Razer peripherals

There are currently no official drivers for any Razer peripherals in Linux. However, Michael Buesch has created a tool called razercfg to configure Razer mice under Linux. There also exist scripts to enable macro keys of Razer keyboards.

Another package, openrazer-meta^AUR can be used to enable Razer support along with polychromatic^AUR or razergenie^AUR for GUI configuration. Supported devices are listed here

Razer Peripherals

Compatibility

razercfg lists the following mice models as stable:

• Razer DeathAdder Classic
• Razer DeathAdder 3500 DPI
• Razer DeathAdder Black Edition
• Razer DeathAdder 2013
• Razer DeathAdder Chroma
• Razer Krait
• Razer Naga Classic
• Razer Naga 2012
• Razer Naga 2014
• Razer Naga Hex
• Razer Taipan

And the following as stable but missing minor features:

• Razer Lachesis
• Razer Copperhead
• Razer Boomslang CE

Installation

Download and install razercfg^AUR or razercfg-git^AUR for bleeding edge git releases from the AUR.

You also need to edit your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file to disable the current mouse settings by commenting them out as in the following example, where also some defaults are set as suggested by the author:

/etc/X11/xorg.conf

 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.

Restart the computer, then enter:

# udevadm control --reload-rules

Then start the razerd daemon and possibly enable it.

Using the Razer Configuration Tool

There are two commands you can use, one for the command line tool razercfg or the Qt-based GUI tool qrazercfg.

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.

If the colors reset on reboot edit the config file directly and test with another reboot:

/etc/razer.conf

# Configure LEDs
led=1:GlowingLogo:on
led=1:Scrollwheel:on
mode=1:Scrollwheel:static
color=1:Scrollwheel:0000FF
mode=1:GlowingLogo:static
color=1:GlowingLogo:FFFFFF

"static" can probably be changed to spectrum or breathing, and mode/color lines can be removed if led is set to "off".

Razer Blade

Razer Blade is Razer's line of gaming laptops. There is currently a 12" model (Razer Blade Stealth), 14" model (Razer Blade), and a 17" model (Razer Blade Pro). Due to the proprietary SBUI trackpad on the 17" model, it will be extremely difficult to get it to work without extensive USB protocol reversing.

2016 version (Razer Blade & Razer Blade Stealth)

The normal installation process works in general with the exceptions enumerated below.

Killer Wireless Network Adapter

Killer Wireless adapters no longer require special firmware to function, and will work right out of the box.

Blade 2016 with Killer 1535 will, however, drop connection upon heavy load. A possible solution is to use the git version of ath10k as following:

Remove the included firmware:

# rm -r /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA6174/

Download the latest firmware using wget or your favorite browser:

$ wget https://github.com/kvalo/ath10k-firmware/archive/master.zip

Unzip the downloaded file using your preferred method and copy to /lib/firmware/ath10k/:

# cp -r ath10k-firmware-master/QCA6174/ /lib/firmware/ath10k/

Rename some files:

# cd /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA6174/hw2.1/
# mv firmware-5.bin_SW_RM.1.1.1-00157-QCARMSWPZ-1 firmware-5.bin
# cd /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA6174/hw3.0/
# mv firmware-4.bin_WLAN.RM.2.0-00180-QCARMSWPZ-1 firmware-4.bin

Reboot and test.

Touchpad

Install the xf86-input-libinput package: this is also the only one that will enable natural scrolling. See Libinput for more information on this driver.

Alternatively, if you prefer using the Touchpad Synaptics driver, install the xf86-input-synaptics package.

If you have issues with the touchpad not working after resuming from sleep, restarting the module i2c_hid seems to work.

Touchscreen

While the touchscreen will provide basic functionality out of the box, it is best to use touchegg^AUR to configure multitouch gestures. These include two-finger scrolling, right-click, etc.

Graphics Drivers

The graphics card works OK with the standard intel drivers which you can install with the xf86-video-intel package. See Intel graphics for more information on installation and configuration.

Issues with screen flickering seem to be resolved by changing AccelMethod to uxa as described in the SNA issues section.

# cat >/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf 
Section "Device"
  Identifier  "Intel Graphics"
  Driver      "intel"
  Option      "AccelMethod"  "uxa"
  #Option      "AccelMethod"  "sna"
EndSection

If you experience screen tearing while scrolling add the following line to the conf above: Option "TearFree" "true" and set the "AccelMethod" to "sna" and comment out "uxa"

If you have an Intel Kaby Lake chip wikipedia:Kaby_Lake, and the issue is not fixed with the conf above, add to i915.enable_rc6=0 to the kernel parameters.

Hybrid graphics

If the discrete Nvidia GPU is switched off before starting Xorg or Wayland, then the system freezes. The only possible solution is to manually disable/enable the discrete card after starting the graphical session. However there is a ACPI DSDT fix available which fixes this problem. Check the repository for more information.

Suspend Loop

Suspending (Close laptop lid) does not seem to work with a basic installation. The lid state transitions from "open" to "closed" correctly the first time (and the system suspends), but after resuming from suspend by opening the lid, the lid state does not change back to "open". This results in the laptop entering a suspend loop because systemd monitors the lid state, sees that the lid is closed, and suspends the system.

