SteerMouse
plentycom.jpIf you need to adjust cursor speed and want scroll behavior to differ between the TrackPad and a mouse, then I can vouch for LinearMouse [1]. It is free of charge and open-source, and perfectly covers my needs.
I’ve been using it for many years, I think it’s one of the oldest alternative mouse driver for Mac. Highly recommended to those who want to avoid the bloated (and now AI powered, for whatever it means) Logitech software.
AFAIK, the AI thing is just shortcut/macro button(s) to activate ChatGPT? It's not like they put AI in charge of determining where you meant to click, or anything goofy like that.
Does it work with the additional buttons on logi mice?
It works on my Razer mouse that has a freaking 12 number keypad on the side, so I'd bet heavily, and there's a free demo.
Yes. It works on all buttons and scrollwheels on all mice I have ever tried (including several Logitech ones).
Some mice will have buttons that toggle lighting or tracking speed, I have a feeling these are the kinds of buttons that might not work with the app. Because they are just local buttons, they don't get sent to the OS.
It’s varied a lot by version of the software, and by iterations of the mouse models with such functionality. I recall at least one Logitech mouse where the buttons couldn’t ever be reprogrammed; at least one other where it was unsupported before a SteerMouse update; and others where they were supported like any other mouse button on arrival.
Edit to add that IME most have fallen into the last category for a several years now.
It does on my MX Vertical. It also lets you set different actions per app. I've used that to bind the forward and backward buttons to do the right thing in most apps I touch so I have a universal shortcut for that navigation.
I just wanted to also suggest BetterMouse (https://better-mouse.com). SteerMouse is great, but it lacks the ability to map gestures to the thumb button on the MX Master mice. BetterMouse allows you to do that and has a UI thats a bit more understandable.
Thanks for this recommendation. I've tried SteerMouse and other alternatives in the past and haven't stuck with them (can't recall why exactly) but would dearly like to get away from Logitech's software.
Great piece of software, used it for years. It’s great knowing you can buy any mouse with whatever buttons and you can make it work just how you want.
Until moving to Windows, this made my mouse on macOS bearable. Removed all accel with 1600 sens so that when I went from macOS for work to Windows for gaming back to macOS for work, I wouldn't lose my mind. Nowadays I just stick to Windows because WSL2 is pretty rad. But SteerMouse saved my sanity for quite a few years.
Amazing piece of software. This is what software should be: useful, super fast and gets out of the way. These days software is so needy and slow. Looking at you Slack.
To add to this: I bought a Steermouse license well over a decade ago. I paid once. I’ve been using it ever since and it’s maintained and updated. No subscription. Isn’t charging for updates. This is what software should be.
The industry has definitely lost an element of craftsmanship and desire to build great software for people.
Never heard of it until DaringFireball mentioned the other day, which is presumably why it's on HackerNews today. Neat tool. https://daringfireball.net/linked/2024/05/06/hackett-logitec...
I'm a very happy user of SteerMouse for years now. The logitech app was very unstable (and increasingly bloated) to just be able to customize a couple of things for the MX Master 3.
SteerMouse does all that, is hidden away in preferences where it belongs, and It Just Works™
It's a separate app now and doesn't live in preferences anymore.
Do you still get hyperscrolling without the logitech software?
Is that inertial scrolling? Then yes.
I love the style of this website's content and layout. Informative, straight to the point, pleasant to look at.
2005 web style!
I'm a happy SteerMouse user, but it should be noted that if all you want to do is flatten out the Acceleration curve then the native System Settings since macOS Sonoma let you disable acceleration.
Finally, Jesus Christ. They had broken their own builtin for this (historically handled via `defaults write` for at least 6 years, maybe longer.
That was possible in earlier versions with globalpreferences. The real killer feature is disabling the scroll acceleration.
That setting broke a long time ago. Hasn't worked for ages, which is why people have relied on more extreme approaches like those of SteerMouse, CursorSense (same author) and LinearMouse.
As a data point, I use Keyboard Maestro for my extra Logitech mouse buttons, since I refuse to install the terrible Logi software.
I love that Logitech has three apps. Logi+, Logi, Ghub.
My keyboard only shows up in Ghub. My mice only show up in Logi/Logi+..
Oh, there's at least one more app—Logitech Options.
Which the mouse I bought is supposed to work with, at least according to some people on the internet, but does not for me.
KM doesn't recognize all my mouse's buttons. If it did, that'd be my pick too.
Question that is tangential, does a piece of software exist on windows that causes scrolling to act like it does on mac? I have a wheel mouse and I want to be able to flick it and have the page continue scrolling when the wheel is no longer in motion. Momentum to scrolling basically.
Reminds me of USB Overdrive, a very nice piece of software that also covers e.g gamepads.
Got a license back in the day to make some mouse that had a strange always-down button 14 behave.
I used it for a long time until I got a Logitech mouse.
Sadly, using GHUB is the only way to increase the USB polling rate to over 125hz, which is a must have for any display, much less a high refresh rate one. The difference is night and day.
