this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2026
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[–] recursive_recursion@piefed.ca 25 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Gods, I really hope they consider Linux or at least SteamOS for software support.

Having my Logitech and Corsair mice without the ability to actively rebind anything on my Linux host (without the use of Windows VMs) is painfully annoying.

[–] ElectroLisa@piefed.blahaj.zone 16 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

You can configure Keychron peripherals via their website - Keychron Launcher.

It works on Linux, but there are two caveats:

  1. Requires Chromium web browser. I've tested it with Ungoogled Chromium and it worked fine.
  2. In some Linux distributions you will have to set up udev rules, to allow access to USB devices

I've tested it with my Keychain K3 keyboard and M4 mouse and it works.

I agree a compatibility with ex. Piper would be neat though

[–] pastaq@lemmy.world 9 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Be careful with this. These udev rules usually grant uaccess to your entire keyboard. uaccess is explicitly disabled for keyboards by default because it presents the event device to all of userspace, which allows any unprivileged app to log all key presses. This includes any malicious scripts running in a browser. If you do want to set up these rules, use them only for the single session you're setting up your device and don't type any passwords with it active, or change them immediately after (you won't be able to remove them without your sudo password).

For the same reason, stop using OpenRGB for devices that don't have kernel drivers.

[–] ElectroLisa@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

You're right, one of the guides I've found explicitly mentioned that, and recommended toggling the rules on only when you need it.

If I'm not mistaken, you can make rules per device ID. Keychron devices show up as a keyboard/mouse and a "Link" device. You could make a passthrough rule just for the Link, thus not granting access to the actual input device.

Could you elaborate on the OpenRGB thing? I've used it a few times but never paid attention to the rules it asks for

[–] pastaq@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

If I'm not mistaken, you can make rules per device ID. Keychron devices show up as a keyboard/mouse and a "Link" device. You could make a passthrough rule just for the Link, thus not granting access to the actual input device.

That's great, just be sure your rules are specific enough for that device but didn't rely on some randomness for detection. I.e. Matching on the current evdev or hidraw devnode is bad because it can shift with more devices being added, changing ports, or some randomness in enumeration speed. Instead, do an attribute walk on the devnode to find specific unique attributes for that node, such as VID + PID + subsystem + bInterfaceNunber should be unique. Things like names and phys patch aren't guaranteed to be unique or consistent in different operating modes. You'll also want to check the devnodes of the other interfaces to be sure they won't match by doing a test.

The commands for those things are: udevadm info -a /path/to/devnode udevadm test /path/to/devnode

Could you elaborate on the OpenRGB thing? I've used it a few times but never paid attention to the rules it asks for

Sure. While not technically necessary for some devices, they have pretty open blanket udev rules. This is because most keyboard devices require the use of hid reports directly to the device to make changes.

From their page:

On Linux, OpenRGB needs permission to access the hardware interfaces used for RGB control. These include USB and I2C interfaces. To make accessing these interfaces easier, OpenRGB provides a udev rules file that tells your operating system to allow your user account control over these hardware interfaces, allowing OpenRGB to run without root access while still controlling the hardware.

Notice the complete lack of warning about any security issue from doing this.

If they wanted to be secure they could make a root level daemon that does all the hardware interfacing, and provide a dbus interface managed through polkit to allow making those changes from the userspace UI.

[–] brognak@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I REALLY fucking wish people would stop targeting Chromium for their apps.

[–] ElectroLisa@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 14 hours ago

I agree, but at least it's not an app you have to download, which turns out to be Electron/CEF/etc.

[–] Azzu@leminal.space 20 points 23 hours ago

If it's open source, there's roughly a 100% chance someone will make it work on Linux.

[–] synapse1278@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They are talking about the firmware that runs on the device. The user front-end to easily configure it is another story. Hopefully it's going to quickly get support for Linux as they are starting from well established Open-source projects for keyboard firmware (QMK and ZMK). If it works like for keyboards, you will be able to configure your mouse with something like VIA that runs on Chrome/Chromium (and maybe one day Firefox ?) using the WebUSB API.

I have 2 keychon keyboards, an old one and a newer one with QMK firmware. Both have worked perfectly well for Linux. The QMK one is easy to configure with VIA once the device permissions are sorted out.

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 1 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

that runs on Chrome/Chromium (and maybe one day Firefox ?) using the WebUSB API.

Please don't bring webusb to firefox. It's just a security liability. only use is for tools made out of mistakes. the web should never have direct access to usb devices and the filesystem.

[–] synapse1278@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

They already brought webserial.

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 1 points 14 hours ago

yes and I don't like it.

[–] diaphragmwp@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

It's a fucking USB HID mouse? OS agnostic. In an ideal world, the buttons should just be really big number scancodes that aren't mapped to anything. You can then do something like this (says sway but runs on basically everything X and Wayland). Research before buying a mouse. Actually, no, just buy it from a local store, and if the buttons aren't functioning as buttons without OEM bullshit, return as defective.