Turning off mouse acceleration in ubuntu-12.04

If you install ubuntu-12.04, you may notice that the mouse acceleration is troublesome to get rid of. Moving the sliders (System Settings -> Mouse and Touchpad -> Pointer Speed -> Acceleration) all the way to the left does not completely remove it. This mouse acceleration reduces your ability to target your enemies when playing ET.

Here is how to fix it:

Create a text file named "mousespeed". Put it wherever you want, your desktop or home folder are fine locations.

In the file, enter this text:

user@Asus-K53U:~$ nano ~/.mousespeed
xinput set-prop 'Logitech USB Optical Mouse' 'Device Accel Profile' -1
xinput set-prop 'Logitech USB Optical Mouse' 'Device Accel Constant Deceleration' 1


Be sure to change "user@Asus-K53U" to whatever your username@your computer name is. Also add your type of mouse in place of "Logitech USB Optical Mouse".

You can see your mouse type by typing "xinput list" in your terminal.


Then open the terminal and type this command:

sh ~/mousespeed


Depending on your ubuntu log-in privileges, you may need to try this command instead:

sudo sh ~/mousespeed

(followed by your admin password)

The terminal may tell you that the file is "not found". However you should notice an instant change in your mouse. It will move more consistently. To test this, move it side to side a set distance (say 3 inches or 10 centimeters, whatever). It should now move the same distance on your screen, whether you move it slowly or quickly. The acceleration has been removed.

For more details, see http://www.linuxlog.org/?p=107

The first line in the file doesn't belong there. What is there is a typical Linux prompt which is username@computername:~$ The "nano ~/.mousepad will call the nano editor and open a file in the current directory named ".mousepad". The dot at the beginning of the name will make it a hidden file.

I think in the example the author was just showing how to open the new file for editing.

BTW, this did not work for me.

Also,

If you make the script executable you can run it directly without the sh command in front of it. Run the following command.

chmod +x filename

Then you can enter this to run the command.

./filename

This assumes that you are in the directory where the file is located. If not, just prefix the filename with the correct path.

You are right, the first line in the script is not needed. My bad.

The script works for my computer, on both 32-bit and 64-bit ubuntu 12.04. I am using an Asus K53U with a logitech mouse and there is a huge improvement.

Your mileage may vary.

For the record: This is not a problem with openSuSE.
Currently running 12.2

I found that the reason I didn't notice a difference is that mouse acceleration was already off. It had been set thru the GUI under System Settings->Mouse and Touchpad.

I use 1.00  mouse speed but I bump up the pitch to .060