Corsair Strafe RGB

Resources

The Corsair Strafe RGB is a mechanical gaming keyboard that is possible of operating cross platforms as a simple USB device. There is ongoing, open source development effort on GitHub (see the link the infobox to the right) to support the advanced features of the keyboard with a system daemon.

Hardware

The device shows up in lsusb with an ID of 1b1c:1b20 Corsair.

Installation

Kernel

The ckb daemon (installed in the step below) requires user level driver support in order to operate properly. Enable this option in the kernel:

KERNEL Enabling CONFIG_INPUT_UINPUT support

Device Drivers -->
   Input Device Support -->
      Miscellaneous devices -->
         <*> User level driver support

Emerge

A daemon is required in order to send configuration instructions and firmware updates to the keyboard.

root #emerge --ask app-misc/ckb

Configuration

Services

In order to configure the keyboard, and display the beautiful color effects, a daemon must be running.

OpenRC

Set the ckb-daemon to start on system boot:

root #rc-update add ckb-daemon default

To start the service now:

root #service ckb-daemon start

systemd

For systemd, ensure the ckb.service file will be loaded on system boot:

root #systemctl enable ckb.service

Start the service now via:

root #systemctl start ckb.service

Usage

One the daemon is running and the kernel has been configured, start the ckb client program. The icon should now show up in most GUI toolbars. It is also possible to start program from the command-line with:

user $ckb

Once the client has been started it will live in the system tray. Be sure to check the "Start ckb at login" checkbox which can be found in the Settings tab. This will start the client with each system boot.

Troubleshooting

System boots slowly, hangs on USB device

It is a known issue that the Strafe can cause the system to boot slowly. Generally this is the kernel hanging during USB initialization. Passing usbhid.quirks=0x1B1C:0x1B20:0x20000408 to the kernel command line is work around for this issue.

For GRUB2, simply:

FILE /etc/default/grub

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="usbhid.quirks=0x1B1C:0x1B20:0x20000408"

Then be sure to regenerate GRUB2's configuration file:

root #grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Other bootloaders can be handled accordingly.

Keyboard stops working after a key press

dmesg output looks like the following:

CODE

[ 2830.878653] usb 2-1.8.5: USB disconnect, device number 14
[ 2831.175138] usb 2-1.8.5: new full-speed USB device number 15 using ehci-pci
[ 2831.288348] usb 2-1.8.5: New USB device found, idVendor=1b1c, idProduct=1b20
[ 2831.288355] usb 2-1.8.5: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 2831.288359] usb 2-1.8.5: Product: Corsair STRAFE RGB Gaming Keyboard
[ 2831.288361] usb 2-1.8.5: Manufacturer: Corsair
[ 2831.288363] usb 2-1.8.5: SerialNumber: 0C042029AEAA1002550AC6EEF5001945
[ 2831.289824] input: Corsair Corsair STRAFE RGB Gaming Keyboard as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1.8/2-1.8.5/2-1.8.5:1.0/0003:1B1C:1B20.002D/input/input63
[ 2831.375353] hid-generic 0003:1B1C:1B20.002D: input,hidraw3: USB HID v1.11 Keyboard [Corsair Corsair STRAFE RGB Gaming Keyboard] on usb-0000:00:1d.0-1.8.5/input0
[ 2841.375974] hid-generic 0003:1B1C:1B20.002E: usb_submit_urb(ctrl) failed: -1
[ 2841.376004] hid-generic 0003:1B1C:1B20.002E: timeout initializing reports
[ 2841.376317] input: Corsair Corsair STRAFE RGB Gaming Keyboard as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1.8/2-1.8.5/2-1.8.5:1.1/0003:1B1C:1B20.002E/input/input64
[ 2841.435986] hid-generic 0003:1B1C:1B20.002E: input,hidraw4: USB HID v1.11 Keyboard [Corsair Corsair STRAFE RGB Gaming Keyboard] on usb-0000:00:1d.0-1.8.5/input1
[ 2851.436532] hid-generic 0003:1B1C:1B20.002F: timeout initializing reports
[ 2851.436817] hid-generic 0003:1B1C:1B20.002F: hiddev0,hidraw5: USB HID v1.11 Device [Corsair Corsair STRAFE RGB Gaming Keyboard] on usb-0000:00:1d.0-1.8.5/input2
[ 2861.437042] hid-generic 0003:1B1C:1B20.0030: usb_submit_urb(ctrl) failed: -1
[ 2861.437058] hid-generic 0003:1B1C:1B20.0030: timeout initializing reports
[ 2861.437341] hid-generic 0003:1B1C:1B20.0030: hiddev0,hidraw6: USB HID v1.11 Device [Corsair Corsair STRAFE RGB Gaming Keyboard] on usb-0000:00:1d.0-1.8.5/input3
[ 2861.728138] input: ckb1: Corsair STRAFE RGB Gaming Keyboard as /devices/virtual/input/input65
[ 2861.728455] input: ckb1: Corsair STRAFE RGB Gaming Keyboard as /devices/virtual/input/input66
[ 2861.730481] usb 2-1.8.5: usbfs: usb_submit_urb returned -28
[ 2867.187424] usb 2-1.8.5: usbfs: USBDEVFS_CONTROL failed cmd ckb-daemon rqt 161 rq 1 len 64 ret -110
[ 2897.348579] usb 2-1.8.5: reset full-speed USB device number 15 using ehci-pci
[ 2897.674981] usb 2-1.8.5: usbfs: process 16656 (ckb-daemon) did not claim interface 0 before use
[ 2897.768692] usb 2-1.8.5: reset full-speed USB device number 15 using ehci-pci
[ 2897.958701] input: Corsair Corsair STRAFE RGB Gaming Keyboard as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1.8/2-1.8.5/2-1.8.5:1.0/0003:1B1C:1B20.0031/input/input67
[ 2898.018915] hid-generic 0003:1B1C:1B20.0031: input,hidraw3: USB HID v1.11 Keyboard [Corsair Corsair STRAFE RGB Gaming Keyboard] on usb-0000:00:1d.0-1.8.5/input0
[ 2898.158956] usb 2-1.8.5: usbfs: process 16656 (ckb-daemon) did not claim interface 1 before use

The solution is not known yet...

External resources

Corsair's official Strafe release video (YouTube)