Solaar/docs/usage.md

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title: Solaar Usage
layout: page
---
# Solaar usage
Under normal usage Solaar creates an icon in your system tray. This icon is
usually a battery icon showing the approximate battery level for your device
with the lowest known battery level. If there are no battery information,
then the icon is one of the Solaar icons.
Solaar also has a main window. When it is invisible,
click on the icon in the system tray to bring up the menu, and then
click on a receiver or device in the menu.
The following is an image of the Solaar menu and the icon (the battery
symbol is in the system tray at the left of the image). The icon can
also be other battery icons or versions of the Logitech Unifying icon.
![Solaar-menu](Solaar-menu.png)
Clicking on “Quit” in the Solaar menu terminates the program, and “About Solaar” pops up a window with further information.
## Solaar options
There are several options that affect how Solaar behaves:
* `--help` shows a help message and then quits
* `---window=show` starts Solaar with the main window showing
* `---window=hide` starts Solaar with the main window not showing
* `---window=only` starts Solaar with no system tray icon and the main window showing
* `--battery-icons=symbolic` uses symbolic icons for battery levels
## Solaar main window
The Solaar main window shows your Logitech receivers and devices that Solaar
knows about and can be used to pair new devices, unpair paired devices, and
view and change some settings of the selected receiver or device.
To select a receiver or device click on it in the left side of the window.
Closing the main window does not terminate Solaar (unless Solaar is not using the system tray).
Clicking on “Quit Solaar” terminates the program, and “About Solaar” pops up a window with further information.
The light bulb (or a similar icon) displays detailed information
about the selected receiver or device (useful for debugging).
### Pairing and unpairing devices
When a receiver is selected in the main window, you can pair a new device by
clicking on the “Pair new device” button.
Then turn on the device and it should pair with the receiver if that is possible.
![Solaar-main-window-receiver](Solaar-main-window-receiver.png)
Some receivers can only pair with certain kinds of devices, other receivers
pair a new device by replacing an existing paired device of the same kind, and even other receivers can only pair a limited number of times.
A receiver with the Unifying logo should be able to pair with any device
with the Unifying logo. If there are no open pairing slots, however, you may
not be able to pair a new device. In this case to pair a new device you
first need to unpair a device.
When a device is selected you can unpair the device if your receiver supports
unpairing. To unpair the device, just click on the “Unpair” button and
confirm in the window that pops up.
### Viewing and changing device settings
When a device is selected you can see the approximate battery level of the
device, if that is reported by the device, and the status of the link
between the device and its receiver.
You can also see some settings of the device and change
some of these. Changing settings is performed by clicking on buttons or
moving sliders.
![Solaar-main-window-keyboard](Solaar-main-window-keyboard.png)
![Solaar-main-window-mouse](Solaar-main-window-mouse.png)
If the selected device is powered down or otherwise disconnected its settings
cannot be changed
but it still can be unpaired if its receiver allows unpairing.
![Solaar-main-window-offline](Solaar-main-window-offline.png)
#### Remapping key and button actions
For many devices Solaar can remap some of their keys or buttons to
perform a different action. (This changes the information that the
device sends when the key or button is activated.) Only some keys on some
devices can be remapped and they can only be remapped to a limited
number of actions. The remapping is done by selecting a key
or button in the left-hand box on the “Action” setting line and then
selecting the action to be performed in the right-hand box. The default
action is always the shown first in the list. As with all settings,
Solaar will remember past action settings and restore them on the device
from then on.
![Solaar-main-window-actions](Solaar-main-window-button-actions.png)
The names of the keys, buttons, and actions are mostly taken from Logitech
documentation and may not be completely obvious.
It is possible to end up with an unusable system, for example by having no
way to do a mouse left click, so exercise caution when remapping keys or
buttons that are needed to operate your system.
## Solaar command line interface
Solaar also has a command line interface that can do most of what can be
done using the main window. For more information on the
command line interface, run `solaar --help` to see the commands and
then `solaar <command> --help` to see the arguments to any of the commands.