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Microsoft Touch Mouse on Linux

By Maurus Cuelenaere on November 17, 2011

I’ve posted before that I was trying to figure out how the Touch Mouse’s protocol works.

After looking into the MS Touch Mouse Sensor API, I was able to get enough information to get raw dataframes out of the mouse.

The data is packed as a stream of 4 bit values covering a specific part of the mouse’s surface (see the git repository for more information).

Next up is a working kernel driver!

See below for a quick screen capture I made of the visualizer:

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19 Responses

  1. Anonymous
    Anonymous November 25, 2011 at 06:53 | | Reply

    Keep up the good work! Would love to see this device work on linux.

  2. Pieter
    Pieter December 12, 2011 at 21:36 | | Reply

    Interesting story:)

  3. Stijn
    Stijn December 13, 2011 at 12:49 | | Reply

    Nice :) toch een blog?

  4. CC
    CC December 30, 2011 at 22:50 | | Reply

    Any updates on kernel support for the mouse?

    1. Maurus Cuelenaere
      Maurus Cuelenaere January 5, 2012 at 01:25 | | Reply

      http://git.maurus.be/?p=linux.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/mstouchmouse

  5. CC
    CC January 6, 2012 at 17:04 | | Reply

    Great! Keep up the good work.

  6. David
    David January 18, 2012 at 08:55 | | Reply

    There are some info about how install this module?
    Thanks for your work!

    1. Maurus Cuelenaere
      Maurus Cuelenaere January 19, 2012 at 11:57 | | Reply

      The module doesn’t do much yet, I need to test it on a Linux distribution with mtdev + some multitouch packages (which is Ubuntu for the moment).
      I had an Ubuntu VM ready, but haven’t had the time to actually test.

  7. David
    David January 23, 2012 at 17:02 | | Reply

    Thanks anyway, will wait for a tested version ;)

  8. David
    David January 23, 2012 at 17:04 | | Reply

    Ony a question: why do you need multitouch? Kernel module can simulate buttons for each gesture: two fingers + click = b9, three fingers + click = b10 and so on…

    1. Maurus Cuelenaere
      Maurus Cuelenaere January 23, 2012 at 20:27 | | Reply

      True, but thay would require some gesture recognition support in the kernel, which feels like it should be in user space (and currently is). My idea was that the kernel module should be some kind of lightweight “protocol decipherer” and that user space does the heavy lifting.

  9. David
    David January 24, 2012 at 09:51 | | Reply

    Yes, this solution requires gesture recognition in kernel. Maybe your solution is better :)

  10. Kim
    Kim September 26, 2012 at 10:31 | | Reply

    Interested to hear if you’ve had any more luck with this!

  11. Gustavo
    Gustavo September 27, 2012 at 18:44 | | Reply

    Hi,

    Do you have any progress with the MS Touch Mouse on Linux ?

    I’m trying to use one on this exact moment with Ubuntu 12.04, but it’s not good. Doesn’t have Middle Click button and horizontal scroll. The vertical scroll it’s not good too.

    For while, the Apple Magic Mouse is better on Ubuntu 12.04.

    If you have a way to configure this mouse, please, share with us.

    Thank you.

  12. KimK
    KimK November 6, 2012 at 00:30 | | Reply

    Found this from a google search. Is the kernel driver progressing?

    I’d volunteer as a tester.

    Thanks.

  13. Fiend
    Fiend November 21, 2012 at 10:26 | | Reply

    Hi,

    Anything new on this kernel module? I would really like to use linux with this mouse and I hate the fact that I have to switch mice all the time between windows and unbuntu.

  14. KimK
    KimK November 25, 2012 at 23:50 | | Reply

    There’s also this:
    https://github.com/zarvox/libtouchmouse

  15. Craig
    Craig January 20, 2013 at 22:43 | | Reply

    Are you still working on this?

  16. Marc
    Marc February 1, 2013 at 15:05 | | Reply

    I was looking forward to this! Please mail me if you will continue it and need testers <3

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