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Remapping buttons in Linux

You can use the following command to remap the buttons:

xinput set-button-map <device-id> <button1> <button2> <button3> ... <buttonN>

The <device-id> is shown in the xinput list output – you can use the name as a string or the id number. You can query the actual button state using xinput query-state <device-id>.

The mouse has following button-ids:

Button	ID
Thumb button	9
Index finger button	1
Middle finger button	8
Ring finger button	3
Wheel button	2
Wheel up	4
Wheel down	5

See remapping mouse buttons on what buttons X11 recognizes.

According to this the default configuration (xinput set-button-map <device-id> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9) would give you middle click on the wheel button and right-click on the middle finger. The ring finger button would be for special use as well as the thumb button.

I for myself prefer having the middle-button on the middle finger and the right-click on the ring finger. So I mapped 8→3 and 3→2 and I also mapped 9→8 and 2→9 to have the wheel button and thumb button for special use in some programs which make use of additional buttons. My final xinput line looks like this:

#                       input id: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
xinput set-button-map <device-id> 1 9 2 4 5 6 7 3 8

You could also map 9→6 and 2→7 to have the 2 additional buttons emulate Wheel left and Wheel right:

#                       input id: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
xinput set-button-map <device-id> 1 7 2 4 5 8 9 3 6