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Whenever I right click in X, I almost always seem to trigger the first option in the menu unless I am thinking about what I am doing because I:
Is there any way to tweak this so the menus don't trigger quite so easily? If it matters, I am using Gnome 3/Cinnamon on Gentoo Linux.
You asked about how to do this in "X" but this setting is typically controlled through a desktop environment utility. In KDE you have mouse settings. If your K-menu doesn't find it for you when you simply type "mouse" you can start it by
a) K-menu -> Computer -> System Settings -> Input Device (Under Hardware) -> Mouse
or
b) At a command prompt, in a terminal, or other Run Menu, enter the command "systemsettings" and select Input Device in the Hardware section
Look at the "Advanced Tab" in KDE Mouse Settings and adjust the Adjust the Pointer Threshold, Drag Delay Time and Drag Distance. Increase the values to make it less sensitive.
There are similar utilities in every other desktop environment I have ever used.
If you are looking for a Desktop Environment agnostic solution, have a look at xinput.
To obtain the names and IDs of your known X input devices, first run
xinput --list
You will see output somethin like this:
~$ xinput --list
⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)]
⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad id=11 [slave pointer (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard id=3 [master keyboard (2)]
↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard id=5 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Power Button id=6 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Video Bus id=7 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Sleep Button id=8 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ HP HD Webcam [Fixed] id=9 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard id=10 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ HP WMI hotkeys id=12 [slave keyboard (3)]
Below each master device is a number of slave devices. Identify the slave device which you use by the descriptive name. I would select the Synaptics Touchpad as that is what I use, but you would select your mouse or any other pointer device that you have.
Now list the properties on that device - you may use either the device name (in quotes) or the ID
xinput --list-props DEVICE
for example
~$ xinput --list-props 11
Device 'SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad':
Device Enabled (132): 1
Coordinate Transformation Matrix (134): 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
Device Accel Profile (254): 1
Device Accel Constant Deceleration (255): 2.500000
Device Accel Adaptive Deceleration (256): 1.000000
Device Accel Velocity Scaling (257): 12.500000
Synaptics Edges (258): 1767, 5395, 1649, 4613
Synaptics Finger (259): 25, 30, 256
Synaptics Tap Time (260): 180
Synaptics Tap Move (261): 239
Synaptics Tap Durations (262): 180, 180, 100
Synaptics ClickPad (263): 0
Synaptics Tap FastTap (264): 0
Synaptics Middle Button Timeout (265): 75
Synaptics Two-Finger Pressure (266): 282
Synaptics Two-Finger Width (267): 7
Synaptics Scrolling Distance (268): 100, 100
Synaptics Edge Scrolling (269): 0, 0, 0
Synaptics Two-Finger Scrolling (270): 0, 0
Synaptics Move Speed (271): 1.000000, 1.750000, 0.039800, 40.000000
Synaptics Edge Motion Pressure (272): 30, 160
Synaptics Edge Motion Speed (273): 1, 435
Synaptics Edge Motion Always (274): 0
Synaptics Off (275): 0
Synaptics Locked Drags (276): 0
Synaptics Locked Drags Timeout (277): 5000
Synaptics Tap Action (278): 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
Synaptics Click Action (279): 1, 1, 0
Synaptics Circular Scrolling (280): 0
Synaptics Circular Scrolling Distance (281): 0.100007
Synaptics Circular Scrolling Trigger (282): 0
Synaptics Circular Pad (283): 0
Synaptics Palm Detection (284): 0
Synaptics Palm Dimensions (285): 10, 200
Synaptics Coasting Speed (286): 20.000000, 50.000000
Synaptics Pressure Motion (287): 30, 160
Synaptics Pressure Motion Factor (288): 1.000000, 1.000000
Synaptics Resolution Detect (289): 1
Synaptics Grab Event Device (290): 1
Synaptics Gestures (291): 1
Synaptics Capabilities (292): 1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1
Synaptics Pad Resolution (293): 74, 40
Synaptics Area (294): 0, 0, 0, 0
Synaptics Noise Cancellation (295): 8, 8
Device Product ID (249): 2, 7
Device Node (250): "/dev/input/event8"
You are going to have to play around with values on different properties. It realy depends on what options your device provides. You will need to read through the list and try to identify which ones are related to sensitivity.
Loking at my device, I notice items like Tap Time, Tap Move, FastTap etc that looks, to me, to be related to sensitivity.
Generally you will do
xinput --set-prop DEVICE PROPERTY VALUE. The man page explains it like this:
--set-prop [--type=atom|float|int] [--format=8|16|32] device property value [...] Set the property to the given value(s). If not specified, the format and type of the property are left as-is. The arguments are interpreted according to the property type.
Example
xinput --set-prop 11 261 250
This will set Device 11 Property 261 to the value of 250.
You can also use the long format, specify each property "name", eg
~$ xinput --set-prop "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" "Synaptics Off" 1
Note, the above example turns the touchpad off. Setting it back to "0" turns it back on.
The GUI theme can make a big difference here. Right now the Desktop/Workspace theme combination I use draws context menus with an inactive "border" area which I estimate to be probably about 5 pixels wide. I assume the that theme sets for other desktop environments have similar variations. You HAVE to move the pointer past this inactive area before you can (accidentally) activate an option.
If you set the SystemSettings>Mouse (or something similar), you can modify the mouse sensitivity, the drag and drop threshold, and double click time-out.
I think @Johan gave good answers. One other thing to add is that you might try gconf-editor, which controls settings for Gnome. It's probably accesible under something like "System Settings", or you can start it from the terminal.
