Mapping mouse events to key presses using xbindkeys

I want to map various mouse actions to key presses using xbindkeys. All my attempts to do this in my .xbindkeysrc file have failed. Attempts have been made using xte and xdotool. Below is a summary of what has been tried - although I'd like to map several mouse actions so far I've just been trying to initiate a right-button mouse click. The following xdotool and xte commands work perfectly when called from a terminal, from the graphical pop-up Run Command text-box, and from within a script called from the terminal and the Run Command text-box. It is only when called using keys set in the .xbindkeysrc file that they fail. Entries from .xbindkeysrc: "xdotool click 3" control + 8 "xte 'mouseclick 3'" control + 7 # -x :0 sets the display. "xte -x :0 'mouseclick 3'" control + 6 # Starting a text editor window works fine. "leafpad" control + 1 I also had no luck placing the same commands (one at a time) in a script and calling that in .xbindkeysrc. I added a command at the bottom of the script to create a file - the file gets created every time so I know that the script is being run successfully. "/full/path/to/mouse/button/script" control + 5 Please note that there have been no silly mistakes like not restarting xbindkeys after making alterations, I've been checking that it is running and added a command to .xbindkeysrc which launches a text editor window so that I can be sure xbindkeys is running properly. System Info. OS: GNU/Linux x86_64 Kernel: 3.13.0-24-generic Distro: Linux Mint 17 Qiana, Cinnamon 64-bit 2.2.16 [Based On: Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS, Trusty Tahr]