My venerable Logitech Mouse a is nearing the end of it’s life and I’m thinking about a replacement. Since I have no plans to switch my Gaming PC to Windows 11 I would like to have a mouse (and eventually a keyboard) that properly supports Linux.
I looked at the sites for Corsair, Logitech and Razer and the corresponding software is available for Windows (and sometimes MacOS for some reason) but no Linux Version.
Since I actually use some of the fancy Gaming-Gear functionality like setting up macros and variable DPI I’d like to use the software that is used to set these things up.
How do you guys deal with this?
Is there a manufacturer that offers their software for Linux?
Do these things run properly under Wine?
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I bought a Razer Basilisk 3 because it was the only mouse where I could reach both thumb buttons with the fingertip-ish grip I use. Wasn’t fully supported by Linux software at first, but worst case I could program it on Windows which I had on a dual boot at the time. Now that I can use it with Polychromatic and OpenRazer it even works better on Linux. On Windows the Razer software won’t let me save individual LED colours to the mouse, and needs to be running all the time in order to do that…
The stock software will not run in Wine. I would suggest picking hardware that’s supported by Piper.
Oh, and the UI even looks better than the totally overloaded official Logitech UI. Thanks!
There is also Solaar, which has tray battery status support and keyboard support.
I use both, as both have features the other doesn’t.
Razer mice and keyboards can be managed with openrazer under Linux. I still use deathadders on a few Linux machines ( and one Windows games PC ) but I’ve ditched my razer keyboards for keychron which don’t really need any software. You can configure the RGB components of them all with openrgb if you want in Linux and Windows.
That looks awesome, thanks!
I’ve been using Linux for almost 25 years and I’ve never once considered mouse or keyboard incompatibility, and that’s including ADB, PS/2 and DB9 devices, let alone USB.
As far as I know, you can intercept any signal from any such HID device and map it to whatever action you want to achieve at whatever level you need it.
I’m happy to be wrong, but I’d be surprised.
A lot of newer big “gamer” brand peripherals are coming bundled with proprietary software you gotta run to get full functionality.
A friend of mine recently tried Linux and had his scroll wheel not work because it was tired to the software on Windows for some stupid reason…
I saw this trend starting nearly a decade ago when Razers software bricked my Win7 PC by booting before the login screen, I’ve avoided any devices with mandatory software since, but seems the issue has only grown lately.
While generally true, I believe there’s a lot of weird custom wireless communication out there. Plenty of mice and keyboards refuse to communicate over a standard HID protocol which leads many to not work for enterprise type devices / appliances. Anything with an HID / Console port (like some KVMs) for management will just not respond properly to key presses even if the downstream usb host can detect presses properly. This is extremely nuanced and not at all the same as something like Logitech G-Hub only being windows so customizing the buttons / RGB on the M/K is a questionable adventure for normal users.
It’s third party and CLI only, but rivalcfg supports a decent variety of Steel Series mouses / mice / meece / mousen.
Just get a Logitech (G502 does great) and install piper (control app for Logitech mice).
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My wooting keyboard’s management software has an official appimage that works perfectly fine.
The same can’t be said for the Logitech Pro Superlight. I honestly haven’t tried running G Hub under wine. But having a quick look around there seems to be pretty straight forward solutions out there to program Logitech devices.
I’m using Solaar to have a taskbar icon with the battery status of my G305 and G915. It also lets you set DPIs, polling rates and stuff.
Piper is able to configure the G305s buttons.
When I need macros or some keys rebound on the G915, I just use a generic button remapper.
OpenRGB supports configuring the RGB on the G915. Solaar does too, but in a much clunkier way.
Oh the battery status would be handy, thanks for the tip!
my logitech mouse is configurable in piper (no automatic profiles unfortunately) and my endorfy keyboard requires no installable software as all lighting effects are configured with fn keys
I have a Keychron K3 Pro keyboard that can be programmed with VIA and I’m more than happy with it.
My mouse is a VAXEE Outset Wireless. This doesn’t need any software to change DPI / polling rate etc. All of it can be done by pressing buttons on the underside of the mouse. It works very reliably.
Second for QMK. Flash any macro directly into the firmware, no proprietary software needed.
Nice, thanks!
I prefer logiops to piper because it lets you chord, e.g. hold back button and swipe right I have configured to switch activites in kde, so you get five times the bang for your buttons (static, swipe up, down, left, right). You can then use the key combos it generates in games.
@ackthxbye Maybe a bit further than you wanna go, but I can confirm that a keyboard running kmk works perfectly fine with games under wine. If you have a keyboard/mouse that’s able to be installed with CircuitPython, you’ll have the ability to assign more macros than you can count.
Don’t use proprietary software for something so simple as mouse and keyboard macros and variable DPI. Use Piper or something.
I use a littel workaround on my Bazzite gaming rig. G-Hub runs on a Win10 VM, I just re-direct the USB-ports zu the VM to save the config from G-Hub on the device. They will lose the config from time to time, not sure why.
I use a keychron Q3 and Q0. They can be remapped / programmed through a web (chrome derivs as it requires WebHID) or desktop electron app called VIA, which at the time of writing is proprietary. I believe Vial (written in Qt) is being brought up, so that may be an option in the future.
In terms of managing the firmware, the vendor offers a first party web interface (also leveraging WebHID). The QMK Toolbox GUI is only available on Mac and Windows but you can use the CLI on Linux to get into DFU mode and flash your firmware.
Not really keen on Logitech as a company but I use Piper to program several of their G series mice on Linux. You can check the libratbag support list to see which hardware can work with it.
