Mouser: An open source alternative to Logi-Plus mouse software
github.comI discovered this project because all-of-a-sudden Logi Options Plus software updater started taking 40-60% of my Intel Macbook Pro until I killed the process (of course it restarts). In my searches I ended up at a reddit discussion where I found other people with same issues.
I'm a minor contributor to this project but it aims to reduce/eliminate the need to use Logitech proprietary software and telemetry. We could use help if other people are interested.
Please check out the github link for more detailed motivations (eliminating telemetry) as a part of this project. Here is link: https://github.com/TomBadash/MouseControl
The Logi Options app is such a piece of crap. On macOS it also requires special permissions otherwise it won't even work.
If you only need to connect a device to the Bolt adapter you can use this web app by Logitech without having to install anything:
https://logiwebconnect.com/
My friend used to work at Logitech. Everyone in the trenches knows the software they pump out is trash, but the higher ups are somehow convinced that it “sets them apart”. I assume they think it sets them apart in a good way, but it’s quite the opposite.
That’s sad to hear, I remember how good Logitech was back in the mid-2000s, the Logitech G15 keyboard had 18 programmable macro buttons and a media LED screen and media buttons that had a custom plugins SDK for stuff like Winamp, so I could listen to all my pirated music without having to alt+tab out of World of Warcraft. I used that thing until most of the letters had worn off the keycaps.
Around 2009 or so my Logitech wired laser mouse died after years of heavy use, and I emailed them about it, they sent me a brand new mouse, their newest top of the line model with no hassle at all. I’m not even sure it was still under warranty.
The Mac software for my Logitech mouse is called "Logitech G Hub" and it's also pretty awful. Every now and then my Mac starts going bonkers, random clicks all over the place or windows randomly switching focus. Quitting the Logitech G Hub app instantly solves it. (I'm not sure why it wants to run all the time anyway, it's only needed if I want to change some settings on the mouse)
The mouse itself (G305) is great, however!
On macOS it also requires special permissions otherwise it won't even work.
That doesn't sound unusual for something that interacts directly with hardware.
Also any app-specific bindings would I guess require some hooking (input interception / injection) at the software level.
I’ve been using SteerMouse as an alternative for years. It completely disappears and works 100% of the time.
It's probably the only program I despise, but need. I want to use small button under the wheel as middle click (I have short fingers), and until now, the only way to do it is/was to use logi options+. LO+ updater will get stuck on update every couple of months and while it's updating my button configuration doesn't work. Solution? kill process, uninstall, reinstall and hope it will not get stuck again any time soon.
I have to test Mauser.
While I am here, can anyone recommend good alternative mouse with both smooth/quick and precision scroll like logitech's? Back and forth buttons are also a must for me, horizontal scroll optional. Ideally a mouse would save configuration onto itself, so I don't have rely on garbage software like LO+.
The scroll isn't anything special but you might find something that works for you (there's a large lineup), corsair make an ok mouse that can save multiple hardware profiles, and is programmable with input remapping and macros, etc.
I'm always afraid of the day Logitech takes this away. Somebody should try to make an open source deploy of this too.
Chrome or Edge only it says
For posterity, I can very much recommend MacMousefix. It's $2.99 to own, totally worth it to me. Open source.
https://macmousefix.com/en/
Also available via brew:
And on Github too:https://github.com/noah-nuebling/mac-mouse-fix
That's pretty cool, I've been wanting something like this so I don't have to reach for the touchpad on my Mac all the time. But I gotta say, I did NOT expect to be scrolling in the Z axis all of a sudden on that site!
Is there anything like this for the MX Ergo? I would be very interested in any software-based “hacks” for the mouse.
You could also try out a Steermouse free trial, it has MX Ergo S on the recommended mice list, so MX Ero is a maybe
https://plentycom.jp/en/steermouse/
I don’t have a mouse on my Mac now (trackpad too good) but Steermouse has been around for about 25 years and I used it for many of those. Way less awful than the Logitech software.
SteerMouse is legendary. I think it’s been around since Jaguar? Case study in getting it right the first time.