A bug was filed against the kernel ACPI driver in November 2016. It contains a fair amount of documentation on the issue along with a workaround which seems to solve the problem.

To work around the issue, add the following to your kernel parameters:

button.lid_init_state=open

This will instruct the acpi driver to generate an extra open event when waking from suspend which will keep the system up.

You can check that the setting was acknowledged:

# cat /sys/module/button/parameters/lid_init_state
open

And also view all boot parameters:

$ cat /proc/cmdline 
initrd=\initramfs-linux.img ... button.lid_init_state=open

GRUB

For example, to make changes permanent on GRUB systems, edit # /etc/default/grub and append button.lid_init_state=open to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT line. After the change, the line might look like this (mileage may vary depending on the kernel params already set):

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet button.lid_init_state=open"

Then automatically re-generate the grub.cfg file with:

# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Tweaking

If you are using GNOME, the gnome-tweak-tool can be used to adjust the window and font scaling. A font scale of 1.25 puts the font sizes closer to how they are displayed by default in Windows 10.

If you are using an external monitor that is not HiDPI, you can use xrandr to alter the scaling of the external monitor using the instructions for Multiple Displays. You may have better results though running GNOME on Wayland. When installed, clicking the gear icon in GDM will allow you to select Gnome On Wayland and will default to that in the future.

Audio

On the latest 'KabyLake' Intel CPU, if you also have a dual-boot with Windows, you might experience some audio issues when booting to Windows and restarting on Linux. The problem is no sound from the speakers and some cracking noises on the headphones - especially when using the touchpad -. No official solution has been posted yet, but a quick hack is to completely shut down the computer (so power off, not restart).

Webcam

Setting the uvcvideo option "quirks=128" appears to let the webcam work at 720p30, thus enabling Google Hangouts support. cheese works after changing resolution to 720p and relaunching. Multiplying the quirk by a power of 2+ further improves video quality to a point. "quirks=512" seems to work best for one user.

/etc/modprobe.d/uvcvideo.conf

## fix issue with built-in webcam
options uvcvideo quirks=512

Keyboard

The openrazer-meta^AUR package enables backlight control capabilities (including effects) and macro controls. You may use polychromatic^AUR or razercommander-git^AUR for a GUI to set the keyboard options.

2014 version

Problems

Source

• touchpad (multitouch, although this may be a kernel bug that has since been fixed)
• keys to increase/decrease screen illumination not working
• keys to increase/decrease keyboard illumination not working

Possible trackpad solution

Source

git clone https://github.com/aduggan/hid-rmi.git -b rb14 # and then install it
depmod -a

Then install the synaptics^{[broken link: replaced by xf86-input-synaptics]} package.

Feature still not working: pinch to zoom, 3rd mouse button.

2013 version

What works

Source

• Wireless
• Switchable graphics
• Bluetooth
• Keyboard light (HW controlled)
• UEFI boot
• Trackpad (only on Linux 4.0+ without libinput-based X.Org input driver (xf86-input-libinput) thanks to Andrew Duggan's work).

Problems

Source

• SwitchBlade UI does not work due to lack of drivers.
• Trackpad scrolling does not work.

Possible trackpad solution

Source

git clone https://github.com/aduggan/hid-rmi.git -b rb14 # and then install it
depmod -a

Then install the synaptics^{[broken link: replaced by xf86-input-synaptics]} packages.

Feature still not working: pinch to zoom, 3rd mouse button

Razer keyboards

There are currently two Python scripts available to enable macro keys under Linux:

Blackwidow Control

Features

• confirmed to work with regular BlackWidow, BlackWidow 2013 and BlackWidow Ultimate Stealth 2014
• should also work with BlackWidow Ultimate, BlackWidow Ultimate 2013 and BlackWidow 2014
• does not work with BlackWidow (Ultimate) 2016 yet
• uses Python 3
• allows to control the status of the LED
• contains a file with udev rule so macro keys will be enabled automatically when the keyboard is plugged in

How to Use

Install it from AUR blackwidowcontrol^AUR After install run as root

$ blackwidowcontrol -i

Then use the shortcut utility of your Desktop Enviroment to map the keys

Blackwidow macro scripts

Features

• Works with BlackWidow Ultimate and Stealth 2013 (unknown whether it works with other versions)
• Uses Python 2
• Bundles scripts to create and execute macros

Troubleshooting

Mouse randomly stops working

Note: This is tested on ASUS N550JV using mouse Razer Orochi 2013. Laptop probably has faulty charging port and therefore it sometimes directly affects connected mouse USB port and causes similar issues.

If your razer mouse stops working after some time, however, led flashes or lights up, but reboot and re-plugging does not help, try the following commands.

Unload ehci_pci and ehci_hcd modules:

# rmmod ehci_pci
# rmmod ehci_hcd

Disconnect the mouse, wait a few seconds and run the following commands to load modules back:

# modprobe ehci_hcd
# modprobe ehci_pci

Connect the mouse and it should be working.