Razer

Background

There is currently no official driver for the Razer gaming mice in Linux. However, Michael Buesch has created a tool to configure varios Razer mice under Linux. Currently it lists Razer DeathAdder and Razer Krait as Stable, Razer Lachesis as experimental/missing features, Razer Copperhead and Razer Boomslang as not supported.

Getting the tool working under Arch Linux

While there are instructions in the README, I had to modify various things to get the driver to work properly. I am using the Razer Lachesis in my example.

Downloading

Download the tool from the the author's website. The current latest version is 0.06.

Prerequesites

You need to install a few pacakges prior to this one.

# pacman -S cmake qt4 python python-qt4 libusb

Compiling and installing

Extract the package then then compile and install it there following way:

$ cmake .
$ make
# make install
# ldconfig

Then, copy the daemon:

# cp razerd.initscript /etc/rd.d/razerd

Before your restart

Before you restart, you need to edit your xorg.conf file to disable the current mouse settings. I just commented them out then set some defaults as suggested by the author:

Section "InputDevice"
   Identifier	"Mouse"
   Driver	"mouse"
   Option	"Device" "/dev/input/mice"
EndSection

It is important to only have "Mouse" and not "Mouse#" listed in xorg.conf.

Next, you need to copy the library as the installer puts it where Arch cannot find it. I simply did:

# cp /usr/local/lib/librazer.so /usr/lib/librazer.so

Final touches

Retart the computer then enter:

# udevadm control --reload-rules

To start the daemon, type:

# /etc/rc.d/razerd start

If you did everything correctly, you shouldn't get errors.

Using the Razer Configuration Tool

The tool is located under /usr/local/bin/razercfg and /usr/local/bin/qrazercfg. The second one is the GUI one. You can make a shortcut for it and put a fancy icon.

From the tool you can use the 5 profiles, change the DPI, change mouse frequency, enable and disable the scroll and logo lights and configure the buttons.

Bugs

Everytime I restart, my Razer Lachesis is brought back to 500 DPI. Not that cruicial as I just open the Razer Configuration Tool and set it to 4000 DPI and all is good. I've e-mailed him on this issue and am waiting on a reply.