Linux Disabling High Resolution Scrolling For Logitech Devices Connected Via USB

While there's been a multi-year effort for Wayland high resolution scrolling, support by the desktop environments for this functionality, and all the other infrastructure work, high resolution scrolling is proving to still be a challenge for Linux in 2023. The latest is now the Linux kernel dropping Logitech high resolution scrolling for mice connected via USB until further improvements can be made.

Last year was a lot of kernel driver work for auto-detecting high resolution scrolling for Logitech devices and other changes to get this slick feature working well. Unfortunately, it's still not smooth sailing. There is a patch working its way to the mainline kernel now that is disabling the functionality when Logitech mice are connected via USB and just leaving it enabled for Bluetooth/wireless-connected mice.

The patch explains that there are issues that could potentially lead to the mice becoming unusable with the current kernel driver when running with high resolution scrolling enabled:

On some Logitech mice, such as the G903, and possibly the G403, the HID events are generated on a different interface to the HID++ one.

If we enable hi-res through the HID++ interface, the HID interface wouldn't know anything about it, and handle the events as if they were regular scroll events, making the mouse unusable.

Disable hi-res scrolling on those devices until we implement scroll events through HID++.

This problematic behavior has been in the mainline kernel since last September. This patch is marked for back-porting to the recent stable kernel series. The patch is currently in HID's for-next branch.

The patch cites this bug report open since the start of the year, "my Logitech G903 has gained hi res support. While normally a good thing, it seems that in this case it leads to generating one normal REL_WHEEL with each REL_WHEEL_HI_RES event instead of just a couple of REL_WHEEL_HI_RES, followed by the standard REL_WHEEL once a notch/tick is reached. This leads to overly sensitive scrolling and makes the wheel basically useless."

Others chimed in on that bug report as well that they found this problematic behavior on multiple Logitech mice when connected to USB with high resolution scrolling enabled. So if you're in the same boat and have been experiencing this funky behavior on recent kernels, now you know why -- or be forewarned to stay clear of the latest kernels until this fix lands.