MOUSED(8) FreeBSD System Manager's Manual MOUSED(8)
NAME
moused - pass mouse data to the console driver
SYNOPSIS
moused [-dfg] [-I file] [-F rate] [-r resolution]
[-VH [-U distance -L distance]] [-A exp[,offset]] [-a X[,Y]]
[-C threshold] [-m N=M] [-w N] [-z target] [-t interfacetype]
[-l level] [-3 [-E timeout]] [-T distance[,time[,after]]] -p port
moused [-d] -p port -i info
DESCRIPTION
The moused utility and the console driver work together to support mouse
operation in the text console and user programs. They virtualize the
mouse and provide user programs with mouse data in the standard format
(see sysmouse(4)).
The mouse daemon listens to the specified port for mouse data, interprets
and then passes it via ioctls to the console driver. Supported data
interfaces are "input event device" AKA evdev and sysmouse(4) level 1.
The mouse daemon reports translation movement, button press/release
events and movement of the roller or the wheel if available. The
roller/wheel movement is reported as "Z" axis movement.
The console driver will display the mouse pointer on the screen and
provide cut and paste functions if the mouse pointer is enabled in the
virtual console via vidcontrol(1). If sysmouse(4) is opened by the user
program, the console driver also passes the mouse data to the device so
that the user program will see it.
If the mouse daemon receives the signal SIGHUP, it will reopen the mouse
port and reinitialize itself. Useful if the mouse is attached/detached
while the system is suspended.
If the mouse daemon receives the signal SIGUSR1, it will stop passing
mouse events. Sending the signal SIGUSR1 again will resume passing mouse
events. Useful if your typing on a laptop is interrupted by accidentally
touching the mouse pad.
The following options are available:
-3 Emulate the third (middle) button for 2-button mice. It is
emulated by pressing the left and right physical buttons
simultaneously.
-C threshold
Set double click speed as the maximum interval in msec between
button clicks. Without this option, the default value of 500
msec will be assumed. This option will have effect only on the
cut and paste operations in the text mode console. The user
program which is reading mouse data via sysmouse(4) will not be
affected.
-E timeout
When the third button emulation is enabled (see above), the
moused utility waits timeout msec at most before deciding whether
two buttons are being pressed simultaneously. The default
timeout is 100 msec.
-F rate
Only for sysmouse(4) interface. Set the report rate
(reports/sec) of the device if supported.
-L distance
When "Virtual Scrolling" is enabled, the -L option can be used to
set the distance (in pixels) that the mouse must move before a
scroll event is generated. This effectively controls the
scrolling speed. The default distance is 2 pixels.
-H Enable "Horizontal Virtual Scrolling". With this option set,
holding the middle mouse button down will cause motion to be
interpreted as horizontal scrolling. Use the -U option to set
the distance the mouse must move before the scrolling mode is
activated and the -L option to set the scrolling speed. This
option may be used with or without the -V option.
-I file
Write the process id of the moused utility in the specified file.
Without this option, the process id will be stored in
/var/run/moused.pid.
-T distance[,time[,after]]
Terminate drift. Use this option if mouse pointer slowly wanders
when mouse is not moved. Movements up to distance (for example
4) pixels (X+Y) in time msec (default 500) are ignored, except
during after msec (default 4000) since last real mouse movement.
-V Enable "Virtual Scrolling". With this option set, holding the
middle mouse button down will cause motion to be interpreted as
scrolling. Use the -U option to set the distance the mouse must
move before the scrolling mode is activated and the -L option to
set the scrolling speed.
-U distance
When "Virtual Scrolling" is enabled, the -U option can be used to
set the distance (in pixels) that the mouse must move before the
scrolling mode is activated. The default distance is 3 pixels.
-A exp[,offset]
Apply exponential (dynamic) acceleration to mouse movements: the
faster you move the mouse, the more it will be accelerated. That
means that small mouse movements are not accelerated, so they are
still very accurate, while a faster movement will drive the
pointer quickly across the screen.
The exp value specifies the exponent, which is basically the
amount of acceleration. Useful values are in the range 1.1 to
2.0, but it depends on your mouse hardware and your personal
preference. A value of 1.0 means no exponential acceleration. A
value of 2.0 means squared acceleration (i.e. if you move the
mouse twice as fast, the pointer will move four times as fast on
the screen). Values beyond 2.0 are possible but not recommended.
A good value to start is probably 1.5.
The optional offset value specifies the distance at which the
acceleration begins. The default is 1.0, which means that the
acceleration is applied to movements larger than one unit. If
you specify a larger value, it takes more speed for the
acceleration to kick in, i.e. the speed range for small and
accurate movements is wider. Usually the default should be
sufficient, but if you're not satisfied with the behaviour, try a
value of 2.0.
Note that the -A option interacts badly with the X server's own
acceleration, which doesn't work very well anyway. Therefore it
is recommended to switch it off if necessary: "xset m 1".
-a X[,Y]
Accelerate or decelerate the mouse input. This is a linear
acceleration only. Values less than 1.0 slow down movement,
values greater than 1.0 speed it up. Specifying only one value
sets the acceleration for both axes.
You can use the -a and -A options at the same time to have the
combined effect of linear and exponential acceleration.
-d Enable debugging messages.
-f Do not become a daemon and instead run as a foreground process.
Useful for testing and debugging.
-g Only for evdev interface. Become the sole recipient of all
incoming input events. This prevents other processes from
getting input events on the device.
-i info
Print specified information and quit. Available pieces of
information are:
port Port (device file) name, i.e. /dev/input/event0,
/dev/ums0 and /dev/psm0.
if Interface type: "evdev" or "sysmouse".
type Device type: "mouse" or "touchpad".
model Mouse model.
all All of the above items. Print port, type and model in
this order in one line.