Does anyone know of a tool similar to SteerMouse that let's you control Logitech keyboard settings (e.g., turn off the backlight)? It's the only reason I still have the Logitech software installed.
That should be possible without anything. Just use the key to reduce the backlight brightness (Fn+F4 on my MX Mechanical Mini).
Unfortunately you can't seem to seem to turn it completely off on my MX Keys Mini. In the Logitech software there's a toggle to turn the backlight off completely.
mmm, $20 for the privilege of re-binding your mouse buttons! I sure do love the Apple software community!
(there are _so_ many ways to do this on Windows for free.)
Problem solved: https://linearmouse.app/
Approximately the same features as SteerMouse but free. I've voluntarily donated to the dev, though.
This complaint was more widespread before the vast majority of Mac users were MacBook users. Today it’s a niche within a niche. I personally didn’t mind the expense even when it was a much less niche use case.
There are many ways to do it free on a Mac, too, including vendor-provided software.
SteerMouse fills a niche, it is not a requirement. Akin to, say, HydraMouse on Windows.
Yea but they're making money on simple things and you're not.
I have used SteerMouse for years after giving up on the dumpster fire that is Logitech's G-HUB for macOS for my G600, which has 12 side buttons + a the G-Shift button which when held acts a modifier for additional macros.
My issue with SteerMouse is that when creating chord macros, it forces the original macro to only work when depressed, rather than activating upon press.
I haven't been able to find a suitable replacement. Curious if anyone here on HN has worked around this in any way?
Hardware QA is sometimes hit and miss, but Roccat mice have a shift feature that is implemented in firmware. The same goes for their macros: their mouse emulates a keyboard at the hardware level. That way it Just Werks and you don't need some cringey gamer-themed spyware always running in the background just to make full use of it, like you do for many features with Logitech mice. My go-to atm is the Kone XP, which doesn't have as many side buttons as the Logitech G6xx mice. They do make an 'MMO mouse' with many many buttons like that called the 'Nyth'.
Unfortunately their configuration software hasn't supported macOS for a long time, but you can configure your device on a Windows VM via USB passthrough, which is what I do. Alternatively, there are also several reverse-engineered tools for configuring Roccat mice, including libratbag (and the older roccat-tools) for Linux and roccat-iokit for macOS, if you'd be interested in either choosing a model according to what's supported there or adding support for the Nyth.
I wasn't aware of Roccat! sounds like what I'm after, especially without the gamer aesthetics. The Roccat Nyth looks close to what I'm after, but I'm pretty married to my muscle memory with using 4x3 buttons (of which are all in use, in both layers).
Because it is possible with G-Hub, I was just curious if anyone knew what the gap is between SteerMouse's support and G-Hub's support for the seamless G-Shift/shift key experience. I don't know enough about hardware to make a guess.
I'm 100% fine with using a separate OS to config the mouse, since my layout is not app specific. Despite the button layout difference, this will definitely be the mouse I try out next.
> I wasn't aware of Roccat! sounds like what I'm after, especially without the gamer aesthetics. The Roccat Nyth looks close to what I'm after, but I'm pretty married to my muscle memory with using 4x3 buttons (of which are all in use, in both layers).
Oh the mouse will be a bit gamer-y. You'll only get to escape from the gamer-y software. :)
In seriousness, I love mine for 'productivity' (a more pleasant desktop experience).
> Because it is possible with G-Hub, I was just curious if anyone knew what the gap is between SteerMouse's support and G-Hub's support for the seamless G-Shift/shift key experience. I don't know enough about hardware to make a guess.
I also have a similar Logitech mouse, the wireless G602. I can't remember all of the details, but one of the things I wanted to do with it (I think bind a layer 2 button press to a key chord) is something I was told I couldn't do 'without G-Hub', and in particular its Lua scripting interface.
I'm mildly curious about the division of duties there, too, which presumably also explains the behavior you observed (SteerMouse has to reimplement something G-Hub normally takes care of, and they did it differently).
Can you explain more of what you mean there?
Haha, of course!
So when you click a button on the G600 (and most other mice with side buttons), the button fires when you press down, just like the Mouse 1 or Mouse 2 button. On the G600, there is a third click button to the right of the right click, which is called G-Shift. When pressed, all of the side buttons have secondary assignments. Since you have to hold G-Shift to access this other layer, the macros are often referred to as chords in mouse customization software like Steermouse, since it requires two buttons to fire.
To configure this, you need the G-Hub software, which is in a nightmarish state on macOS. To get around this, I use Steermouse. Steermouse lets me get around this, however with one trade off. If a side button has two assignments (one when pressed by itself, another when pressed with the G-Shift), then the button does not actually fire when its pressed, but instead fires when the button is depressed/let go of. I imagine this is just how Steermouse handles buttons which have more than one assignment.
I haven't found a suitable replacement that is as robust as steermouse. Its one of the first apps I install on my mac, but this is one killer feature that I've only found in the G-Hub app.
I believe the poster means that the macro operation is that of an astable multivibrator, whereas they would prefer that it be that of a one shot multivibrator.
Ah, got it. Yeah, I don't think there's a way to do that.
Informative, straight to the point, pleasant to look at.