Solaar


This application connects to a Logitech Unifying Receiver and puts an icon in
the systray that watches for events from devices attached to it.

Currently the K750 solar keyboard is also queried for its solar charge status.
Other devices can also be added in the future (the K750 keyboard is the only
device I have and can test on).


Requirements
------------

- Python (2.7 or 3).
- Python GI (GObject Introspection), for Gtk bindings.
- A hidapi native implementation (see below for details).
- Optional python-notify2 for desktop notifications.


Installation
------------

1. Make the Logitech Unifying Receiver device available to standard users

Normally USB devices are not accessible for r/w by regular users.

In rules.d/ you'll find a udev rule to be copied in /etc/udev/rules.d/ . In its
current form it makes the UR device available for r/w by all users belonging to
the 'plugdev' system group (standard Debian group for pluggable devices). It may
need changes, specific to your particular system's configuration.

2. Compile the hidapi native library.

Solaar uses a thin ctypes layer on top of a native hidapi library to talk
directly to the UR device. Its source code is available here:
https://github.com/signal11/hidapi .

The native library comes in two flavors, `hidraw` and `libusb`. You should
compile and use the hidraw implementation (in linux/); the libusb version
disconnects the device from the kernel and may cause your UR-connected devices
to stop working until you physically remove and re-insert the UR.

Once compiled, you should copy the shared library (libhidapi-hidraw.so) to the
lib/ directory in the application.

3. Start the application with ./solaar


Notes
-----

This project began as a third-hand clone of Noah K. Tilton's logitech-solar-k750
project on GitHub (no longer available). It was developed further thanks to the
diggings in Logitech's HID protocol done by Julien Danjou
(http://julien.danjou.info/blog/2012/logitech-k750-linux-support) and
Lars-Dominik Braun (http://6xq.net/git/lars/lshidpp.git).


Cheers,
-pwr