If the moused utility cannot determine the requested information,
it prints "unknown" or "generic".
-l level
Ignored. Used for compatibility with legacy moused.
-m N=M Assign the physical button M to the logical button N. You may
specify as many instances of this option as you like. More than
one physical button may be assigned to a logical button at the
same time. In this case the logical button will be down, if
either of the assigned physical buttons is held down. Do not put
space around `='.
-p port
Use port to communicate with the mouse.
-r resolution
Only for sysmouse(4) interface. Set the resolution of the
device; in Dots Per Inch, or low, medium-low, medium-high or
high. This option may not be supported by all the device.
-t type
Force the interface type of the mouse attached to the port. You
may explicitly specify a type listed below, or use auto to let
the moused utility automatically select an appropriate protocol
for the given character device. If you entirely omit this option
in the command line, -t auto is assumed.
Valid types for this option are listed below.
evdev Input event device usualy residing in /dev/input.
sysmouse Traditional protocol used by e.g. ums(4) and psm(4)
drivers.
Note that this option restricts usage of the given port rather
then gives a hint.
-q config
Path to configuration file.
-Q quirks
Path to quirks directory.
-w N Make the physical button N act as the wheel mode button. While
this button is pressed, X and Y axis movement is reported to be
zero and the Y axis movement is mapped to Z axis. You may
further map the Z axis movement to virtual buttons by the -z
option below.
-z target
Map Z axis (roller/wheel) movement to another axis or to virtual
buttons. Valid target maybe:
x
y X or Y axis movement will be reported when the Z axis
movement is detected.
N Report down events for the virtual buttons N and N+1
respectively when negative and positive Z axis movement is
detected. There do not need to be physical buttons N and
N+1. Note that mapping to logical buttons is carried out
after mapping from the Z axis movement to the virtual
buttons is done.
N1 N2
Report down events for the virtual buttons N1 and N2
respectively when negative and positive Z axis movement is
detected.
N1 N2 N3 N4
This is useful for the mouse with two wheels of which the
second wheel is used to generate horizontal scroll action,
and for the mouse which has a knob or a stick which can
detect the horizontal force applied by the user.
The motion of the second wheel will be mapped to the buttons
N3, for the negative direction, and N4, for the positive
direction. If the buttons N3 and N4 actually exist in this
mouse, their actions will not be detected.
Note that horizontal movement or second roller/wheel
movement may not always be detected, because there appears
to be no accepted standard as to how it is encoded.
Note also that some mice think left is the negative
horizontal direction; others may think otherwise. Moreover,
there are some mice whose two wheels are both mounted
vertically, and the direction of the second vertical wheel
does not match the first one.
Multiple Mice
The moused utility may operate in 2 different modes depending on the
value of -p option. When started with -p auto option specified the
moused handles all recognized pointing devices in a single instance.
Device hotplug is supported through devd(8). Only evdev interface is
available in this mode. When started with -p <selected_port> option
specified the moused handles single device located at <selected_port>.
Both evdev and sysmouse(4) level 1 interfaces are available in this mode.
Multiple moused instances may be run simultaneously.
FILES
/dev/consolectl device to control the console
/dev/input/event%d Input event device
/dev/psm%d PS/2 mouse driver
/dev/sysmouse virtualized mouse driver
/dev/ums%d USB mouse driver
/var/run/moused.pid process id of the currently running moused utility
EXAMPLES
moused -p auto
vidcontrol -m on
Start moused utility to handle all evdev pointing devices automatically
with hotplug support. And enable the mouse pointer in the text console
after than. The daemon can be started without the -p option as well.
moused -f -d -g -p /dev/input/event0
Start the mouse daemon on the /dev/input/event0 in the exclusive
foreground debug mode. Exclusive mode may disable mouse in Xorg session.
moused -p /dev/input/event0 -m 1=3 -m 3=1
Assign the physical button 3 (right button) to the logical button 1
(logical left) and the physical button 1 (left) to the logical button 3
(logical right). This will effectively swap the left and right buttons.
moused -p /dev/input/event0 -z 4
Report negative Z axis movement (i.e., mouse wheel) as the button 4
pressed and positive Z axis movement (i.e., mouse wheel) as the button 5
pressed.
If you add
ALL ALL = NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/killall -USR1 moused
to your /usr/local/etc/sudoers file, and bind
killall -USR1 moused
to a key in your window manager, you can suspend mouse events on your
laptop if you keep brushing over the mouse pad while typing.
SEE ALSO
moused.conf(5), kill(1), vidcontrol(1), xset(1), keyboard(4), psm(4),
sysmouse(4), ums(4), devd(8)
HISTORY
The moused utility first appeared in FreeBSD 2.2. It was rewritten to
support multiple input event devices in FreeBSD 15.0.
AUTHORS
The moused utility was originally written by Michael Smith
<msmith@FreeBSD.org>. This manual page was written by Mike Pritchard
<mpp@FreeBSD.org>. The command and manual page have since been updated
by Kazutaka Yokota <yokota@FreeBSD.org>. Multiple input event devices
support was added by Vladimir Kondratyev <wulf@FreeBSD.org>.
CAVEATS
Cut and paste functions in the virtual console assume that there are
three buttons on the mouse. The logical button 1 (logical left) selects
a region of text in the console and copies it to the cut buffer. The
logical button 3 (logical right) extends the selected region. The
logical button 2 (logical middle) pastes the selected text at the text
cursor position. If the mouse has only two buttons, the middle, `paste'
button is not available. To obtain the paste function, use the -3 option
to emulate the middle button, or use the -m option to assign the physical
right button to the logical middle button: "-m 2=3".
FreeBSD 15.1-STABLE-HBSD June 14, 2025 MOUSED(8)