Installing libratbag and Piper on Slackware to change your gaming mouse settings

Mouse Keyboard USB slackware Linux Gaming slackbuild

Piper is a Linux application that lets you change the settings of your gaming mouse. It can currently be used to set what the buttons to, change the DPI and reporting rate, and set the LED colors. Piper is actually just a GUI for the libratbag project which does all the actual work of changing the mouse settings.

libratbag requires systemd, but if you are using a recent version of Slackware current or Slackware 15 then that comes with elogind which is enough to be able to build it. You will also need to install python-evdev, lxml, and flake8 python modules which are available from SlackBuilds.org. Until Slackware 15 is released the versions on SlackBuilds.org might be out of date though, so you will need to get them from the python directory of Ponce's SBo-git repository.

Once the python modules are installed you can get the latest release of libratbag, rename it to libratbag-x.xx.tar.gz, and build it using the following SlackBuild:

#!/bin/bash
cd $(dirname $0) ; CWD=$(pwd)

PKGNAM=libratbag
VERSION=${VERSION:-$(echo $PKGNAM-*.tar.?z | rev | cut -f 3- -d . | cut -f 1 -d - | rev)}
BUILD=${BUILD:-1}

# Automatically determine the architecture we're building on:
if [ -z "$ARCH" ]; then
  case "$(uname -m)" in
    i?86) ARCH=i586 ;;
    arm*) readelf /usr/bin/file -A | egrep -q "Tag_CPU.*[4,5]" && ARCH=arm || ARCH=armv7hl ;;
    # Unless $ARCH is already set, use uname -m for all other archs:
    *) ARCH=$(uname -m) ;;
  esac
  export ARCH
fi

# If the variable PRINT_PACKAGE_NAME is set, then this script will report what
# the name of the created package would be, and then exit. This information
# could be useful to other scripts.
if [ ! -z "${PRINT_PACKAGE_NAME}" ]; then
  echo "$PKGNAM-$VERSION-$ARCH-$BUILD.txz"
  exit 0
fi

NUMJOBS=${NUMJOBS:-" -j $(expr $(nproc) + 1) "}

if [ "$ARCH" = "i586" ]; then
  SLKCFLAGS="-O2 -march=i586 -mtune=i686"
  LIBDIRSUFFIX=""
elif [ "$ARCH" = "i686" ]; then
  SLKCFLAGS="-O2 -march=i686"
  LIBDIRSUFFIX=""
elif [ "$ARCH" = "s390" ]; then
  SLKCFLAGS="-O2"
  LIBDIRSUFFIX=""
elif [ "$ARCH" = "x86_64" ]; then
  SLKCFLAGS="-O2 -fPIC"
  LIBDIRSUFFIX="64"
elif [ "$ARCH" = "armv7hl" ]; then
  SLKCFLAGS="-O3 -march=armv7-a -mfpu=vfpv3-d16"
  LIBDIRSUFFIX=""
else
  SLKCFLAGS="-O2"
  LIBDIRSUFFIX=""
fi

TMP=${TMP:-/tmp}
PKG=$TMP/package-$PKGNAM

rm -rf $PKG
mkdir -p $TMP $PKG

cd $TMP
rm -rf $PKGNAM-$VERSION
tar xvf $CWD/$PKGNAM-$VERSION.tar.?z || exit 1
cd $PKGNAM-$VERSION || exit 1

chown -R root:root .
find . \
  \( -perm 777 -o -perm 775 -o -perm 711 -o -perm 555 -o -perm 511 \) \
  -exec chmod 755 {} \+ -o \
  \( -perm 666 -o -perm 664 -o -perm 600 -o -perm 444 -o -perm 440 -o -perm 400 \) \
  -exec chmod 644 {} \+

# Configure, build, and install:
export CFLAGS="$SLKCFLAGS"
export CXXFLAGS="$SLKCFLAGS"
mkdir meson-build
cd meson-build
meson setup \
  --prefix=/usr \
  --libdir=lib${LIBDIRSUFFIX} \
  --libexecdir=/usr/libexec \
  --bindir=/usr/bin \
  --sbindir=/usr/sbin \
  --includedir=/usr/include \
  --datadir=/usr/share \
  --mandir=/usr/man \
  --sysconfdir=/etc \
  --localstatedir=/var \
  --buildtype=release \
  -Dsystemd=false \
  -Dlogind-provider=elogind \
  .. || exit 1
  "${NINJA:=ninja}" $NUMJOBS || exit 1
  DESTDIR=$PKG $NINJA install || exit 1
cd ..

