Is Logitech's Unifying receiver supported?
I've a Logitech Illuminated Keyboard and M525 mouse here, both are using the Logitech Unifying USB receiver. They works out-of-the box, Plug & Play!
lsusb | grep Logitech:
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 046d:c52b Logitech, Inc. Unifying Receiver
dmesg | grep Logitech:
input: Logitech USB Receiver as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1.2/2-1.2:1.0/input/input2
generic-usb 0003:046D:C52B.0001: input,hidraw0: USB HID v1.11 Keyboard [Logitech USB Receiver] on usb-0000:00:1d.0-1.2/input0
input: Logitech USB Receiver as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1.2/2-1.2:1.1/input/input3
generic-usb 0003:046D:C52B.0002: input,hiddev0,hidraw1: USB HID v1.11 Mouse [Logitech USB Receiver] on usb-0000:00:1d.0-1.2/input1
generic-usb 0003:046D:C52B.0003: hiddev0,hidraw2: USB HID v1.11 Device [Logitech USB Receiver] on usb-0000:00:1d.0-1.2/input2
Having that said, Logitech only supports Unifying software for Windows and Mac OS X. For Linux, I have created the ltunify tool which is described in detail on my article Logitech Unifying for Linux: Reverse Engineering and unpairing tool. Quick installation instructions if you are in a hurry:
sudo apt-get install git gcc
git clone https://git.lekensteyn.nl/ltunify.git
cd ltunify
make install-home
This will fetch the sources and install the program to $HOME/bin/ltunify, if $HOME/bin did not exist before, then you may have to re-login or reopen your terminal. After doing so, you can pair a new device with the sudo ltunify pair command and unpair devices with a command like sudo ltunify unpair mouse (be sure to have a second device that you can use after detaching your Unifying device!).
A graphical tool is also available, Solaar. It has better support for functionality of newer devices such as swapping the functionality of FN keys. It is available though the ppa:daniel.pavel/solaar PPA (if you do not know how to install such a "PPA", see What are PPAs and how do I use them?). After installation, you can search for Solaar in the applications menu and start it from there.
I would like to complement Lekensteyn's answer by including a feature I did not know about. I have a Logitech Anywhere MX mouse and when the batteries were almost out, I got the following message:
So the Unifying receiver is not only supported by it offers (Depending on the device) several features like the image above. This image was with Ubuntu 12.10
On Ubuntu 14.04 with version 0.9.2 you can see the following:
- A panel icon (Battery icon) that measures how much battery the wireless mouse has left
- A menu (After clicking the battery icon) that shows all mice that have been paired
- Clicking on the Unified Receiver option will reveal a second window that shows each mouse individually with several options.
I recommend to read this excellent article about Logitech Unifying Technology written by Lekensteyn.
Note that on latest versions, there is no need for the PPA as this already comes in the Universe Repository with the solaar-gnome3 (For Gnome3/Unity) and solaar packages.
Also see the list of current supported devices and to install it if you are not on a latest Ubuntu version simply run the following lines:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install solaar
Logout and login again and Solaar should appear on your top panel. You can also execute the app from the Dash by typing "Solaar".
Here are some images of several Logitech mice working together with one unified receiver:
Solaar offers an easier way to know how much battery you have left, how much time you have let, which mouse you are using and more. It also offers special features like detecting if the battery is charging:
The following 2 images are from Ubuntu 16.04 64-bit With Solaar:
The first device you plug in just works, but if you get another keyboard or mouse then you need to pair it with the existing receiver. Here's a script you can use to pair your devices on Linux:
- https://github.com/treeder/logitech_unifier
Works great.