes Available (263): 1, 0
    libinput Send Events Mode Enabled (264):    0, 0
    libinput Send Events Mode Enabled Default (265):    0, 0
    Device Node (266):  "/dev/input/event5"
    Device Product ID (267):    1133, 4122
    libinput Drag Lock Buttons (294):   <no items>
    libinput Horizontal Scroll Enabled (295):   1

---

I hope for any support, since I really want to have my natural scrolling back :> Peace!

Solution

Edit /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/40-libinput.conf

Add there Option "NaturalScrolling" "True" like this:

For your mouse:

# Match on all types of devices but joysticks
Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "libinput pointer catchall"
        MatchIsPointer "on"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
        Driver "libinput"
        Option "NaturalScrolling" "True"
EndSection

For your touchpad:

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "libinput touchpad catchall"
        MatchIsTouchpad "on"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
        Driver "libinput"
        Option "NaturalScrolling" "True"
EndSection

Then log off and on to apply.

Comments

[tbrodbeck]

I did add that to /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/40-libinput.conf and I did sudo apt remove xserver-xorg-input-synaptics. And I did log off. So far it is still exactly the same as befor (touchpad inverted but not mouse)

[Pilot6]

Did you add to both sections? I've edited my post.

[Pilot6]

Does xinput set-prop 13 278 1 fix it immediately?

[tbrodbeck]

AHHH :) Feels like I am back home. Thanks a lot! (now I included both sections)

[tbrodbeck]

Btw: I switched back to synaptic because I like the feel of the scrolling better, but the section for the mouse is still working

[Pilot6]

Yup, in synaptics you have scrolling has inertia, but libinput has better palm protection. You can do it in synaptics as well though.