---
title: Invert mouse scroll wheel in Debian
author: James McDonald
type: post
date: 2011-07-21T11:49:01+00:00
url: /2011/07/invert-mouse-scroll-wheel-in-debian/
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categories:
  - Hacks

---
I've been using the beta of MacOS X Lion for a few weeks now, and after a few days of initial annoyance I've grown to really like the inverted sense of the scroll wheel. I recall when I first got one, in fact, and found the direction downright confusing. This seems to have been an easy behaviour to unlearn.

My desktop box at work runs Debian, and I wanted the same behaviour there to
stop me getting split-brain and dribbling a lot. There was a time when a quick
change in xorg.conf to `ZAxisMapping "5 4"` would do this, but it's not so the
modern age of HIDs and evdevs. After a bit of messing about I figured out how
to flip the scroll wheel. This will probably work for Ubuntu too.

  * Open the file `/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-evdev.conf`
  * Look for the section with `MatchIsPointer "on"`. It&#8217;s at the top by default.
  * Add this line:

```
Option "ButtonMapping" "1 2 3 5 4 6 7 8"
```

  * Add more buttons if you need them for your mouse. The section should look like:
  
```
Section "InputClass"
    Identifier "evdev pointer catchall"
    MatchIsPointer "on"
    MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
    Driver "evdev"
    Option "ButtonMapping" "1 2 3 5 4 6 7 8"
EndSection
```
  
That's it! Just restart X.
