Getting mouse wheel to work with KVM and Ubuntu

Published: November 03, 2008 (over 10 years ago)

Updated: about 4 years ago

I have been busy getting a Ubuntu based Network Attached Storage server up and running as well as finally switching my trusty desktop to Ubuntu running my old Windows XP as a VMWare Server image.  All was fine and dandy until I decided to add a KVM to the mix so I could easily switch between the NAS and my workstation without having to have two monitors and keyboards. Turns out the mouse wheel would stop working after a switcharoo.  It took me a little while to track down the solution on the Ubuntu forums.  There was a lot of back and forth in the comments, but this is the dead-simple solution:

Ensure the psmouse module is loading

Edit and add the following line to /etc/modules:

psmouse

You’ll need to use sudo (i.e. sudo vi /etc/modules).

Set the imps option for the module

As sudo user, edit /etc/modprobe.d/options and append the following:

# Make my mouse work with KVM
options psmouse proto=imps

Reload the mouse module

Once you have the above, issue the following commands:

sudo modprobe -r psmouse
sudo modprobe -a psmouse

Once you do this, you should have a functioning mouse wheel. Test it out before and after switching machines with your KVM hot keys. Thanks to the contributors of the Ubuntu Forums for this.