How to fix microsoft mouse scrolling speed on ubuntu

Question

In case someone gets the same problem as I just got.

When switching from Windows to Ubuntu (in dual-boot) my Microsoft wireless mouse scroll wheel goes nuts! It's totally over-sensitive.

Solution 1

Open a prompt

List your devices, pay attention to the id from the device you want to fix, if there are 2 of them, it's ok.

$ xinput list

Mine was 9 and 10

⎡ Virtual core pointer                      id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Microsoft Microsoft® 2.4GHz Transceiver v8.0  id=9    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Microsoft Microsoft® 2.4GHz Transceiver v8.0  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 Microsoft® 2.4GHz Transceiver v8.0  id=8    [slave  keyboard (3)]

Now do this, x being your id

$ xinput list-props x | grep 'Scrolling Distance'
Evdev Scrolling Distance (255): 1, 1, 1

Finally, the trick is to find your ideal values, mine were 10, 10, 10

$ xinput set-prop x 'Evdev Scrolling Distance' 10, 10, 10

To permanently set the change (source):

A hidden file in your directory is ".profile" (Ctrl+H to see hidden files) Double click on it and open it. Copy paste the previous command at the end. That's it!

P.S. to apply the same command for all users you can edit the file /etc/profile (not an hidden file).

You are now good to go!

Solution 2

It's a hack, but un-/re-pluggin the USB transceiver lets Ubuntu properly set the resolution and you get a very reasonable scroll speed. I've been using this trick on every Ubuntu release for the last few years. I rarely reboot my machine so it's the easiest solution for me :)

Perhaps someone can explain why this works.

Solution 3

A solution that works for me for the wireless mouse scroll speed problem:

The order when enabling Linux modules is very important.

Add a file named /etc/modprobe.d/mshid.conf containing:

install hid-generic /sbin/modprobe hid ; /sbin/modprobe usbhid ; /sbin/modprobe -i hid-generic ; true

This ensures the correct loading order and the scroll speed is then normal. This is what happens in the background when the system is on, when removing and adding back the transceiver. This works in other distributions than Ubuntu. A reboot is required for this to work.

Comments

[Terrance]

You should do this as a question and answer. stackoverflow.blog/2011/07/01/…

[Ted Feng]

This works for me, sourceforge.net/projects/resetmsmice, the speed issue only happens if you dual-boot from Windows to Ubuntu.

[Royi]

This is perfect! I +1 it. It seems not all systems are configured for High Resolution mouses. At least according to Microsoft - support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/303091/…. My settings were 8.

[Royi]

This works on Linux Mint 18.2 (Sonya) as well.

[Dogweather]

Any ideas for Ubuntu 17, now on Wayland?

[Michael Sandman]

This project might help sourceforge.net/projects/resetmsmice

[João Victor Zanatta]

I figured that out but since i reboot mine all the time and the dongle is in a bad spot i prefer to set by software

[kalan]

Thx. That worked for me.

[smartmouse]

This doesn't work with me because I haven't any "Scrolling Distance" in the settings of my mouse.

[Benjamin Barrois]

That worked for me too, and no need to reboot!

[ItalyPaleAle]

After trying a lot of things, this was finally the only thing that worked for me! (on Mint 19)

[Thiru VT]

I am using a micro-soft all in one keyboard with a touchpad. The touch pad also does not have a "Scrolling Distance"

[Thiru VT]

Ok. It's still not very smooth for my all in one Microsoft key-board. But it's good enough for web browsing. Thanks.

[Bevor]

The scrolling was suddenly very slow. This trick solved it.