Enable vi mouse wheel scrolling using bash on ubuntu on windows 10

Question

I'm using bash on ubuntu on windows 10 and would like to enable scrolling using the mouse wheel in vi or vim. I've tried entering the following command in vim and added it to the .vimrc file and /usr/share/vim/vim74/debian.vim

set mouse=a

However I still can't scroll with the mouse.

Answer 1

I added this to my /etc/vim/vimrc.local, and it worked:

set mouse=a
map <ScrollWheelUp> <C-Y>
map <ScrollWheelDown> <C-E>

Answer 2

Quick and simple answer:

If you use mintty/wsltty it works just fine!

Answer 3

You have done, properly, all you can in vim and the problem is with your terminal emulator.

Mouse wheel scrolling through the scrollback buffer of a terminal emulator is a function of the terminal emulator which is consuming the mouse events. You are wanting to send these events to the application (vim) hooked to the terminal.

Most terminal emulators have a way to enable the passthrough of mouse events when in "Application Key Mode" or "Alternate Screen". Most also support using a modifier key (like holding ALT) that will passthrough the mouse events as you wish.