No Center Mouse Key - Can I Map A Keyboard Key?

I have a Pi B+ with a Rii wireless keyboard and touchpad. I have no center mouse button. Is there a way I could map a keyboard key (e.g. email) to this middle button? Thanks.

You can use keymapper or 3rdButton (use the keyboard menu key).

Thanks for your reply. I tried 3rdButton first. It was blocked by my browser as potential virus/spyware. (I’m using my PC to download and a USB stick to transfer the files since RISC OS doesn’t support wireless and my router is in the kitchen by the only working phone jack.) I assume it’s a false positive since it’s not PC code.

Then I tried Keymapper. I got much farther and actually got the unzipped files to the Pi. The readme file gives an example of swapping the mouse buttons. It indicated ‘internal key numbers’ of 112 and 114, leaving me to believe that the center button is 113. The readme referred me to the PRMs for the rest of the key numbers. What I found in the PRMs (1-879) is that the mouse buttons are 9, 10, and 11. Now I’m just confused.

The PRMs give the key numbers for the Archimedes keyboard. I still have no idea how to find the numbers supplied by my Rii keyboard. Does anyone know the number for the “Win” key? I don’t think I’ll have a use for that on the Pi.

Can anyone help? Thanks in advance.

3rdButton: I can download without problems (Win7 with activ “anti-software”).

Keymapper: You need the Low-Level Internal Key Numbers .

Thanks for all your help.

I downloaded 3rdButton using a different browser. I brought the file to the Pi on a USB stick. I double clicked the zip file to open it. There’s a single file in the zip folder. I tried double clicking on the file, but nothing appeared to happen. What do I need to do to install it? Sorry to be so dense. I’m doing well with Raspbian now, but I’m a complete noob when it comes to RISC OS.

Now that I’ve looked at the Low-Level Internal Key Numbers, I don’t think my Rii keyboard has a menu key. I have one Win key and only 2 choices for it’s code. Same question on installing keymapper, plus, where do I put the “keymap num num” so it runs at boot up every time?

Thanks for your help

3rdButton is a module. Doubleclick or take it to !Boot.Choices.Boot.Predesk and restart…
The middle mouse button is placed at the “Keyboard menu key”. I have a changed version for myself (right STRG/CTRL). “Win” key is also possible but it must be recompiled.

I think our posts crossed and you might not have seen what I added. Since I have no menu key I can’t use 3rdButton.

Where do I put “*KeyMap number number” so it runs every time Risc OS starts?

Thanks for all your help.

Yes, crossed ;-)

I can Build a 3rdButton version for “Win” key (Left or right?)

Keymapper: Load KeyMapper in Predesk and create a Obey with your *KeyMap and take it to Tasks… use !Configure or doubleklick to !Boot → Boot →Run at… I think.

My Win button is on the right of the keyboard, but that’s no guarantee.

At the risk of saying something stupid, would it be an idea to simply buy a three button mouse? (That is, with a clickable scroll wheel.) The menu key is so much incorporated in the whole OS that buying such mouse is probably worth the costs, while it isn’t very expensive in the first place.

Does the OP need a little app to display the number of a key that is pressed, so he can configure Keymapper or 3rdbutton correctly?

I find KeyMapper an essential addition on the Atrix Lapdock for a Break key.

Given the growth in hardware options for running RISC OS, I’d guess there are other keyboard remappings that people may need. Has James Peacock’s module therefore been considered a candidate for inclusion in the standard distribution, or are there technical or practical reasons for not doing so?

Given the growth in hardware options for running RISC OS, I’d guess there are other keyboard remappings that people may need

This sounds like a nice configure addition to the keyboard area?

A button called ‘Remap keys’?

Edit: I will remember how to do formatting properly! honest!

Translation of all the above comments in combination:-

Load Keymapper module then

Set the windows keys to be mouse menu key equivalents:
keymap 104 113 left windows key mapped to mouse menu button
keymap 105 113 right windows key mapped to mouse menu button

to reset to defaults:
keymapreset

This sounds like a nice configure addition to the keyboard area?

A button called ‘Remap keys’?

Actually, it’s tempting to suggest that an option to allow mapping of the Windows keys on such keyboard to something other than the middle mouse button but to have a default action on the Windows keys of simulate middle mouse button. That way new users without a three button mouse can use the keyboard for menu actions and for those who do have three button mice they have the option of mapping the keys to something else.

Actually, it’s tempting to suggest that an option to allow mapping of the Windows keys on such keyboard to something other than the middle mouse button but to have a default action on the Windows keys of simulate middle mouse button.

But my keyboard does have a “Menu” button (the one with the icon of a drop-down menu), as, I’m sure, do very many others, so this would seem (to me) to be the most suitable default for simulation of the Menu (or middle) mouse button. Leave the Windows™ buttons for more arcane uses, like summoning demons (or daemons?).