# Strip binaries:
find $PKG | xargs file | grep -e "executable" -e "shared object" | grep ELF | cut -f 1 -d : | xargs strip --strip-unneeded 2> /dev/null

# Compress manual pages:
find $PKG/usr/man -type f -exec gzip -9 {} \+
for i in $( find $PKG/usr/man -type l ) ; do
  ln -s $( readlink $i ).gz $i.gz
  rm $i
done

# Add a documentation directory:
mkdir -p $PKG/usr/doc/${PKGNAM}-$VERSION
cp -a \
  TODO* COPYING* README* \
  $PKG/usr/doc/${PKGNAM}-$VERSION

mkdir -p $PKG/install
cat $CWD/slack-desc > $PKG/install/slack-desc

cd $PKG
/sbin/makepkg -l y -c n $TMP/$PKGNAM-$VERSION-$ARCH-$BUILD.txz

You can download this script along with the current release of libratbag here

libratbag.tar.gz

Once the package is built you can install it by installpkg /tmp/libratbag-0.16-x86_64-1.txz (or whatever your package is called). It will install DBus service files so that ratbagd will start automatically when needed. DBus should automatically detect these new files without you needing to restart it.

Now you can build Piper using the following SlackBuild:

#!/bin/bash

cd $(dirname $0) ; CWD=$(pwd)

PKGNAM=piper
VERSION=${VERSION:-$(echo $PKGNAM-*.tar.?z | rev | cut -f 3- -d . | cut -f 1 -d - | rev)}
BUILD=${BUILD:-1}

# Automatically determine the architecture we're building on:
if [ -z "$ARCH" ]; then
  case "$(uname -m)" in
    i?86) ARCH=i586 ;;
    arm*) readelf /usr/bin/file -A | egrep -q "Tag_CPU.*[4,5]" && ARCH=arm || ARCH=armv7hl ;;
    # Unless $ARCH is already set, use uname -m for all other archs:
    *) ARCH=$(uname -m) ;;
  esac
  export ARCH
fi

# If the variable PRINT_PACKAGE_NAME is set, then this script will report what
# the name of the created package would be, and then exit. This information
# could be useful to other scripts.
if [ ! -z "${PRINT_PACKAGE_NAME}" ]; then
  echo "$PKGNAM-$VERSION-$ARCH-$BUILD.txz"
  exit 0
fi

NUMJOBS=${NUMJOBS:-" -j $(expr $(nproc) + 1) "}

if [ "$ARCH" = "i586" ]; then
  SLKCFLAGS="-O2 -march=i586 -mtune=i686"
  LIBDIRSUFFIX=""
elif [ "$ARCH" = "i686" ]; then
  SLKCFLAGS="-O2 -march=i686"
  LIBDIRSUFFIX=""
elif [ "$ARCH" = "s390" ]; then
  SLKCFLAGS="-O2"
  LIBDIRSUFFIX=""
elif [ "$ARCH" = "x86_64" ]; then
  SLKCFLAGS="-O2 -fPIC"
  LIBDIRSUFFIX="64"
elif [ "$ARCH" = "armv7hl" ]; then
  SLKCFLAGS="-O3 -march=armv7-a -mfpu=vfpv3-d16"
  LIBDIRSUFFIX=""
else
  SLKCFLAGS="-O2"
  LIBDIRSUFFIX=""
fi

