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Solaar is a Linux manager for many Logitech keyboards, mice, and other devices

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Re: Solaar is a Linux manager for many Logitech keyboards, mice, and other devices

#131

Post by bigstrat2003 »

Brian_K_White wrote: post #68
prmoustache wrote: post #8

Pardon my ignorance but why would you need an app to manage keyboards and mice in the first place? Aren't they supported out of the box by generic drivers?

No, all features are not exposed by the generic drivers. And the extra features aren't just "who cares" goofy things. For instance, my mouse has a wheel which is also the middle button. To press the middle mouse button, you click the wheel as if it were a button. It also has another little middle button right in line with the wheel. That other button does not generate any scan codes or hid events. All that button doe…

Those are goofy "who cares" things, though. Doesn't mean you are wrong to want them, just they are very very niche use cases which almost nobody else is going to want.

Re: Solaar is a Linux manager for many Logitech keyboards, mice, and other devices

#132

Post by smallerize »

gessha wrote: post #40
brocket wrote: post #5

This saved my butt when I lost my mouse dongle and only had an Ubuntu instance available at the time. I was able to pair my mouse to the same dongle my keyboard used and have been using the software ever since without issue. Thank you!

Yooo, I've been so frustrated with Logitech! I have an MX Mechanical Mini keyboard and MX Ergo mouse. For some reason they don't pair to the same dongle because the dongles are different and not interchangeable. In addition, whatever dongle is plugged into the right USB-A port of my laptop always lags for some reason. Does Solaar solve those issues?

I had this happen when the dongle is a little loose in the port. Solved lag with a couple of dongles by sliding a tiny bit of paper in alongside it.

Re: Solaar is a Linux manager for many Logitech keyboards, mice, and other devices

#133

Post by kreelman »

loufe wrote: post #3

I've had an MX Master mouse (the "2" for maybe 8-9 years then the "3" for 2-3 years now) and love it. Great performance, great battery life, fantastic design and feel. On Windows I definitely do not love the 150Mb program to manage it (surely sending a torrent of unnecessary telemetry data back to Logitech. I found Solaar a couple months ago after getting repeatedly frustrated with bluetooth connection issues. It rea…

Awesome. Thanks for the info here. I have a couple of useful Logitech peripherals too. It should be quite useful.

Re: Solaar is a Linux manager for many Logitech keyboards, mice, and other devices

#134

Post by seaal »

resoluteteeth wrote: post #95
throwaway314155 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's a Bolt receiver?

Bolt is logitech's newer wireless protocol (with devices using a dongle rather than bluetooth) that's supposed to be more secure than the older one.

I think the real highlight of the Bolt receiver is being able to pair up to 6 devices with just a single receiver.

Re: Solaar is a Linux manager for many Logitech keyboards, mice, and other devices

#135

Post by guiambros »

KennyBlanken wrote: post #89
kdmtctl wrote: post #86

I'd love to see this ported to Mac. Just discovered the bloody AI prompt builder enabled by default in my mouse driver today. After patiently declining input recording permission for months. Managed to get rid of the most of bloatware using their corporate "Offline" version which supposedly doesn't phone home and doesn't ask for extra permissions. YMMV. https://support.logi.com/hc/en-us/articles/11570501236119-Lo...

At least it's not actual spyware. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29056847 Wacom's drivers collect and send both application and window title names to them. It still does, even after all the outrage.

Yet.

Re: Solaar is a Linux manager for many Logitech keyboards, mice, and other devices

#136

Post by mardifoufs »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #131
Brian_K_White wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, all features are not exposed by the generic drivers. And the extra features aren't just "who cares" goofy things. For instance, my mouse has a wheel which is also the middle button. To press the middle mouse button, you click the wheel as if it were a button. It also has another little middle button right in line with the wheel. That other button does not generate any scan codes or hid events. All that button doe…

Those are goofy "who cares" things, though. Doesn't mean you are wrong to want them, just they are very very niche use cases which almost nobody else is going to want.

Is that why those mice sell well? Because no one cares about those features? Sure, they might be rarer but not as rare that you think they are just looking at the Amazon top selling charts.