But, as has already been observed, scroll wheel USB mice are incredibly cheap and have the advantage that both the middle button Menu feature and the scrolling with suitable apps (including the filer!) become available.

For me, what our trans-atlantic friends call “a no-brainer” (or so, M’Lud, I’m informed).

But my keyboard does have a “Menu” button (the one with the icon of a drop-down menu), as, I’m sure, do very many others

It all depends on the circumstances. For those with a menu key then that’s an option.

Now if you wander along to the Rii web site and check out their products you will find they do a range of keyboards which in some cases have a Win key but no “menu” key along with other products without even a Win key.
So to answer the original question (command details I gave before) and to deal with the reprogramming of the most commonly available extra key I’d say reprogram the Win keys.

It’s especially pertinent in this case where the questioner has a Win key but likely not a “Menu” key.
What I, and hopefully others, get from this is that irrespective of how cheap the mice may be¹ they have two disadvantages relative to programming an available keyboard key:

1. They add extra bulk to carry around
2. They aren’t zero cost

¹ Of course if anyone can come up with free mice then we can ditch the keyboard reprogramming if bulk isn’t an issue.

All other (CTRL right, Win left, Win right) 3rdButtons I have (if anyone find nice to use) are here .
Other possible.

But my keyboard does have a “Menu” button (the one with the icon of a drop-down menu),

As does my inexpensive generic keyboard. I think it was a requirement of the early “Windows keyboard” to have the two WinLogo keys and one Menu key; but the Menu key and/or right WinLogo are often discarded for space on a reduced-size keyboard (laptops, etc).

Leave the Windows™ buttons for more arcane uses, like summoning demons (or daemons?).

;-)

Now if you wander along to the Rii web site and check out their products

Well, you don’t get a keyboard of those sorts of sizes without compromises.

What I, and hopefully others, get from this is that irrespective of how cheap the mice may be1 they have two disadvantages relative to programming an available keyboard key:
1. They add extra bulk to carry around
2. They aren’t zero cost

…but doesn’t RISC OS pretty much require some sort of pointing device? I guess a touchpad might be able to fake it, though I think the majority are likely to still be using a physical mouse.

While they are not zero cost¹, the benefit is the scroll wheel works in other OSs so it isn’t a purely RISC OS investment. Given that RISC OS absolutely does NOT have on-screen menus and works exclusively with contextual pop-up menus (invoked by the Menu button), I can imagine that any compromise will quickly become a pain in the backside. To give you an idea, my netbook has a two-button touchpad. In RedSquirrel, I mapped Menu to the right mouse button (and Adjust is the Menu key)². That’s how often you may need it, and having it somewhere other than right there on the pointing device will just be cumbersome.

¹ Mine was free. Rescued from a bin at work, given some TLC, good as new.

² You can get by without Adjust. You can get nowhere without Menu.

All other (CTRL right, Win left, Win right) 3rdButtons I have (if anyone find nice to use) are here .

Strange. You seem to be using a recent version of WebWonder, but the URL given in the credit link at the bottom is three iterations out of date!

Should be: http://www.dsnell.co.uk/Wonder.html

…but doesn’t RISC OS pretty much require some sort of pointing device?

You mean like the built in touch / glide pad on various Rii products?

Thank you everyone for the lively discussion. Special thanks to Raik for WinR and WinL versions of 3rdButton. One of those should work. Now all I have to do is make sense of the installation instructions posted earlier. :)

I’ve gotten by on the Rii with a touchpad with Rasbian for the 2 months I’ve owned my Pi. I’m looking into Risc OS because of a recommendation from a book, Bruce Smith’s “Raspberry Pi Assembly Language Rasbian Beginners”. He says if I want to get deeper into assembly language programming I should look here. Who knows, If I like it here I might decide I need a three button mouse.

And Dave Higton, such an app would be handy.

I’m off to try installing.

3rdButton_WL works, if I double click it, but it does not survive a reboot. I’ve had no luck following the above instructions for installing. I can find !Boot and there’s a ‘Boot’ inside it, but no ‘Choices’. I’ve learned that things left on the desktop don’t survive a reboot. I’ve put 3rdButton_WL on the SD card in Apps.

My knowledge of Linux gave me a leg up with Raspberian. I’m nearly lost in Risc OS. If someone can tell me how to install a module so it runs on every boot, in the most basic of terms, I would appreciate it. Thanks again

Doubleclick !Configure or !Boot —> Boot —> Run and Drag&Drop 3rdButton to the “Run at startup” window → Set

Manually [shift] + doublklick !Boot… only if you know what you do.

I happened upon the [shift] + doubleclick !Boot method. I don’t know what I’m doing :) but I found Choices there. I followed the path given earlier “!Boot.Choices.Boot.Predesk” and dragged 3rdButton_WL into Predesk. I rebooted and it worked.

I think I’ll read some tutorials now that I have the middle button to follow along.

Thanks for all your help.