Not quite as old as I remembered, their About page puts it at 2005. But yes it's a remarkably long lasting product.
https://steermouse.com/about-us/
Funny how 20 years ago Logitech's software sucked enough for me to pay for an alternative, and two decades later Logitech's software still sucks enough for people to pay for an alternative.
Steermouse fills this gap brilliantly. Covers every device I’ve ever tried and I have some significant exotics.
I tried this, and it's nice .. but it did let me programme all the buttons on my Logitech MX Vertical.
Holy crap, just tried this and I was skeptical, but it sold me within minutes. This truly is great!
For Linux users, there is Piper[1] based on their libratbag library[2], which supports the majority of mice
[1]: https://github.com/libratbag/piper/
[2]: https://github.com/libratbag/libratbag
And Solaar! https://github.com/pwr-Solaar/Solaar
And logiops too: https://github.com/PixlOne/logiops
I recently purchased the MX Master 4, and it was easy to remap the gesture buttons and configure features like SmartShift and high-resolution scrolling.
Does anybody know if there is a way to remap the "gesture button" (thumb) to launch a .sh ? I've tried a dozen way without success, the only thing I can do is map the .sh to an actual gesture (button+scroll up) but I don't want to use gestures !
I use this to manage my unifying receiver. I don't think I have touched it once in years, just works.
Agreed. I found it so avoided having to install the Logitech spyware anywhere. I won't make that mistake twice.
Another vote here. MX keys and mouse and Linux Mint. Love it, set up once and have never touched it since.
Very cool, thanks!
In a similar vein, I've been using SteerMouse (https://plentycom.jp/en/steermouse/) in the same way for many years, for the same reasons. Logi's hardware is nice, but their software just freaking sucks the electrons out of a battery. It's awful. I refuse to run their driver aka mini-OS just to do the right thing when I click a button with my thumb.
I haven't had a Mac in about a year, but SteerMouse had been installed on all of them for well over a decade prior to that. Excellent software.
BetterTouchTool has also recently added full Logitech support (keyboard & mouse) and it has been working great for me. (Fully replaces the Logitech Options+ and/or Ghub apps).
Especially the smooth scroll modifier available in BTT (not exclusive to Logitech mice) has helped me a lot, it transforms any mouses scroll events into trackpad like scrolling events that allow for e.g. page swipes, mail archive, scrolling in calendar etc. - things that usually only work with Magic Mouse or Apple Trackpads
BTT also has nice gestures support for this which is a drop in replacement for options plus.
A full FOSS replacement is absolutely necessary now. Options+ gets noticably worse every 6 months. The latest thing now is that every time you open it, a pop-up 'View available offers' Ad shows which (of course) you can't disable. The bloat is ridiculous given they embedded a whole additional GUI framework (Flutter) just for that AI Prompt builder many people don't want.
Thank you. I’m constantly baffled by the terrible quality of Logitech’s software. Such great hardware and such horrible software. Very much needed an oss alternative.
> Such great hardware
Every other mouse brand I've used (razer, hyperx, reddragon, steelseries) has outlasted my logitech-G mice, and felt noticeably better built. Their keyboards are the most generic, nothing-special keyboards for any company of that size. They don't innovate.
I will never buy a logitech mouse/keyboard ever, especially with the options we have today.
It's so tiring hearing people praise their hardware when they've literally been outcompeted for a decade at this point. Their webcams, and other niche stuff (like flight sticks) may be fine, but their mice/keyboard are below average.
Interesting! Is there a good, ergonomic mouse that completes with Logitech's MX? I did hear they wear off quickly, which is why I never bought one, but I also never bothered to check for alternatives since everyone said MX is best by far.
I'm also baffled by the quality of their hardware, their mice are all coated in a type of rubber that turns to goop after a few years.
I wish products would just give up on these rubberised materials. They always turn to goop over time. Unless it’s a part designed to be easily user replaced, just stick to hard plastic.
Likely to be https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyurethane#Hydrolysis_and_bi...
