By default, you cannot use wheel of mouse on Ubuntu on VMware.
You should configure /etc/X11/xorg.conf.
First, check your mouse setting in /proc/bus/input/devices.
$ more /proc/bus/input/devices . . I: Bus=0011 Vendor=0002 Product=0005 Version=0000 N: Name="ImPS/2 Generic Wheel Mouse" P: Phys=isa0060/serio1/input0 S: Sysfs=/class/input/input3 H: Handlers=mouse1 event3 ts1 B: EV=7 B: KEY=70000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 B: REL=103
Change your mouse “Driver” and “Device” in /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Original:
$ sudo vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf . . Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Configured Mouse" Driver "mouse" Option "CorePointer" Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice" Option "Protocol" "ps/2" Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5" Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true" EndSection
Change it like:
Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Configured Mouse" Driver "mouse" Option "CorePointer" Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice" Option "Protocol" "imps/2" Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5" Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true" EndSection
Restart gdm and you can use wheel.