Linux in a Nutshell, Third Edition

If It’s Too Hard (or Easy) to Move the Pointer Between Pages

If you’re trying to navigate the desktop by moving the pointer and you find it either too easy or too difficult to go from one page to the next, there’s a configuration file variable you can customize. The aptly named EdgeResistance variable lets you adjust how easy it is to move the pointer beyond the perimeter of the current page.

The variable takes two parameters. The first is more relevant to the problem at hand: the number of milliseconds the pointer must be at the screen edge before you’ll be moved onto the next page. The second parameter has to do with the way a window is moved between pages: it’s the number of pixels over the edge of the screen a window’s border must move before it moves partially off the screen. Typical default settings are:

EdgeResistance 250 10

Some people find the EdgeResistance they’re working with is too low for them, the inconvenient result being that they inadvertently knock the pointer off of the current screen page. If this is your problem, you can increase the first parameter:

EdgeResistance 500 10

A first parameter between 500 and 1000 will greatly enhance the resistance. The maximum resistance is 10000, which actually makes it impossible to page over.

As it happens, if you have the opposite problem and have to bounce the mouse against what feels like a hard rubber wall in order to page over, try reducing the first number:

EdgeResistance 100 10

In a typical default configuration, fvwm2 ...