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Well - I've been playing with computers for decades now. Literally. The very first time I sat down in front of a "personal computer" was spring time of 1981. I've used a lot of different keyboards, but never went out of my way to actually PURCHASE a keyboard! I mean, every machine comes with one. When a machine dies, the keyboard survives in almost all cases. Keyboards just kind of accumulate. I've bought adapters to use old keyboards on new machines, but never actually BOUGHT A KEYBOARD!!
One thing that has been lacking on all my machines and keyboards, is some low level lighting to make the keyboard visible in low-light conditions.
Enter the idea of "gaming keyboards". There are a lot of clicky-keyboards on the market - but those would only get me in trouble with the wife. She HATES to hear me banging away at a noisy board. It's almost enough to cause a divorce!
Somehow, I stumbled over an advert for Gambias Ares keyboard. It's somewhat typical of a membrane board, but it has a lot of gaming features. Prominent among those features, are double-shot plastic backlit keys! WHOO-HOO! And, you get a mouse with it, for about fifty bucks!
I ordered one. Came in the mail, I plugged it in, and some of the keys didn't work. That sucks - linux support often does suck. *sigh*
A couple hours of googling, and I have a solution - someone created his own home-made driver for another brand of keyboard that uses the same hardware. So, I download, compile, install aziokbd driver - and it doesn't work, still.
Another hour or more of puzzling over the reason it doesn't work, and I stumble over another blog, suggesting that usbhid quirks need to be loaded with grub.
YAY! The stupid keyboard finally works!
Us Linux users often have to do a little extra work to enjoy the same cool stuff that Windows users take for granted.
One thing that has been lacking on all my machines and keyboards, is some low level lighting to make the keyboard visible in low-light conditions.
Enter the idea of "gaming keyboards". There are a lot of clicky-keyboards on the market - but those would only get me in trouble with the wife. She HATES to hear me banging away at a noisy board. It's almost enough to cause a divorce!
Somehow, I stumbled over an advert for Gambias Ares keyboard. It's somewhat typical of a membrane board, but it has a lot of gaming features. Prominent among those features, are double-shot plastic backlit keys! WHOO-HOO! And, you get a mouse with it, for about fifty bucks!
I ordered one. Came in the mail, I plugged it in, and some of the keys didn't work. That sucks - linux support often does suck. *sigh*
A couple hours of googling, and I have a solution - someone created his own home-made driver for another brand of keyboard that uses the same hardware. So, I download, compile, install aziokbd driver - and it doesn't work, still.
Another hour or more of puzzling over the reason it doesn't work, and I stumble over another blog, suggesting that usbhid quirks need to be loaded with grub.
YAY! The stupid keyboard finally works!
Us Linux users often have to do a little extra work to enjoy the same cool stuff that Windows users take for granted.
I am a long term user too and i know that it is mostly a mess when it comes to "more-featured" hardware...still have some ongoing fights with usb wifi dongles and so on.
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