Here's a great tip if you're wanting a little more flexibility with your input devices under IRIX. As of IRIX 6.5.16, support for multi-button mice (including scroll wheel) has been added, though it's not active by default.
Here are the possible systune settings for pcmouse_mode:
0 - Default 3-button mode
1 - 3-button Wheel Mouse (type 3), Wheel generates buttons 4 & 5.
2 - 5-button Wheel Mouse (type 4), Wheel & buttons 4 & 5 generate button events 4 & 5.
Since I am using a Intellimouse Explorer, I chose '2'. The command to activate support in my case would then be (as root):
systune pcmouse_mode 2
After a reboot both the scroll wheel and middle button should be active. On a five button mouse such as the Intellimouse Explorer, the two additional buttons function as scroll up/down. You should also see an entry in /var/adm/SYSLOG like this:
Dec 15 20:19:07 5A:Mika unix: NOTICE: pcmouse: type=4
I've found the scroll wheel works wonderfully with Mozilla, SkipStone and many freeware applications available on http://freeware.sgi.com. If you use aterm as your default terminal it works with that as well.
I'm having trouble giving up my granite mouse, but...this just rules too much. I love my scroll wheel.. =)
I was getting tired of constantly cleaning the rollers on the granite mouse (I love optical) ... of course having the scroll wheel is fantastic too :)
Do you know if there's a way to do this under Irix 6.5? The systune utility doesn't appear to recognize pcmouse_mode under this version of Irix..
I'm using a Dell branded IntelliMouse 1.3A -- works
nicely. I also tried some Logitech optical models, but only IntelliMouse mechanical models worked. I'd
love to be able to use an optical mouse.