Re: Solaar is a Linux manager for many Logitech keyboards, mice, and other devices

#137

Post by yndoendo »

bayindirh wrote: post #73
myself248 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does a mouse need an app, again?

To be able to program all the configurable buttons, and upload the macros and settings to the profiles present on the mouse itself, so you can use all the features of your mouse, tailored to you, even if you don’t have the software on the target device you’re using your mouse. Yes, Logitech’s high end mice store settings themselves. The app is just a programming interface. It sometimes does per program profile switch…

All programmable mice store their settings on the device itself, like Roccat and Razer. A true programmable mouse doesn't need software running in the background. A configuration application that needs to continue running is now just a background service running in user mode and not a true configuration application.

Roccat user because of the size of the mouse is bigger than others and all the buttons can be reprogrammed, along with the wheel. No background software needed and all configuration changes are OS independent.

Not a Logitech user because the wheel could not be programmed to control the sound volume. Last time I tried their products. Even contacted their support to verify the wheel, most useful for controlling audio, is fixed to page scrolling only.

Razer mice are too small for my hands and I feel like an Eagle clawing at a minnow. At least they allow for fully reprogramming all the buttons and wheel, unlike Logitech. And you don't need background software for the programming with it being OS independent after programming.

Only bad part is that Roccat is no longer Linux supported. The original developer that reverse engineered stop supporting the products. Roccat also is like most business and blows off 1st party support for Linux. Windows VM is needed just to program the mouse, which only done once.

Re: Solaar is a Linux manager for many Logitech keyboards, mice, and other devices

#138

Post by bb88 »

baby_souffle wrote: post #124
bb88 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's wrong with using the UI the OS provides?

Not cross platform, difficult to theme or style to Logitech brand guidelines?

Do the users care about that? Or just the management? And mouse drivers aren't typically cross platform anyway, right?

Re: Solaar is a Linux manager for many Logitech keyboards, mice, and other devices

#139

Post by gbil »

kdmtctl wrote: post #86

I'd love to see this ported to Mac. Just discovered the bloody AI prompt builder enabled by default in my mouse driver today. After patiently declining input recording permission for months. Managed to get rid of the most of bloatware using their corporate "Offline" version which supposedly doesn't phone home and doesn't ask for extra permissions. YMMV. https://support.logi.com/hc/en-us/articles/11570501236119-Lo...

Solaar works on Mac with some tries, at least for me the best approach was to get the repo and run the binary directly instead of trying to install it

Re: Solaar is a Linux manager for many Logitech keyboards, mice, and other devices

#140

Post by Brian_K_White »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #131
Brian_K_White wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, all features are not exposed by the generic drivers. And the extra features aren't just "who cares" goofy things. For instance, my mouse has a wheel which is also the middle button. To press the middle mouse button, you click the wheel as if it were a button. It also has another little middle button right in line with the wheel. That other button does not generate any scan codes or hid events. All that button doe…

Those are goofy "who cares" things, though. Doesn't mean you are wrong to want them, just they are very very niche use cases which almost nobody else is going to want.

Wanting a middle mouse button that can be clicked without scrolling the wheel is not goofy.

It's the most basic function of a button that you can press it, and it alone.

And I don't know how many more times I could have repeated that I wanted the control over a goofy feature only to disable it. The only way to make that into something dismissable is by saying "you should either just enjoy the 24/7 disco light show or use some other keyboard"

Both are ridiculous invalid inconsiderate & ignorant. No one gets to tell anyone else that. It's perfectly reasonable to want a mechanical keyboard, or tenkeyless layout, or bios functionality, or bluetooth, and not rgb multicolor flashing lights. And it's perfectly valid to have landed on some particular model that is available that hits almost all the tickboxes one cares about and just have some particular thing that needs to be changed somehow.

And all this whole thread answering the parent question is just explaining why the software exists and the fact that the normal driver interface does not handle these aspects of driving the hardware.

Why in the world would you even care? What in the world is even the point of hearing that explaination of a simple technical thing, and trying to say "that's why you need it? so you don't need it then"? Like in what way does this affect you even the slightest?

Where does that instinc come from? It sure is common though.

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