Recently OpenRGB version 1.0 release announced, which previously it was known as OpenAuraSDK. This version 1.0 comes after a year of continuous development of the tool which aims to provide an open source software program and library Easy to use to access and control RGB lights in various PC equipment, including motherboards, RAM modules, graphics cards, cooling devices, and peripherals.
This project originally focused on ASUS Aura only. It was created from the AsusAuraWindows branch of the Keyboard Visualizer to learn more about the details behind the Aura protocol and to develop a more flexible, compatible, and reliable driver for Aura.
About OpenRGB
This offered implementation is pretty solid and supports multiple generations of Aura controllers on Intel and AMD platforms, which eliminates the need to install official proprietary applications that are tied to a specific manufacturer.
OpenRGB is compatible with Aura compatible drivers used in various RGB memory module manufacturers including G.Skill Trident Z RGB and others.
The project offers a library of functions with a universal API to control the backlight of applications, a console utility and a graphical interface in Qt. Supports the choice of color change modes (color wave, etc.), control of backlight zones, application of advanced effects, definition of the LED design and synchronization of the backlight with the actions performed (color music, etc.).
The package supports ASUS, Gigabyte, ASRock and MSI motherboards with RGB subsystem to backlight the housing, backlit memory modules from ASUS, Corsair and HyperX, ASUS Aura and Gigabyte Aorus graphics cards, various LED strip drivers (ThermalTake, Corsair, NZXT Hue +), illuminated coolers, mice, keyboards, headphones, and Razer backlit accessories.
Information about the device interaction protocol is obtained primarily by reverse engineering proprietary drivers and applications.
In most cases, using i2c-dev or controlling via USB is sufficient to interact with the computer, although udev rules are also proposed. Using the Aura / ASRock motherboard RGB drivers requires a Linux kernel patch. For Razer peripherals, the OpenRazer driver is used (the openrazer-dkms-drivers package in Debian / Ubuntu).
The code is written in C / C ++ and is distributed under the GPLv2 license. The program is multiplatform and it is available for Linux and Windows.
Finally pYou can check the hardware compatibility that currently supports this utility in the following link.
How to install OpenRGB on Linux?
For those who are interested in being able to install OpenRGB on their system, they should follow the instructions that we share below.
The first thing to do is install the latest edition of Qt Creator. (You can check the details of the Qt Creator installation in the following link).
In the case of Ubuntu and derivatives we must install some dependencies:
sudo apt install qt5-default libusb-1.0-0-dev libhidapi-dev
Now we are going to obtain the utility with the command:
git clone https://gitlab.com/CalcProgrammer1/OpenRGB
Done this now we must update the submodules:
git submodule update --init –recursive
And here we can do two things, one of them is to open the project with QT creator or compile it in the system.
To compile, just run the following commands:
cd OpenRGB
qmake OpenRGB.pro
make -j8
./OpenRGB
At the end of the compilation we must allow access to SMBus.
In Intel we can do it with the command:
modprobe i2c-dev i2c-i801
Or in the case of AMD, we must first list the SMBus drivers with:
sudo i2cdetect -l
Once the controller has been identified, we must grant permissions to the controller, for example:
sudo chmod 777 /dev/i2c-0
Finally, it should be taken into account that there are still some capabilities to persist in all reboots, but the main functionality of configuring colors and modes is stable.
If you want to know more about it you can check the details In the following link.