I’m using Debian 12 from a fresh install (with Wayland). The mouse I’m using is an Azeron Cyro keypad. Azeron does not offer configuration software for Linux, but the device has onboard memory and can be configured via Windows or windows emulator. Importantly, what I’m trying to achieve here is not possible on Windows using Azeron’s software.
My goal is to use one of the 16 keypad buttons on the mouse to disable mouse movement while pressed, resuming mouse movement when released. This is how I currently use the mouse in Windows so that I do not have to lift the mouse to reposition it. I’m able to achieve using reWASD on Windows, but they also do not offer a Linux version of their software.
I’ve tried a few different solutions, but I haven’t been able to find something that fits this need, so I’m hoping someone might be able to guide me in a better direction:
- AntiMicroX - I’ve tried using the Flatpak, AppImage, and .deb packages. The software works as expected on other devices (for example, an xbox controller), and while my mouse shows up as a device, the button remapping does not work, the thumb stick is not available for calibration, and there seems to be no access to the mouse sensor.
- Input-Remapper - Very similar results to AntiMicroX, and also, I don’t see a way to use Input-Remapper to disable mouse input anyway.
- Mouseless - While I can generate mouse movement commands through Mouseless, I haven’t been able to disable mouse movement from my physical mouse.
- evdevremapkeys - This has been my most successful tool. With the debugger, I’m able to see my key presses (unless I have the key unmapped on the mouse) and I’m able to remap existing keys with a yaml configuration, but I’ve still not found a way to disable the mouse input.
I found something that seemed close to what I need in a two year old reddit post which mentions that it’s possible with Sway (via man sway-input). I don’t understand the proposed solution though and I’m not very familiar with compositors, how to interact with them or how installing one would affect my OS environment…
Does anyone know of a way I might be able to achieve this?
Thanks very much for explaining a bit about Sway and compositors in general - that makes more sense now!
I did find the keyboard shortcuts exactly as you described, that’s something I didn’t know about before! Unfortunately, I don’t think the mouse speed setting is exactly as it sounds:
Pointer speed for mice. Accepted values are in the [-1..1] range (from “unaccelerated” to “fast”). A value of 0 is the system default.
It looks like it’s related to the acceleration, not the base movement speed. When I tested, even a value of -1 only slows the mouse instead of stopping it completely. There may be something else that will work, knowing that a custom shortcut exists that can execute a command does open up options I haven’t looked at yet.
