Razer

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Reason: Various style issues, structure lacking (Discuss in Talk:Razer#)

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.

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 razercfgAUR or razercfg-gitAUR 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.

Tango-inaccurate.pngThe factual accuracy of this article or section is disputed.Tango-inaccurate.png

Reason: Why reboot? (Discuss in Talk:Razer#)

Restart the computer, then enter:

# udevadm control --reload-rules

Then start the razerd daemon and possibly enable it.

Using the Razer Configuration Tool

Tango-inaccurate.pngThe factual accuracy of this article or section is disputed.Tango-inaccurate.png

Reason: Button configuration reported to not work (Discuss in Talk:Razer#Button configuration in razercfg or qrazercfg)

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.

Razer Blade

Razer Blade is Razer's line of gaming laptops. There is currently a 14" model, and a 17" model. 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.

2015 version (Razer Blade Stealth)

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

Killer Wireless Network Adapter

The wireless adapter won't work without proprietary firmware. You will require a USB ethernet adapter to do the installation or an ISO with the proprietary driver installed. The wireless adapter presents itself as

01:00.0 Network controller: Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter (rev 32)

It is a Killer Wireless-AC 1535 which requires proprietary firmware for the board. The latest 4.4.1 kernel only requires the board.bin to be overwritten.

# wget -O /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA6174/hw3.0/board.bin http://www.killernetworking.com/support/board.bin

Touchpad

The touchpad requires the synaptic drivers to work properly.

# pacman -S xf86-input-synaptics

See Touchpad_Synaptics for more information on installation and configuration.

Graphics Drivers

The graphics card works OK with the standard intel drivers.

# pacman -S xf86-video-intel

See Intel_graphics for more information on installation and configuration.

Issues with screen flickering seem to be resolved by changing AccelMethod to sna As described in the wiki for the driver.

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

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.

Unresolved Issues

  • the webcam does not seem to work with a basic installation. External webcams work fine. It seems to fail when the resolution is anything but 640x480. guvcview works because it defaults to the resolution. cheese and Google Hangouts do not because they default to the max resolution.
  • Suspending does not seem to work with a basic installation. You can suspend but once the system resumes it suffers from random suspends or the screen going blank for no apparent reason.

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
sudo pacman -S synaptics

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 doesn't 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
sudo pacman -S synaptics

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

Tango-view-fullscreen.pngThis article or section needs expansion.Tango-view-fullscreen.png

Reason: The SBUI works as a trackpad, but no linux drivers currently exist. Does it even work for basic trackpad functionality? (Discuss in Talk:Razer#)

Razer Keyboards

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

  • blackwidowcontrolAUR
    • Should work with regular BlackWidow and might work with BlackWidow Ultimate / 2013
    • uses Python 3
    • does not bundle any scripts to create macros (use hot key configuration tool from your desktop environment)
    • allows to controls the status of the LED
  • razer-blackwidow-macro-scriptsAUR
    • Should work with BlackWidow Ultimate 2013
    • uses Python 2
    • also bundles scripts to create and execute macros