solved: answer in comments. short answer is Piper needed to be installed.
I installed solaar.
It calls my mouse a m500s. In Solaar i set key/button diversion (there are 2 drop down menus) one i set to forward button the other i set to regular. This causes one of the buttons on the side of the mouse to act as the forward button on a web browser.
key/button actions drop down menus (2 drop down menus) I set to back button and mouse back button.
when i run
xev -event mouse | grep -b2 button
4319-ButtonPress event, serial 25, synthetic NO, window 0x3000001, 4381- root 0x1e5, subw 0x3000002, time 13605046, (43,38), root:(75,102), 4452: state 0x10, button 9, same_screen YES 4494- 4495-EnterNotify event, serial 25, synthetic NO, window 0x3000001,
4708-ButtonRelease event, serial 25, synthetic NO, window 0x3000001, 4772- root 0x1e5, subw 0x3000002, time 13605214, (43,38), root:(75,102), 4843: state 0x10, button 9, same_screen YES 4885- 4886-LeaveNotify event, serial 25, synthetic NO, window 0x3000001,
that is the result if I hit the forward button on the side of the mouse in the test window. but no result of hitting the other side button (the back button).
I know that the o/s isn’t recognizing the button press but not sure how to get linux mint to recognize the pressing of the button.
any thoughts on how to fix this issue?
You shouldn’t need to do any configuration to get those buttons working, unless you changed their purpose in the past.
Try using Piper (ideally from your distro) to double check the buttons are configured correctly.
Another cause of the buttons not working is if you I use something like imwheel, which is an X utility to change scroll speed. Similar tools may also cause issues.
