Mice With Mac (READ ONLY ARCHIVE)

[dabigkahuna]

Okay, I know it isn't listed to work with a mac, but then, neither was my prior Logitech Keyboard and mouse and I got them (8 buttons on the mouse!) to work fine and by using Steermouse, I was able to get the buttons to work my way - not limited by what Macs normally allow.

So, I bought the MX revolution 5500 (bluetooth) yesterday and used steermouse to set up what I could.  This is the result - hope some of the problems can be solved:

I have it connected using the built-in bluetooth on my macbook (I previously used the usb bluetooth connector, but I don't think the results were any different).

There are, to my count, 11 buttons.  Left and right work as expected.  The middle/scroll wheel tilt does scroll side to side - and I don't seem to be able to use steermouse to change it except to another kind of scroll.  The middle click is disappointing since it just switches racheting or free spin.  I'd rather have a middle click since that's what I do to open web links in a new tab.

The search button behind the wheel does nothing and doesn't show up in steer mouse at all when I click it.  If I could get it to be recognized, I'd set it to close the active tab.

The two side buttons work and are recognized by steermouse.  I have them set to increase or decrease text size in Apple Mail and web pages (very important to me).

The thumb wheel was also recognized.  I set the click to be be a middle click - opening up a browser link in a new tab.  Fine, but not where I want it.

Rotating it backwards closes the active tab but, again, not where I want it.

Rotating forward I haven't decided on yet but it does work.

So, first question is - is there any way to get the search button to be recognized and reprogrammed?  And is the scroll wheel click simply a mechanical thing to change how the wheel works - no programming possibility?  Finally, since I rarely would need to scroll to the side, any way to get those buttons to program something other than a scroll?

Which brings me to the keyboard.  I really really like the feel.  The extra buttons don't all work, but I didn't use those buttons even when using my old keyboard on a PC.  The best ones do work - volume, fast fwd/rwd, power off the computer.

But there is one problem that I simply must get solved.  I noted that EVERY time I reboot, the Mac OS gives me that window about needing to identy the keyboard.  It doesn't matter if I answer or not - the keyboard works exactly the same.  But I can't get it to stop asking on the next reboot.   Worse - and this is the deal breaker - it will occasionally come up again even though I haven't rebooted.

I tried deleting the file in Library/Preferences and tried again in case the file was corrupt, but the problem will not go away.

I'd appreciate any help you can give me - or direct me to another keyboard/mouse combination where the mouse has at least 8 buttons (more would be better) that I can program.  Well, left and right click would not be changed so that leaves at least 6 others to program on my macbook.

[dabigkahuna]

I discovered something that may help with the keyboard identification thing - if this is something anyone can help with.

One of the suggestions I found online was to go to the Library/Preferences and move the com.apple.keyboardtype.plist file out, then reboot and it would recreate a new file which would hopefully solve the problem.  I did that, but the computer still keeps asking me to identify the keyboard. 

Eventually I looked for the new file that should have been created, but there wasn't one there.  Keyboard still works except for some special buttons, but no file.  Then I looked at the old file and it says it was both created and modified on November 18th (I think I bought the computer on the 16th and didn't try the external keyboard right away.  So the file simply isn't being changed or replaced.  Any ideas?

[dabigkahuna]

Solved, I think, the keyboard issue.  Tried more things than I can remember, but what seemed to work was to go to Disk Utility and Repair Permissions.  Don't understand it, but rebooting I did the usual keyboard identification and checked for that file - sure enough, a new one was created!  Rebooted twice more and never got asked the question again.  So far, so good.

Now, can anyone help with the issue of the button issues?

Basically that means getting steermouse or something to recognize the seach button - does nothing right now.

Also, based on what I've read in OLD discussion various places online, the scroll wheel can be made to click like a normal middle click though that may just be on a PC.  It might have been done on a mac, but the posters were not always clear.

Apparently some button actions - like the tilt of the wheel - are "bound" so you can't normally change them, but some said that could be changed.  That is least important, but it would be a bonus.

So, any solutions for these buttons?