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I turned off the visual effects on my laptop (system->preferences->appearance), and since then I can't switch between my desktops using the mouse wheel (but I can with key combination). While the effects was on, it worked. Does someone know why is this? Can this be a problem with some driver?

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Switching off desktop effects changes your window manager from compiz to metacity.

The settings between the two separate window managers are independent, which is why the functionality has changed here.

To set the mouse wheel to switch between desktops, is not an obvious thing to do, but you can change it in gconf.

Press Alt+F2 to open a run command dialog box and type gconf-editor. Press return.

Use the tree navigation on the left to browse to apps/metacity/global_keybindings/switch_to_workspace_left and apps/metacity/global_keybindings/switch_to_workspace_right.

These values need to be set to Button4 (for mouse wheel up) and Button5 (for mouse wheel down) respectively.

I found some information here that may help.

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Thank you for your answer. I set the values to Button4 and Button5, and rebooted the system, but it's still not working. If I change back to the key combinations, then they work (the combination), but if I change again to the Button4, Button5, then it's still the key combination that works. If I reboot, then nothing works. I noticed that if I move the mouse cursor above the desktop switcher, and then use the wheel, then it works fine. But if it's anywhere else on the desktop, then don't. Any other ideas? – lyra May 18 '10 at 23:23
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