Hi everyone Shadowbane here and as some of you know I have recently switched from Windows to Linux (running Linux Mint 19.3). Now that I have gotten the introductions out of the way:smile: I will get down to the reason I am creating this post.
As some of you may be aware, I recently built a new desktop and this time around I thought I would purchase a gaming keyboard and gaming mouse. Since money is tight I only purchased a gaming keyboard (Razer Black Widow 2019), the plan was to wait a few months before purchasing a gaming mouse. Well after a few days my cheap plain mouse decided to die, so I purchased a gaming mouse. Now to my question how does everyone control lighting and assign mouse and keyboard keys to there applications?
As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, I would like to know how everyone using Linux controls their RGB lighting on their keyboards and mice. Also, I would like to know how to set up my mouse and keyboard buttons to be able to control applications and games. I guess what I am trying to figure out is how do I set up Razer Synapse 2 or 3 with wine? Yes, I know about the polychromatic project but at its current state of development, it only lets me control lighting effects but there is no control of assigning buttons or keystrokes to applications or games. There are limited macro assignments but no way to delay each keystroke, so as it stands now using Open Razer and the open-source Polychromatic project isn’t very useful. Hence the reason I want to run either Razar Synapse 2 or 3 using Wine.
I have listed my system specs below this paragraph. I purchased my keyboard and mouse without any research on whether or not I would have complete control of my keyboard and mouse. I luck out on the keyboard but didn’t on the mouse. In another word, my Blackwidow 2019 is completely compatible with Open Razer but my DeathAdder version 2 isn’t compatible with Open Razer. If you need more information please let me know.
Yes three seems to be a simple program installed by Linux Mint 19.3 that I could assign mouse buttons to open or close some installed applications. I will have to do some research. I haven’t messed with the default setting yet. I am really new to Linux just started using it exclusively about a week and a half. As far as I know you need Synapse 2 or 3 (the open source Polychromatic doesn’t have support yet) to get saved information into the Deathadder. I will do some more research, also find a list of forum members who use Linux and give them a shout out. There has to be away to accomplish my goals.
If it saves the profiles to the hardware a workaround, though not perfect, would be to get a windows machine (maybe a VM?) and do all your adjusting there and then just use it like normal on linux. You still wont be able to change it at will but it will at least have the settings you want permanently.
Hi, @SesameStreetThug Thanks for the reply, I know about the Open Razer project and the front end project Polychromatic. Unforchantly Open Razer and Polychromatic only get me one third the way to accomplish my goals. Maybe I should contact the developers of both projects and find out what they need to speed up the development of their projects. And then start a go fund me effort.
This is a very stupid hacky over complicated version, but you might try setting up a windows vm, using the usb pass through option in your vm hypervisor with your mouse/keyboard (one at a time) and then apply the lighting settings you want, the basic stuff should be stored in memory of the device.
The advanced stuff won’t work, but at least you can get some basic colors setup.
@SesameStreetThug, @Zibob I just had an idea, I have Windows 10 on an external USB drive that will boot up Windows 10. I could load up Windows 10 do whatever I need to do and then boot into Linux Mint. I have spent all day trying to figure out this problem. The possible answer was staring me right in the face. See what happens when you commit to ending your dependence on Windows, it blocks all easy solutions.
This works if your mouse has onboard memory. It works for my Roccat mouse, I set everything up back in 2016 when I still ran windows and havent bothered installing the linux software for it since.
The other 66.6% is the lack of creating gaming profiles and limited abilities to make macros that are useful. I will wait a few days before I mark this as solved. I want to try my idea first and see if it will work.
The hardware interface in Windows NT is not the same as what is in Linux. And thats even if it could install and run, which it doesn’t according to the appdb page.
Essentially for WINE to access the hardware it needs to be accessible in Linux as the underlying system in the first place. I would wager the driver for those devices is limited to what they are supposed to be - input devices, and not disco lights.
Openrazer probably implements its own interfaces to the devices to access the lighting stuff, but WINE won’t access that most likely.
On Windows you install a device driver, which is on the system level. WINE sits on top of whatever device drivers are installed tho and has to work with what’s there, it doesn’t provide and cannot use Windows device drivers.
I realize you are right, it would be easier to get Open Razer/Polychromatic to do what I want than develop wine to run synapse. I bet the reason Open Razer and Polychromatic exist is because of the fact Wine would be so much harder to developed to run Synapse. I guess I am just impatient, I want what I want now not 5 to 10 years later. I guess I will only accomplish my goals by either setting up my macros in Windows save them to my mouse and keyboard, and hope I can get them to work somehow in Linux Mint, or reach out to the developers of Open Razer and Polychromatic, see what they would need to speed up development, then start a Go Fund Me campaign.
Tried this. Razer is to cheap to add onboard memory, so nope. I hove no solution for macros on your mouse, but as for the keyboard, I now use QMK keyboards, or more recently KMK keyboards (written by myself and one other guy), but QMK is probably what you’d want as that supports many keyboards (not razer). That gets programmed into the keyboard, and goes with you anywhere.
Well, I guess there isn’t an easy solution to what is holding me back from accomplishing my goal. I guess I am going to have to be patient and do a lot more research. This is probably going to take weeks of research and trying several solutions before I come up with a solution I am happy with. I will let you guys know if I find anything. I guess the first step is trying to get hold of the developer of Open Razer and see if I can get him to add support for my mouse to his project. The second step to learn what Razer Synapse can do. This is my first gaming mouse and keyboard. I have never spent more than 30 dollars for both a keyboard and a mouse.
