HID Updates For Linux 4.7 Affect ASUS Devices, Corsair RGB Keyboards

Jiri Kosina sent in the pull requests today for the subsystems he is responsible for, including the HID area. Here are the changes from that stack coming to Linux 4.7.

The HID updates for Linux 4.7 are rather on the small side, but do have some additions worth mentioning given our hardware focus.

First up, in the USBHID code are some quirk additions for Corsair RGB keyboard and mice. This includes Corsair's K70R, K95RGB, M65RGB, K70RGB, and K65RGB mice and keyboards. The quirk description for these Corsair RGB devices are "These devices feature multiple interfaces/endpoints: a legacy BIOS/boot interface (endpoint 0x81), as well as 2 corsair-specific keyboard interfaces (endpoint 0x82, 0x83 IN/0x03 OUT) and an RGB LED control interface (endpoint 0x84 IN/0x04 OUT). Because the extra 3 interfaces are not of subclass USB_INTERFACE_SUBCLASS_BOOT, HID_QUIRK_NOGET is not automatically set on them and a 10s timeout per-endpoint (30s per device) occurs initialising reports on boot. We configure HID_QUIRK_NO_INIT_REPORTS for these devices. Additionally the left-side G1-G18 macro keys on the K95RGB generate output on the un-opened 0x82/0x83 endpoints which causes the keyboard to stop responding waiting for this event to be collected. We enable HID_QUIRK_ALWAYS_POLL to prevent this situation from occurring."

The Corsair K95 RGB is a high-end keyboard setting you back around $180 USD with its aircraft-grade aluminum and Cherry MX RGB mechanical key switches. The Corsair RGB mice also take in a high price so it's sad to see their Linux support weren't in better shape now until an independent user stepped up, but hey it should be better now if you want colorful keyboard and mice.

New to the ASUS HID code is an X205TA keyboard driver. The X205TA is a ~$200 Atom-powered 11-inch laptop running Windows 10 by default. The ASUS HID code also now supports the VivoBook E200HA.

More details on the HID 4.7 updates can be found via this pull request.