215 lines
10 KiB
Markdown
215 lines
10 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Solaar Capabilities
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layout: page
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---
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# Solaar Capabilities
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[**Solaar**][solaar] reports on and controls [Logitech][logitech] devices
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(keyboards, mice, and trackballs) that connect to your computer via a
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Logitech USB receiver (a very small piece of hardware that plugs into one of
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your USB ports).
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Solaar is designed to detect all connected devices,
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and at the very least display some basic information about them.
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At this moment, all [Unifying][unifying] receivers are supported (e.g., devices
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with USB ID `046d:c52b` or `046d:c532`) as are several Lightspeed Receivers
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and many Nano receivers.
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Solaar also reports on and controls some Logitech devices that directly connect
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to your computer using a USB cable or via Bluetooth.
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Not all such devices supported in Solaar as information needs to be added to Solaar
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for each device type that directly connects.
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## HID++
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The devices that Solaar handles use Logitech's HID++ protocol.
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HID++ is a Logitech-proprietary protocol that extends the standard HID
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protocol for interfacing with receivers, keyboards, mice, and so on. It allows
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Logitech receivers to communicate with multiple devices and modify some
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features of the device. As the HID++ protocol is
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proprietary, many aspects of it are unknown. Some information about HID++
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has been obtained from Logitech but even that is subject to change and
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extension.
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There are several versions of HID++ and many Logitech
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receivers and devices that utilize it. Different receivers and devices
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implement different portions of HID++ so even if two devices appear to be
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the same in both physical appearance and behavior they may work
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differently underneath. (For example, there are versions of the
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M510 mouse that use different versions of the HID++ protocol.)
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Contrariwise, two different devices may appear different physically but
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actually look the same to software. (For example, some M185 mice look the
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same to software as some M310 mice.)
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The software identity of a receiver can be determined by its USB product ID
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(reported by Solaar and also viewable in Linux using `lsusb`). The software
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identity of a device that connects to a receiver can be determined by
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its wireless PID as reported by Solaar. The software identity of devices that
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connect via a USB cable or via bluetooth can be determined by their USB or
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Bluetooth product ID.
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Even something as fundamental as pairing works differently for different
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receivers. For Unifying receivers, pairing adds a new paired device, but
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only if there is an open slot on the receiver. So these receivers need to
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be able to unpair devices that they have been paired with or else they will
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not have any open slots for pairing. Some other receivers, like the
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Nano receiver with USB ID `046d:c534`, can only pair with particular kinds of
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devices and pairing a new device replaces whatever device of that kind was
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previously paired to the receiver. These receivers cannot unpair. Further,
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some receivers can pair an unlimited number of times but others can only
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pair a limited number of times.
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Bolt receivers add an authentication phase to pairing,
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where the user has type a passcode or click some buttons to authenticate the device.
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Only some connections between receivers and devices are possible. In should
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be possible to connect any device with a Unifying logo on it to any receiver
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with a Unifying logo on it. Receivers without the Unifying logo probably
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can connect only to the kind of devices they were bought with and devices
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without the Unifying logo can probably only connect to the kind of receiver
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that they were bought with.
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## Supported Features
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Solaar uses the HID++ protocol to pair devices to receivers and unpair
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devices from receivers, and also uses the HID++ protocol to display
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features of receivers and devices. Currently it only displays some
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features, and can modify even fewer. For a list of HID++ features
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and their support see [the features page](features).
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Solaar does not do much beyond using the HID++ protocol to change the
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behavior of receivers and devices via changing their settings.
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In particular, Solaar cannot change how
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the operating system turns the keycodes that a keyboard produces into
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characters that are sent to programs. That is the province of HID device
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drivers and other software (such as X11).
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Settings can only be changed in the Solaar GUI when they are unlocked.
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To unlock a setting click on the icon at the right-hand edge of the setting
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until an unlocked lock appears (with tooltop "Changes allowed").
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Solaar keep tracks of the changeable settings of a device.
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Most devices forget changed settings when the are turned off
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or go into a power-saving mode. When Solaar starts, it restores on-line
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devices to their previously-known state, and while running it restores
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devices to their previously-known state when the device itself comes on line.
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This information is stored in the file `~/.config/solaar/config.json`.
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Updating of settings can be turned off in the Solaar GUI by clicking on the icon
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at the right-hand edge of the setting until a red icon appears (with tooltip
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"Ignore this setting" ).
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Solaar keeps track of settings independently on each computer.
