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https://github.com/libratbag/libratbag

A DBus daemon to configure input devices, mainly high-end and gaming mice
https://github.com/libratbag/libratbag

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A DBus daemon to configure input devices, mainly high-end and gaming mice

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README 

        
libratbag

=========






libratbag provides **ratbagd**, a DBus daemon to configure input devices,

mainly gaming mice. The daemon provides a generic way to access the various

features exposed by these mice and abstracts away hardware-specific and

kernel-specific quirks.



libratbag currently supports devices from Logitech, Etekcity, GSkill,

Roccat, Steelseries. See [the device

files](https://github.com/libratbag/libratbag/tree/master/data/devices) for

a complete list of supported devices.



Users interact through a GUI like

[Piper](https://github.com/libratbag/piper/). For developers, the

`ratbagctl` tool is the prime tool for debugging.



Installing libratbag from system packages

-----------------------------------------



libratbag is packaged for some distributions, you can use your system's

package manager to install it. See [the

wiki](https://github.com/libratbag/libratbag/wiki/Installation) for details.



Compiling libratbag

-------------------



libratbag uses the [meson build system](http://mesonbuild.com) which in

turn uses ninja to invoke the compiler. Run the following commands to clone

libratbag and initialize the build:



    git clone https://github.com/libratbag/libratbag.git

    cd libratbag

    meson builddir

    ninja -C builddir

    sudo ninja -C builddir install



The default prefix is `/usr/local`, i.e. it will not overwrite the system

installation. For more information, see [the

wiki](https://github.com/libratbag/libratbag/wiki/Installation).



And to build or re-build after code-changes, run:



    ninja -C builddir

    sudo ninja -C builddir install

    

To remove/uninstall simply run:



    sudo ninja -C builddir uninstall



Note: `builddir` is the build output directory and can be changed to any

other directory name. To set configure-time options, use e.g.



    meson configure builddir -Ddocumentation=false



Run `meson configure builddir` to list the options.



Running ratbagd as DBus-activated systemd service

-------------------------------------------------



To run ratbagd, simply run it as root `sudo ratbagd`. However,

ratbagd is intended to run as dbus-activated systemd service and installs

the following files:



    /usr/share/dbus-1/system.d/org.freedesktop.ratbag1.conf

    /usr/share/dbus-1/system-services/org.freedesktop.ratbag1.conf

    /usr/share/systemd/system/ratbagd.service



These files are installed into the prefix by `ninja install`, see also the

configure-time options `-Dsystemd-unit-dir` and `-Ddbus-root-dir`.

Developers are encouraged to simply symlink to the files in the git

repository.



For the files to take effect, you should run



    sudo systemctl daemon-reload

    sudo systemctl reload dbus.service



And finally, to enable the service:



    sudo systemctl enable ratbagd.service



This places the required symlink into the systemd directory so that dbus

activation is possible.



The DBus Interface

-------------------



Full documentation of the DBus interface to interact with devices is

available here: [ratbagd DBus Interface description](https://libratbag.github.io/).



libratbag Internal Architecture

-------------------------------



libratbag has two main components, libratbag and ratbagd. Applications like

Piper talk over DBus to ratbagd. ratbagd uses libratbag to access the actual

devices.



    +-------+    +------+    +---------+    +-----------+

    | Piper | -> | DBus | -> | ratbagd | -> | libratbag | -> device

    +-------+    +------+    +---------+    +-----------+



Inside libratbag, we have the general frontend and API. Each device is

handled by a HW-specific backend.  That HW backend is responsible for the

device-specific communication (usually some vendor-specific HID protocol).



    +---------+    +-----+    +------------+    +----------+

    | ratbagd | -> | API | -> | hw backend | -> | protocol | -> device

    +---------+    +-----+    +------------+    +----------+



The API layer is HW agnostic. Depend on the HW, the protocol may be part of

the driver implementation (e.g. etekcity) or a separate set of files

(HID++). Where the protocol is separate, the whole known protocol should be

implemented. The HW driver then only accesses the bits required for

libratbag. This allows us to optionally export the protocol as separate

library in the future, if other projects require it.



Adding Devices to libratbag

---------------------------



libratbag relies on a device database to match a device with the drivers.

See the [data/devices/](https://github.com/libratbag/libratbag/tree/master/data/devices)

directory for the set of known devices. These files

are usually installed into `$prefix/$datadir` (e.g. `/usr/share/libratbag/`).



Adding a new device can be as simple as adding a new `.device` file. This is

the case for many devices with a shared protocol (e.g. Logitech's HID++).

See the

[data/devices/device.example](https://github.com/libratbag/libratbag/tree/master/data/devices/device.example)

file for guidance on what information must be set. Look for existing devices

from the same vendor as guidance too.



If the device has a different protocol and doesn't work after adding the

device file, you'll have to start reverse-engineering the device-specific

protocol. Good luck :)



Source

------



    git clone https://github.com/libratbag/libratbag.git



Bugs

----



Bugs can be reported in [our issue tracker](https://github.com/libratbag/libratbag/issues)



Mailing list

------------



libratbag discussions happen on the [input-tools mailing

list](http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/input-tools/) hosted on

freedesktop.org



Device-specific notes

---------------------



A number of device-specific notes and observations can be found in our

wiki: https://github.com/libratbag/libratbag/wiki/Devices



License

-------



libratbag is licensed under the MIT license.



> Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a

> copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"),

> to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation

> the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,

> and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the

> Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: [...]



See the COPYING file for the full license information.