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enable trackpoint scrolling on thinkpad usb keyboard

recently bought a classic thinkpad usb keyboard with model number SK-8845CR from ebay, a nice keyboard with flat clicky keys, trackpoint and 2 usb ports connected it to my machine running debian 10, but middle button + trackpoint scrolling was not working. most guides online mention configuring the keyboard using evdev commands, but apparently it was libinput that is responsible for such things it in case

this is how it worked

#list available keyboards and pointing devices
xinput --list

#list pointing device properties that we can play with
xinput --list-props 'Lite-On Tech Lenovo USB Travel Keyboard with Ultra Nav Mouse'

#the manual has description for each of the configuration attributes
man libinput

#these are the properties we are interested in
#   libinput Scroll Methods Available (305):    0, 0, 1
#   libinput Scroll Method Enabled (306):   0, 0, 0

#this did it
xinput set-prop "Lite-On Tech Lenovo USB Travel Keyboard with Ultra Nav Mouse" "libinput Scroll Method Enabled" 0, 0, 1

to persist changes add the used command to ~/.xsessionrc