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As a result if a device is switched between different computers
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Solaar may apply different settings for it on the different computers
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Querying a device for its current state can require quite a few HID++
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interactions. These interactions can temporarily slow down the device, so
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Solaar tries to internally cache information about devices while it is
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running. If the device
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state is changed by some other means, even sometimes by another invocation
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of Solaar, this cached information may become incorrect. Currently there is
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no way to force an update of the cached information besides restarting Solaar.
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Logitech receivers and devices have firmware in them. Some firmware
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can be updated using Logitech software in Windows. For example, there are
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security issues with some Logitech receivers and devices and Logitech has
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firmware updates to alleviate these problems. Some Logitech firmware can
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also be updated in Linux using `fwupdmgr`.
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WARNING: Updating firmware can cause a piece of hardware to become
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permanently non-functional if something goes wrong with the update or the
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update installs the wrong firmware.
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## Other Solaar Capabilities
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Solaar has a few capabilities that go beyond simply changing device settings.
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### Rule-based Processing of HID++ Notifications
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Solaar can process HID++ Notifications from devices to, for example,
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change the speed of some thumb wheels. These notifications are only sent
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for actions that are set in Solaar to their HID++ setting (also known as diverted).
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For more information on this capability of Solaar see
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[the rules page](https://pwr-solaar.github.io/Solaar/rules). As much of rule processing
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depends on X11, this capability is only when running under X11.
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Users can edit rules using a GUI by clicking on the `Edit Rule` button in the Solaar main window.
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Solaar rules is an experimental feature. Significant changes might be made in response to problems.
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### Sliding DPI
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A few mice (such as the MX Vertical) have a button that is supposed to be used to change
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the sensitivity (DPI) of the mouse by pressing the button and moving the mouse left and right.
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Other mice (such as the MX Master 3) don't have a button specific for this purpose
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but have buttons that can be used for it.
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The DPI Sliding Adjustment setting assigns a button for this purpose.
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Pressing the button, if the button is diverted, causes the mouse pointer to stop moving.
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When the button is released a new Sensitivity (DPI) value is applied to the mouse,
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depending on how far right or left the mouse is moved. If the mouse is moved only a little bit
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the previous value that was set is applied to the mouse.
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Notifications from Solaar are displayed while the mouse button is done
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showing the setting that will be applied.
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### Mouse Gestures
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Some mice (such as the MX Master 3) have a button that is supposed to be used to
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create up/down/left/right mouse gestures. Other mice (such as the MX Vertical) don't
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have a button specific for this purpose but have buttons that can be used for it.
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The Mouse Gestures setting assigns a button for this purpose.
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Pressing the button, if the button is diverted, causes the mouse pointer to stop moving.
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When the button is released a MOUSE_GESTURE notification with the total mouse movement
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while the button was pressed is sent to the Solaar rule system.
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MOUSE_GESTURE notifications trigger mouse gesture conditions in Solaar rules.
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For more information on mouse gesture rules conditions see
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[the rules page](https://pwr-solaar.github.io/Solaar/rules).
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Mouse gestures is an experimental feature.
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Significant changes might be made to it in the future.
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## System Tray
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Solaar's GUI normally uses an icon in the system tray.
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This allows users to close Solaar and reopen from the tray.
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This aspect of Solaar depends on having an active system tray which may
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require some special setup when using Gnome, particularly under Wayland.
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If you are running gnome, you most likely need the
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`gnome-shell-extension-appindicator` package installed.
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In Fedora, this can be done by running
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```
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sudo dnf install gnome-shell-extension-appindicator
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```
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The likely command in Ubuntu and related distributions is
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```
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sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-appindicator
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```
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You may have to log out and log in again before the system tray shows up.
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## Battery Icons
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For many devices, Solaar shows the approximate battery level via icons that
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show up in both the main window and the system tray. In previous versions
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several heuristics to determine which icon names to use for this purpose,
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but as more and more battery icon schemes have been developed this has
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become impossible to do well. Solaar now uses the eleven standard
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battery icon names `battery-{full,good,low,critical,empty}[-charging]` and
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`battery-missing`.
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Solaar will use the symbolic versions of these icons if started with the
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option `--battery-icons=symbolic`. Because of external bugs,
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these symbolic icons may be nearly invisible in dark themes.
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[solaar]: https://github.com/pwr-Solaar/Solaar
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[logitech]: https://www.logitech.com
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[unifying]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logitech_Unifying_receiver
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