i dont know how to run or compile this program | Linux Mint Community🍵 | Page 1

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 12:23 AM

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i was recently bought a mouse with 12 side buttons that are supposed to be reprogrammable, however the software the company provides is windows-only. https://redragonshop.com/blogs/product-download/impact-m908
^^ product page

i found this github repo https://github.com/dokutan/mouse_m908?tab=readme-ov-file#installing and the mouse is on the list of fully supported models. i scanned through the README and downloaded a zip as well, neither of which was able to help me figure out what i'm meant to do. it appears i need to compile it myself somehow or something along those lines, but i haven't the knowledge or experience on how to do that. any help would be appreciated

GitHub

GitHub - dokutan/mouse_m908: Control various Redragon gaming mice f...

Control various Redragon gaming mice from Linux, BSD and Haiku - dokutan/mouse_m908

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i also have the user manual but it only outlines what the buttons do without configuration and direct the user to the company website in order to configure them

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i attempted running the official software through wine once already and it kind of seemed to work but not really and it had a ton of horrible bugs and wouldn't detect the mouse. also wine refused to close afterwards, until i restarted my computer

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OS is Mint Cinnamon

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 1:52 AM

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the releases page there only provides source code via two formats.

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You're going to find out what unholy really is.

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libusb (On some distributions (e.g. Ubuntu) a dev package is required)

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do apt search libusb-dev and see if it lists as installed. Otherwise install it first

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then unzip either tar or zip to a folder using archive manager or via right-click in file manager eg: contents locate in ~/dokutan-source

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cd into dokutan-source (or whatever you named the folder) in terminal and run the commands it says for LINUX to make install.

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whereis make to see if make program is installed. if not, install it via apt

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:02 AM

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ornate parrot do `apt search libusb-dev` and see if it lists as installed. Otherwise install...

it lists several different packages, i assume it is

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:03 AM

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each will say in bracket if installed

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:03 AM

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ornate parrot cd into dokutan-source (or whatever you named the folder) in terminal and run th...

this i don't know how to do

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:03 AM

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ornate parrot each will say in bracket if installed

in {these}?

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:03 AM

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right click: extract here

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:03 AM

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ornate parrot do `apt search libusb-dev` and see if it lists as installed. Otherwise install...

from software manager, or where?

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terminal?

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:04 AM

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yeah i quoted a CLI text

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:04 AM

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sudo apt install libusb-dev in terminal?

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still getting used to using it regularly

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:04 AM

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if it's not present, yes

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:06 AM

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ran search a second time after installing and it doesn't appear in brackets still

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:07 AM

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do apt list -i libusb*

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:08 AM

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most of them say installed, and it did pop up in brackets this time

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:08 AM

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anything resulting with the -i switch means installed

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:08 AM

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so i have the zip i grabbed from the github repo, and it has already been extracted

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this is where i initially reached out for help, at this step in the process

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now what

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:09 AM

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go into that folder in terminal

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pwd to confirm working directory you've logged to

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:09 AM

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how do i choose a particular folder to open through terminal

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i'm fairly new to linux still

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:10 AM

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usually it opens in userhome

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pwd

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:10 AM

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it just says /home/zimber

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:10 AM

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then ls --group-directories-first

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u should see the folder that got made

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unless u extracted it somewhere else/deeper

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:11 AM

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it's in a subfolder

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i can move it to /home if that'd make it quicker

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or rather, /zimber ig

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:12 AM

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cd /<whatever path>

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:12 AM

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ah ok

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:12 AM

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working directory shows in prompt

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ls to see the files (source code junk)

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:13 AM

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do i need to be inside the newly extracted folder or one layer up

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:13 AM

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in the folder

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:13 AM

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ornate parrot `whereis make` to see if `make` program is installed. if not, install it via apt

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fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:15 AM

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i must be putting it in wrong somehow

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:17 AM

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tilde means userhome

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so do cd Downloads exact

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then cd mou and immediately press tab before enter

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:18 AM

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fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:19 AM

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ornate parrot `ls` to see the files (source code junk)

this next?

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:19 AM

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if u want for fun

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:19 AM

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oh i see

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:19 AM

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make sure u have make, as i said

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:19 AM

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yeah, to compile it

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it says i

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it's somewhere in /usr

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usr/bin/make

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:20 AM

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so then follow the rest of the LINUX instructions. couple lines

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:20 AM

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oh from the github page

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:21 AM

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and save a screenshot of that instructional in case u gotta uninstall

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:21 AM

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ornate parrot and save a screenshot of that instructional in case u gotta uninstall

i just have it bookmarked so i can revisit it as necessary

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ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:22 AM

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no.

