Lock the mouse cursor to one screen in Linux / Ubuntu

This question has already been asked, but for Windows: Is it possible to lock the mouse to one screen?

I am using Ubuntu 10.04 with 2 screens with different resolution. Getting the mouse cursor moving accidentally from one screen to another is really annoying.

Is it possible to temporarily lock the mouse to one screen, and possibly releasing it with a shortcut ?

Solution 1:

This isn't too much of a fix as it is an annoyance minimizer, but in System->Preferences->Monitors, drag the 2nd monitor to the edge so that they only touch corners. Theoretically, that means it'll only transfer over if you pull the mouse into a corner. On the Gentoo Wiki, they posted a small program that might work also. I bade you luck.

Solution 2:

Got it working! Better than in Windows !!

The trick is to separate the 2 screen by a virtual space in xorg.conf , then use a tool called mouse-switchscreen to "jump" between the screens.

My config: Ubuntu 10.04 x64, ATI Mobility RadeonHD , ATI Catalyst Control Center correctly installed, screens in mode "Single Display Desktop" (each screen has it's own Desktop)

These are the steps that I made:

1. Download dualscreen-mouse-utils from http://digamma.cs.unm.edu/trac.dmohr/wiki/DualscreenMouseUtils
2. Decompress the package, in terminal type: make , you may need to xorg-dev package (in Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install xorg-dev )
3. Copy the mouse-switchscreen binary to folder included in PATH (I used /usr/bin)
4. Start gconf-editor (Alt-F2), in apps\metacity\keybinding_commands choose an empty command, and add: mouse-switchscreen -f 1
5. In gconf-editor apps\metacity\global_keybindings choose the same number for run_command_n and add a shortcut of your choice, personnally I entered: < Super>Tab =Win+Tab (without space before Super)
6. If everything is working, Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf (better make a backup before), in the "ServerLayout" section, change the position of a screen to make the two separate. ONE pixel is enough :D

You can now sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart and enjoy. Of course, Win+Tab to switch the screen. You can also try mouse-wrapscreen, mouse-wrapscreen -h for more info.

All credits goes to: David Antliff & David Mohr for mouse-switchscreen, and the Linux community for the infos.