How To Configure Razer Gaming Peripherals On Linux With Polychromatic

Do you have Razer gaming hardware? Confused as to how to configure Razer gaming peripherals on Linux computer? If so, you may be interested in the Polychromatic tool. It’s a complete graphical front-end tool for Linux that can configure Razer gaming peripherals.

To install the Polychromatic tool, you need to be running the latest Razer device drivers on Linux. Follow the instructions below to learn how to get them working.

Install OpenRazer And Polychromatic

The OpenRazer driver has lots of support on Linux. No matter what Linux distribution you’re running, there’s probably a way to install it. To get started, open up a terminal window and enter the commands that correspond to your operating system.

Ubuntu

Like most third-party software, OpenRazer  can be installed on Ubuntu via a PPA. In the terminal window, use the add-apt-repository command to add the software source.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:openrazer/stable

Next, you’ll need to refresh Ubuntu’s software sources. Running a refresh is critical, otherwise, Ubuntu won’t see the new PPA.

sudo apt update

After updating, you’ll notice that apt says there are updates available. Install them with the upgrade command. Don’t skip this step, as it is essential. Without installing critical updates, Ubuntu may not run Razer software as well as it could.

sudo apt upgrade -y

Now that everything is up to date use the apt install command to grab the latest version of the OpenRazer drivers.

sudo apt install openrazer-meta

Seeing errors when trying to install OpenRazer? This error may be due to the Universe software source being disabled. Enable it with the following command:

sudo add-apt-repository universe

sudo apt update

After the update finishes, try to re-install OpenRazer with the command above.

Debian

Like Ubuntu, the software can be installed via third-party software sources. Unfortunately, PPAs and Debian don’t go very well together, so you’ll need to do it the old-fashioned way.

First, use the echo command to add OpenRazer to Debian’s sources.list file.

Note: be sure to do this as root with su, or add yourself to the sudoer file.

su

echo 'deb https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/hardware:/razer/Debian_9.0/ /' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hardware:razer.list

The OpenRazer software source is now in Debian. Next, it’s time to run the update command, so that the new software source is accessible.

sudo apt-get update

Running apt-get update sometimes shows updates that are ready to install. Be sure to install the updates so that OpenRazer runs at it’s best.

sudo apt-get upgrade

Lastly, install the driver with:

sudo apt-get install openrazer-meta

With the new OpenRazer drivers working, finish everything up by installing Polychromatic:

echo "deb https://ppa.launchpad.net/polychromatic/stable/ubuntu xenial main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/polychromatic.list
sudo apt-key adv --recv-key --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 96B9CD7C22E2C8C5
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install polychromatic

Arch Linux

OpenRazer is available to all Arch Linux users via the Arch Linux user repository. To install this software from the AUR, install the Git package using the Pacman packaging tool.

sudo pacman -S git

It may also be necessary to install the base-devel package too (required for interacting with the AUR).

sudo pacman -S base-devel

Next, use the git command to pull the latest pkgbuild file of OpenRazer.

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/openrazer.git

CD into the clone folder and start the build process with makepkg. Understand that building from the AUR is touchy. Usually, using the -si flags install all dependencies automatically. However, sometimes, this fails. In this event, please visit the OpenRazer page on the AUR and install all dependent programs manually.

With OpenRazer installed, move on to installing the Polychromatic app.

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/polychromatic.git

cd polychromatic

makepkg -si

Fedora

Installing OpenRazer and PolyChromatic on Fedora is possible thanks to the Suse OBS. Start off adding the software source for OpenRazer in the terminal. In this guide, we’ll focus on Fedora 28. However, there are software repositories available for Fedora 27 and 26. Replace “Fedora 28” with your release in the commands below.

sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/hardware:razer/Fedora_28/hardware:razer.repo

After adding the OpenRazer software source, add the Polychromatic one too.

sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/hardware:razer/Fedora_28/hardware:razer.repo

Finally, install both Openrazer and Polychromatic:

sudo dnf install openrazer-meta polychromatic

OpenSUSE

To install the Polychromatic tool on OpenSUSE, and add both the OpenRazer and Polychromatic software sources to the system.

sudo zypper addrepo https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/hardware:razer/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/hardware:razer.repo

or

sudo zypper addrepo https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/hardware:razer/openSUSE_Leap_15.0/hardware:razer.repo

Update the software sources for Zypper with the refresh tool.

sudo zypper refresh

Finally, install OpenRazer and Polychromatic using zypper install.

sudo zypper install polychromatic openrazer-meta

Using Polychromatic

If you need to change the RGB lighting on your Razer device, start off by opening the Polychromatic tool. As it opens up, you should instantly see options available for several different types of supported devices. Provided that the OpenRazer driver is working, you should be able to easily edit these settings.

Select “overview” to show the Razer devices connected and recognized by your Linux PC. Polychromatic will only let you modify Razer devices that are connected to the system.

To modify a Razer device, select the device name in the options menu to open its settings window.

Inside the settings window, use Polychromatic to modify lighting settings, change options, and etc. Changing settings should automatically apply to the device.

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