News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

April 16, 2008

software

Logitech’s Control Center still making no friends

Posted Apr. 16, ’08, 7:15 AM PT by Derik DeLong
Category | Software

Logitech First, allow me to say that I’m a huge fan of Logitech. I use their mice. I use their speakers. Both are engineered superbly. That said, their mouse software has become somewhat of a blight to the Mac community as of late. Not so long ago, their drivers would install Unsanity’s Application Enhancer without informing the user. More recently, they’ve eschewed APE in favor of their own input manager.

That would be acceptable, except that it’s coded poorly and will break Growl.

The problem is that, when the application launches, Logitech Control Center’s input manager gets the default connection and sets its root object to its Scroll Enhancer object.

This is a problem for Growl because GHA also uses the default connection, and sets its root object at about the same time. But LCC does this slightly later, so the root object it sets is the one that holds.

The upshot is that Growl tries to do something perfectly acceptable to itself, but then LCC comes along right after, robbing Growl of that power. Logitech, guys, you have built up some respect with us, get these drivers right. Until they do, I’ll continue to recommend USB Overdrive.

[via Daring Fireball]


5 Comments

fletcher Author Profile Page said:

I bought a Logitech mouse a while back with the idea of assigning its extra buttons to Copy and Paste. But, the software that came with it was incapable of even this simple assignment. This was a big disappointment. We ended up using USB Overdrive to do the same thing and it worked fine. But, it would have been nice to be able to use the software that came with the product.

April 16, 2008 7:23 AM
Kelmon said:

If you are intent on using the Logitech Control Center drivers then Growl functionality can be restored by trashing the following directory:

/Library/InputManagers/LCC Scroll Enhancer Loader

Doing that doesn't seem to cause any ill effects while using the mouse and it restores normal functionality to Growl.

With respect to alternative mouse drivers, while I've never used USB Overdrive, I can recommend SteerMouse (http://plentycom.jp/en/steermouse/). As best as I can tell, this driver is under more active development than USB Overdrive, such as supporting the Wireless Mighty Mouse about a year earlier. No idea, however, about the relative qualities of either driver.

April 16, 2008 8:18 AM
jtsnyc47 said:

The way the Logitech software is designed is, to be kind, "somewhat intrusive". The control Center update is constantly in my dock and it still doesn't allow my Revolution VX to switch between graduated in freewheel scrolling. It is one of those unfortunate cases where the development effort behind the Windows platform far exceeds that provided for the Mac. Its a shame too, because they make some of the best peripherals on the market.

April 16, 2008 10:23 AM
tonymosa said:

Two thumbs up for SteerMouse. I've been using it for over two months with no problems. Logitech should be embarrassed about their software when their mouses are so much better. Like putting ketchup on a steak.

April 16, 2008 10:57 PM
Tim said:

Strange - I use the Logitech software, and Growl - and I have no problems.

April 18, 2008 6:34 AM

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