How well do wireless mice work in Linux these days?

I have a thinkpad T61p notebook and I would like to get a mouse for it. I will be running Kubuntu 8.04 on it quite soon. I am looking into a wireless mouse and I don't know what kind to get and if it would even work in Linux reliably. The laptop has bluetooth built in. So here are some of my questions...

1.) What kind of wireless mouse should I get, one using Bluetooth, wireless RF etc? I don't know much about this.

2.) I want something that will work with Linux out of the box without tweaking.

3.) Do wireless mice work well with linux these days, or is it not worth the hassle and I should just stick to wired?

Any and all advice is welcome. Thanks.

 

I use a Logitech VX Revolution with Kubuntu 8.04. I've kept notes here:

http://lddubeau.com/avaktavyam/linux-on-a-compal-ifl90/logitech-vx-revolution-with-ubuntu/

To address your questions:

1. I don't know which technology is the best. The VX comes with a little USB dongle (RF I think). It is really small and can be stowed away inside the mouse when not in use.

2. I think most mice will be recognized right out of the box. (Although that's just a guess on my part.) If you have extra buttons it is likely that you will need software to make the buttons recognized. Btnx does that. For intance, my VX was recognized right out of the box but I could not use the extra buttons. I installed btnx to get full support.

3. I wanted a mouse which I could use in tight quarters without having to worry about cables getting in the way. I'm quite satisfied.

I think mice which have their own dongle will have the same compatibility issues as mice which are cabled because Linux see both as USB mice. I've never used a bluetooth mouse or a wireless-USB mouse so I don't know about those. (Wireless-USB is different than RF. Google it for details.)

 

Both Ubuntu and Kubuntu have Bluetooth services, so almost any wireless mouse should work.

 

Last year one of my friends intalled linux on his thinkpad. Wireless mouse was working out of the box.

 

I use a Kensington Bluetooth Mouse in Kubuntu.....Kubuntu set it right up out of the box with a click or two (8.04)

 

My VX also works out of the box, just as well as it did under windows. With the exception of the extra buttons, you'll need to set up Linux to work with those.

As for bluetooth, Ubuntu has it built in when you install it so I assume it would work.

I wonder how well a RF wireless keyboard would act though. I saw one at Best Buy with a power button on it. I wonder if Linux would accept a power on button from a wireless keyboard...

 

Both wireless mice I tried worked fine.

Better than the touchpad for scrolling.

 

I use the MX Revolution (my beautiful baby....) and it all works perfectly. I could even get all the button to do different things through Compiz.

 

I use the thinkpad bluetooth mouse on a t61p with arch linux with absolutely no problem at all.

 

Thanks everyone. I am currently deciding if I should get a bluetooth or RF mouse. It looks as if either will work ok. I wasn't sure if this technology was mature in Linux yet. I still remember people posting questions(including me) about getting the scroll wheel working on their mice in Linux and having to add a line in the xconfig file. I was wondering if the wireless mice were in the same state currently. Right now I am thinking of getting the Logitech LX-8 wireless Laser RF mouse. Hope that is a good choice.

On a side note I just popped in the Kubuntu 8.04 live CD into the machine and wow, everything was basically working out of the box, including the brightness controls and volume controls. Pretty amazing.

 

I would expect a scroll wheel to work right out of the box, without having to add a line to xorg.conf. (I'm assuming you mean xorg.conf by "xconfig". Otherwise, I misunderstood you.)

But that's an expectation. Some manufacturers like to do funny things and draw outside the lines (i.e. implement their own protocols which require their own proprietary drivers).

 

if you have built in bluetooth, it's a no brainer.....BT

 

Yes,
xorg.conf. I am a little rusty with my Linux config file names these days.

As far as adding the line in the file, I meant that this was common practice a few years ago, but not anymore.

 

There is a possible issue if you are going to attach an USB device under Linux. It can bring to a situation when CPU will never sleep and will be always in wake up state. That doesn't mean CPU will work on higher frequency, most likely CPU frequency will be minimal, but anyway it affects battery life and your laptop can be more noisy (like it has happened in my case). To check CPU state you can install and use powertop utility.

By this moment I have not found a solution, internet forums say something about dirty implementation of USB driver, some of them say it is USB 1.1 problem (mouse for example doesn't need USB 2.0, so it can use USB1,1 spec). USB1.1 devices ping system too frequently due to it spec. Hope the next kernel release fix it (I already has latest one).