Hej hej,
I’m on the lookout for a new keyboard and mouse for my gaming and development sessions on Linux. Was therefore wondering if people here have some experience in this field in terms of recommendations. Personally quite tied to quiet keyboards, i like low-profiles but its not a must. Mainly looking for something that is well supported on Linux and keyboard. Or if anyone has any other nice to have peripherals they want to recommend then I’m all ears!
My keyboard requirements;
- Must support Nordic ISO layout
- Must be linear switches or at least quiet keys.
- Must be 100% or 96% in size
Any tips or recommendations are welcome <3
Keychron K4v2 with SonixQMK can be customized to anything you want. I daily it in Linux and windows. I game in Linux, and work in windows (bleh) but I still want Macro’s to pass the HID port on my KVM so I just build custom key codes.
Any of the QMK/VIA supported boards are great in linux, so find the layout, and style you want. The K series are the older ones and they require more effort to get QMK running since they run on the Sonix/Evision MCU.
As for mice, i have a Glorious D- because I have small hands, and its fine. I could control it with OpenRGB but I dont care enough and it gets messy with a KVM.
Alrighty nice one!
The Glorious mouse is a pain in the ass. It literally prevents my laptop from booting sometimes when it’s plugged in.
Keychron, however, I can back 100%. I have two of their C2 wired mechanicals, one with white backlight and one without. I use the backlit one on my personal gaming machine and use the non-backlit one on my work machine in the office. Sometimes gaming is in the dark but work never is. They make a very well built keyboard. Robust, easy to repair when anything goes wrong.
The glorious was a replacement for my razor death adder which lived up to it’s name and died. It was also even worse with Linux and a KVM. Plus it’s software was behind required account.
It’s fine but I’m just using it as a dumb mouse.
Problem is a lot of vendors that used to use Sonix/EVision chips have switched to Sinowealth or other chips during the chip shortage and haven’t switched back. They do this without changing the model numbers. Sinowealth’s chip is inferior in every way and does not have any QMK port so if you get stuck with a new PCB revision you’re screwed.
I can’t recommend anyone try to buy a Sonix/EVision board anymore for this reason unfortunately. It was awesome when every cheap keyboard on the market had one of these chips though.
I yield to the world expert, also Hi Calc, nice to see you on the fediverse!
My understanding is that Keychron stuck with Sonix/Evision on the K series, but yes my D- is sinowealth which is part of why I dont bother tweaking it.
I wouldn’t call myself the world expert on Sonix these days, haven’t messed with it in over a year. I occasionally check up on the Sonix hacking discord and it looks like some people over there are still making progress, have rebased to master and such. I have been focusing on OpenRGB itself mostly and once the Sinowealth boards started coming out I kinda lost interest in keeping up with SonixQMK since it felt like the work we were doing was getting undone.
I did try to JTAG a Sinowealth keyboard but thus far have been unsuccessful in talking to the chip. I would at least like to dump its firmware.
Yea I still mod on the Sonix discord but its somewhat dead since the number of Sonix/Evision based keyboards has dropped to near 0 and Keychron started making actual QMK compatible boards.
Are you connected with Wendel at Level 1 Techs who are working to get a open RGB protocol supported by all the manufacturers?
Not in any official capacity, but I know about what he and Steve from GN are doing. Their project aims to get vendors to provide documentation on their control protocols, not to standardize around a a single unified protocol.
The Windows RGB implementation might get companies to standardize around the HID Lamp Array protocol though.