I use the g305, and have to replace it roughly once a year because the scroll button eventually stops working. I've been through 5-6 of them. Regularly on sale for around $25.
Wish I could find a better mouse I like as much as this one that I didn't need to pay a yearly subscription for. It's just the right size, lightweight, wireless, and being able to store the customizations to on board memory is nice.
humans are naturally slimy. Anything you touch for 8h/day will be slimy in turn. Some of us are slimier than others.
Huh. Haven't experienced that myself, having used a Master MX for several years (now in use by my wife), a VX Revolution for a few years before that (now my son's backpack mouse), and a Master MX Vertical most recently. My son has gone through several other Logi mice as his primary mice, too, but they've died of either worn out switches or feet (he's an avid gamer).
Not trying to invalidate your experience -- I've see with my own eyes a similar thing happen with rubberized coatings on laptops & keyboard wrist rests (other's not my own).
Just putting it out there that it's by no means the universal experience.
They just don't make mice like they used to. I've been playing games with my intellimouse for the better part of 30 years. Baffles me when I hear of people blowing through several mice.
I have wondered if my skin oils are somehow naturally more caustic than average.
I had issues during COVID. The hand sanitizer and Hand Moisturizer seemed to be a brutal combom on my work MX mice.
Everyone had the horrid goop issue as well, you're not mad.
I think they fixed it in their latest MX4, it's silicone (I think?) now instead of rubber.
https://www.reddit.com/r/logitech/comments/1nq2luo/got_the_m...
Damn, I replaced my MX2 with an MX3 fairly recently...
not unique to logitech. This happens with my steelseries mice too. I have to clean them with alcohol or something.
No mention of smooth scrolling? But that’s the entire reason to buy a Logitech mouse!
If this actually works well, I’m happy to say goodbye to Logi Options with its weird-ass electron-AI-login bullshit (just let me use my mouse, WTF).
Options+ is such trash. It still doesnt support changing input of the mouse when you change input of the keyboard.
Funny timing, I've been working on essentially the same thing for Razer mice on macOS. I started this project because the basilisk v3 hyperspeed has no native mac OS support, and no documented bluetooth protocol, so I packet captured and reverse engineered it.
https://github.com/gh123man/OpenSnek
For a minute I had hope this would work on linux. I'm using Solaar and it kind of works but I haven't managed to make it per-application, also the UI and rule editor is the most cryptic thing ever.
> Mouser
For a second I thought you were talking about the developer Mouser, who wrote a bunch of fantastic tiny and portable utilities for Windows[1].
[1] https://www.donationcoder.com/software/mouser
Open source is the only way to go.
Out-of-the-box, most Linux distributions automatically report the battery status on my (admittedly ancient) Performance MX and I get a desktop notification when the battery is running low so I can run and swap the rechargeables, but I've found no way to do that on Windows (even with Logitech software).
LinearMouse on macos is also good. With Mos
Love Linear Mouse.
I find that Logi Options+ mostly just stays hidden and works. It does use more RAM than I'd like (125.8MB right now). When it does break it's disruptive, or they add some feature I don't want.
- AI Prompting (enabled by default)
- Auto update stuck wasting CPU cycles
- The recent certificate issue
I'd like to find a replacement because I am annoyed by it, but I have not found a replacement that matches ALL of the features I use from Options+.
I keep the default settings in Options+ but in my testing I can't match all the same behavior with the 3rd party solutions:
- Pointer acceleration
- Workspace switching speed
- Smooth scrolling speed / acceleration
Scrolling is usually my main problem where scrolling in one direction jumps in the wrong direction first before correcting. This is most noticeable when scrolling line by line.
I've tested all the 3rd party options mentioned here(with the exception of Mouser). Does anyone else have these problems with the 3rd party alternatives?
I’ve been using the offline version of Options+ that somebody recommended me a while back, it removes AI and auto updating and has done the job for me.
It’s kind of hidden on their website but you can grab it here:
https://hub.sync.logitech.com/options/post/logi-options-offl...