TMP=${TMP:-/tmp}
PKG=$TMP/package-$PKGNAM

rm -rf $PKG
mkdir -p $TMP $PKG

cd $TMP
rm -rf $PKGNAM-$VERSION
tar xvf $CWD/$PKGNAM-$VERSION.tar.?z || exit 1
cd $PKGNAM-$VERSION || exit 1

chown -R root:root .
find . \
  \( -perm 777 -o -perm 775 -o -perm 711 -o -perm 555 -o -perm 511 \) \
  -exec chmod 755 {} \+ -o \
  \( -perm 666 -o -perm 664 -o -perm 600 -o -perm 444 -o -perm 440 -o -perm 400 \) \
  -exec chmod 644 {} \+

# Configure, build, and install:
export CFLAGS="$SLKCFLAGS"
export CXXFLAGS="$SLKCFLAGS"
mkdir meson-build
cd meson-build
meson setup \
  --prefix=/usr \
  --libdir=lib${LIBDIRSUFFIX} \
  --libexecdir=/usr/libexec \
  --bindir=/usr/bin \
  --sbindir=/usr/sbin \
  --includedir=/usr/include \
  --datadir=/usr/share \
  --mandir=/usr/man \
  --sysconfdir=/etc \
  --localstatedir=/var \
  --buildtype=release \
  .. || exit 1
  "${NINJA:=ninja}" $NUMJOBS || exit 1
  DESTDIR=$PKG $NINJA install || exit 1
cd ..

# Strip binaries:
find $PKG | xargs file | grep -e "executable" -e "shared object" | grep ELF | cut -f 1 -d : | xargs strip --strip-unneeded 2> /dev/null

# Compress manual pages:
find $PKG/usr/man -type f -exec gzip -9 {} \+
for i in $( find $PKG/usr/man -type l ) ; do
  ln -s $( readlink $i ).gz $i.gz
  rm $i
done

# Add a documentation directory:
mkdir -p $PKG/usr/doc/${PKGNAM}-$VERSION
cp -a \
  TODO* COPYING* README* \
  $PKG/usr/doc/${PKGNAM}-$VERSION

mkdir -p $PKG/install
cat $CWD/slack-desc > $PKG/install/slack-desc

cd $PKG
/sbin/makepkg -l y -c n $TMP/$PKGNAM-$VERSION-$ARCH-$BUILD.txz

Make sure you rename the file downloaded from GitHub to piper-x.x.x.tar.gz instead of just x.x.x.tar.gz.

Again, you can download the script along with the current release of Piper here

piper.tar.gz

Build the package, then install it with installpkg /tmp/piper-0.5.1-x86_64-1.txz

The first time you run piper, ratbagd should automatically be started by DBus and you can start changing your mouse configuration. ratbagd will automatically close after a period of inactivity so it's not going to be always running in the background.

As well as Piper, you can also interact with ratbagd via the ratbagctl command line program. For example ratbagctl list will show you the name given to your mouse (in my case it's warbling-mara), and then you can use ratbagctl warbling-mara profile 0 get to show the settings of the first profile which gives something like this:

$ ratbagctl warbling-mara profile 0 get
Profile 0: (active)
Name: n/a
Report Rate: 1000Hz
Resolutions:
  0: 400dpi
  1: 800dpi (active) (default)
  2: 1600dpi
  3: 3200dpi
  4: 6400dpi
Button: 0 is mapped to 'button 1'
Button: 1 is mapped to 'button 2'
Button: 2 is mapped to 'button 3'
Button: 3 is mapped to 'button 4'
Button: 4 is mapped to 'button 5'
Button: 5 is mapped to 'resolution-down'
Button: 6 is mapped to 'resolution-up'
Button: 7 is mapped to 'resolution-default'

Both these SlackBuilds will look for any tar.gz in the current directory which match the piper or libratbag tar.gz archive name, so you don't need to edit the SlackBuild if you download a different version of them. You just need to make sure you rename them to piper-x.x.x.tar.gz or libratbag-x.xx.tar.gz.

The SlackBuilds used on this page are copied from the pipewire SlackBuild which was created by Patrick J. Volkerding and Eric Hameleers. The full copyright is included in the download links above.

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