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

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191–200 of 274 posts

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

#191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their major flaw is that they purposefully use shitty switches that fail, sometimes within months. This is true even with their absurdly overpriced gaming mice. I have never had a mouse whose buttons failed until I bought a logitech. Every person I know raves about them until you ask them how many they've had to buy.

Warranty will often get you a new one. I had a mouse fail about 2.5 years in and they sent a new one. OTOH, it speaks terribly of their quality; a mouse should work fine for 10-20 years, like some mice from 20 years ago.

Even 20 years ago mices weren't always that reliable. I used to have a Microsoft ball mouse from the late nineties and I remember the micro switch giving up after about 4 years. Even the replacements (albeit much cheaper/more generic brands) from the time didn't fare better, but at least by that point they were all optical.

And I say "replacements" because they all didn't last very long, until I got the memo and started buying decent stuff from brands like... logitech. And then there is the conundrum of going with something even more "premium" than a logitech, there's very little guarantee it's really gonna last. You may be paying twice as much for it but it still ends up lasting about as long.

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

#192
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…

May I suggest you use the bolt receiver instead of bluetooth, and you will have a much more reliable connection.

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

#193

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…

Some high-end mice and keyboard combos also support features like fast computer switching, clipboard sync etc.

Imagine you have both a desktop and a laptop, with your laptop screen positioned below the display connected to the desktop. You can make your Logitech mouse act as if they were one device; if you slide past the top edge of your laptop screen, both the mouse and the keyboard switch over to the desktop.

You can even press ctrl+c on one device, move your mouse to the other and press ctrl+v (with the same keyboard of course), and it's going to do the right thing. I think even drag and drop across computers works, at least in some circumstances.

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

#194
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…

May I suggest you use the bolt receiver instead of bluetooth, and you will have a much more reliable connection.

That might be true for Windows, on Mac OS I get perfectly reliable connections (years of usage with multiple mice) with Bluetooth. And I don't have to use any stupid dongles.

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

#195
What does this offer me over piper and libratbag? I only need something to configure the extra 2 buttons on my mouse. If it has its own profiles or a command line interface then I would see some value in using it myself.

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

#196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Some high-end mice and keyboard combos also support features like fast computer switching, clipboard sync etc. Imagine you have both a desktop and a laptop, with your laptop screen positioned below the display connected to the desktop. You can make your Logitech mouse act as if they were one device; if you slide past the top edge of your laptop screen, both the mouse and the keyboard switch over to the desktop. You c…

That's pretty cool. Now I just wish they'd release a wireless G600 with this capability. Best thing I ever bought was an MMO mouse. It's incredibly useful for a lot of use cases outside of MMOs.

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

#197
post #67

Is there anything like this on Windows? Logitech mice are mostly nice, but one of their major flaws is that their macro capability is not onboard but requires some kind of supplemental software like this, so even just binding a single button to multiple keystrokes as a chord is not possible without G-Hub. Linux has stuff like Solaar and Piper/libratbagd, which is great. For macOS, it looks like SteerMouse does quite…

Their major flaw is that they purposefully use shitty switches that fail, sometimes within months. This is true even with their absurdly overpriced gaming mice. I have never had a mouse whose buttons failed until I bought a logitech. Every person I know raves about them until you ask them how many they've had to buy.

Like the others I can't say I have had a mouse button crap out on me. My problem is with the mouse wheels but I'm not sure if that is the manufacturer's problem or poor cleanliness on my part.

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

#198
I like this a lot, and the rule editor is able to create some very powerful workflows.

My mouse has two side buttons, and I bind one of them plus scrollwheel to virtual desktop switching. Unfortunately this takes complete control of your scrollwheel, so you need to experiment with the rules a little in order to avoid performance issues.

Honorable mention: https://github.com/PixlOne/logiops/, although its rules are much less powerful.

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

#199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

we need qmk for mice

The ploopy mouse has QMK. Layers on a mouse are very useful! https://ploopy.co/mouse/

This looks awesome. Now I just hope somebody will someday a 20 button version.

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

#200
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My one gripe with Logitech mice is that none of their "office" mice support high refresh rate polling.

Also they've been very slow to adopt optical switches compared to other brands, a handful of their high end gaming mice have them, but the vast majority of their range still uses the same old mechanical switches that tend to start erroneously double clicking after a while.

The issue is actually the static electricity buildup in the plastic somewhere. It doesn’t happen if the air is humid enough.

So, just turn off the mouse and blow in it a few times. It will work normally for a few days after that.

I found this solution on approximately the 12th page of a Google search ~9 years ago. Every other solution was wrong.

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