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what is quoted on website is two individual, and sequential commands

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:23 AM

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i tried just make first

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because i assumed it was a two liner

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:23 AM

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give it time to compile

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:23 AM

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oh

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:23 AM

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idk how long. maybe 20 sec

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then run an ls

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it should've made some new installer binary (executables show in some other colour, usually a bright one)

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then the last command

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:25 AM

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it isn't doing make

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keeps showing that same fatal error

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:25 AM

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try make ./

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or make .

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:26 AM

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ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:26 AM

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which is saying work on what's in the current logged directory

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ensure that missing package is satisfied first

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:27 AM

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did i potentially mess up the libusb dependency or something

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:29 AM

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im not sure where the libusb dev package they initially mention is

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:29 AM

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q-q

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wait that's the wrong screenshot

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ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:30 AM

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ensure the missing package is satisfied first, before running make in this directory

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:30 AM

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i don't know how to get back to the correct one

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:31 AM

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do apt search libusb-1* and show full result

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:32 AM

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ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:35 AM

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install the 9th one

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...1.0-0.dev

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:38 AM

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and now i go back and attempt to do Make again, yes?

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:38 AM

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ur still in pwd

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so just make

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:38 AM

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oh it's actually doing something now, nice

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at the very least i have learned how to cd into folders in terminal, so that's cool

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i think it probably made something, should i check for it in file explorer

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oh my goodness

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:41 AM

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or ls

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:41 AM

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wait why'd it do my full screen

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much better

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:42 AM

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seems fine. now do the sudo make install

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it should read that makefile for its own guidance and install it appropriately into the system. idk if outcome is a graphical app or just a CLI app.

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:45 AM

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it just

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:45 AM

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now see the USAGE section of the website

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:45 AM

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ah ok

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so in order to set my buttons i just open terminal, cd into this folder, and run whatever commands it says in the usage guide? in the future i mean

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:47 AM

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idk where the examples.ini file is. maybe in the green mouse_u5... folder u see above . but u can poke around

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:48 AM

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these look to be examples

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:48 AM

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now that it is in the system, u can likely do whereis mouse_m908

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oh i see the examples folder. it's in the source code master

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ofc, you'd need to provide the full path to such place

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:49 AM

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ornate parrot now that it is in the system, u can likely do `whereis mouse_m908`

it gave me a file path

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:49 AM

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what's the path?

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:49 AM

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/usr/bin/mouse_m908 /usr/share/man/man1/mouse_m908.1

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i'm hoping there'll at some point be a GUI menu i can use, but if that's not the case it's fine as long as i can somewhat easily change buttons now and then

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:50 AM

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so the first path there is the program's location now that you have compiled and installed it. (this is in the standard "back pocket" of linux, so you don't have to type any fancy path to launch it, just its name)

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the man thing is the manual for it

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:50 AM

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oh there's a manual, nice

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:50 AM

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eg. man mouse_m908.1

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ctrl-c or q to quit

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:51 AM

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quit what? terminal?

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:51 AM

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the manual page for this program

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:51 AM

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oh

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ok

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:51 AM

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which runs in the terminal when u type man plus the name of the program

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:52 AM

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ooh ok

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:52 AM

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run cd examples

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:52 AM

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so i run the manual in the terminal and learn how to use it, then i run the program itself, using the other command?

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:53 AM

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yeah this program appears to be CLI only

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so basically follow the USAGE teachings

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:53 AM

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a pain but it is what it is

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:53 AM

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run pwd

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you should be where all the examples are.

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then ls

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:54 AM

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same file names and everything

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:54 AM

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newer type: Apply all macros: mouse_m908 -m ⟨config.ini⟩

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so in this quote, triangular brackets mean they contain a variable, left to the user to put in. do not type those brackets.

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:55 AM

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ok

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:56 AM

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seems like macros are multiple mouse-clicks or keystrokes you can program in and assign to a button. but i dont deal with this stuff

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:56 AM

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yeah

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i was hoping to just set up what i have on my other mouse on the 11th and 12th keys for now, where i can do forward/back

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like one does with a browser window or file manager

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 2:56 AM

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also you may delete the original zip or tar now

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also remember all CLI in linux/unix is 100% case-sensitive. so type accurately

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 2:58 AM

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ornate parrot also remember all CLI in linux/unix is 100% case-sensitive. so type accurately

i didn't know this

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that's good to know

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so i've favorited all of the new files and folders and such so i can find them easily. basically what i need to do now is more reading?

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 3:00 AM

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yeo

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one other thing

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 3:01 AM

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ornate parrot yeo

thank you a ton for your help and patience

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 3:01 AM

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ornate parrot one other thing

what's up

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 3:01 AM

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do echo path

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oops

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 3:01 AM

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path

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 3:01 AM

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echo $PATH

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that should list all places that already in the 'back pocket' of linux

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same idea in DOS except command is slightly different

fierce hemlock Apr 10, 2026, 3:02 AM

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i'm not familar with DOS

ornate parrot Apr 10, 2026, 3:03 AM

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