That said I think this will be my last Logitech device. They’re just not very durable products and die too quickly
Thanks for pointing this out. I had no idea it existed. The other options in the comments just didn't quite work the way I would like.
- The main topic requires me to pull python dependencies, build, run manually on Mac - All others can't reassign the button below the scroll wheel on the MX Master 3/4
I switched to the offline version right after Logitech forcefully and without my permission downloaded and installed bunch of crap software on my Mac. I was furious that a stupid mouse driver app has the right to install a random crapware. I’m still fuming about it when I remember it.
125.8MB right now
20 years ago that would be insane (many machines still had only 512MB of RAM total), and "AI Prompting" sounds like satire, and yet this is the reality we're in now --- all that just to configure a mouse.
Personally my mouses don't need anything more than the OS' default settings.
> It does use more RAM than I'd like (125.8MB right now).
For me it regularly ballooned to 1+ GB somehow, until I removed it entirely in favor of BetterMouse.
Currently only for MX Master 3S, for anyone with other Options-controlled mice getting their hopes up.
I usually work on several devices simultaneously, and having to lift, turn the mouse and press the button on the bottom to switch between devices has been a huge hurdle for me. Do you think we can achieve this device-switching mechanism, from within those 6 programmable keys instead? Or this is not possible?
Is there anything like this for the Logitech keyboards (eg MX Keys Mini)? I want to remap some keys there too but don’t want to run Options+
Use kanata (github.com/jtroo/kanata). It's software remapping and works on any keyboard (including built-in laptop keyboards).
Great docs, incredible feature set (literally 50x the capabilities of any logitech first party remapper), and very lightweight.
Download → Mouser.zip (44 MB)
I smell LLM... and 44MB compressed for a mouse control panel applet (at least it's not an Electron app?) is still quite disturbing and a reminder of just how inefficient software has become.
The unzipped binary is 2.2mb, all the rest in Qt dependencies by the look of it.
44mb really isn't that offensive for a statically linked app anyhow.
[flagged]
An update to the Logitech software last year added a fast way to access some kind of Logitech AI, but made it so the combination of mouse and dongle I was using no longer worked together. It was kind of a parable for the whole industry lately.
This is pretty awesome - I have another Logitech mouse (the smaller, more pragmatic M720) and was looking for a way to ditch Logi Options+, which is insanely bloated for what it does. I suspect adapting this will take an hour or so with an LLM...
FYI Logitech also offers an air gapped version of Options+ which cuts out a lot of the slop and telemetry in the normal version: https://prosupport.logi.com/hc/en-us/articles/10991109278871...
If you have to use Options that's probably the way to go (if none of the third party options work for you).
If you run it through command line you get some additional features you can turn off or selectively turn on.
I’m still pissed beyond words that they used the driver software as an excuse and installed crapware on my Mac when they released the AI version.
Nice! Is there a similar option for Logitech Webcams?
Came here looking for this. The Logi+ Options app is, as others have noted, less than stellar. I just want to control the zoom, flip, and coloring on my MX Brio.
Mouser is where you buy ICs...
I wonder if this or anything else can pair devices to the unifying receiver. That’s the only reason I ever use the Logitech app.
Solaar?
Another alternative (apparently the Logi software is so bad that it spawned many of these): BetterMouse. It supports my MX Master 4 https://better-mouse.com/
I dumped my Logitech MX Vertical mouse because of that lousy software.
This seems like a great idea.
Try SteerMouse. Been using it with my MX 3 for years.
how is it that logitech software is such awful trash
Because people keep buying their generic hardware, and random youtubers keep recommending their stuff.
How about we just stop buying anything logitech. What other peripheral company has squandered their resources as much as they have, completely refusing to innovate?
So no Linux?
Logi software is so bad
The features I want are the macro builder from Razer, and chords.
Missed opportunity to call it Jerry
Might still be worth it considering Mouser (the electronics supplier) is already a (pretty big) thing.
Nice project. Respect :)
I worry only how long it will be supported? I hope there will be small community maintaining it ;)
Once again nice project and good luck.