Unofficial Acer Gaming RGB keyboard backlight and Turbo mode Linux kernel module (Acer Predator, Acer Helios, Acer Nitro)
Inspired by faustus(for asus), this project extends current acer-wmi linux kernel module to support Acer gaming functions.
Warning
Use at your own risk! Acer was not involved in developing this driver, and everything is developed by reverse engeineering official Predator Sense app. This driver interacts with low-level WMI methods which haven't been tested on all series.
Donation:
Donations are not required, but shows your
BNB: bnb18vseyxgydwq8xs2hmz7chekazz9jmj7uplvapg
Tether(ERC20): 0x11753b26B4d91177B779D429a6a1C1C90f722f1C
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Note
Note to contributors:
As most of the contributions in this project are less related to the C code and as I don't own a Predator anymore, I'll soon release a video tutorial on how to reverse engineer other features of your laptop and implement it in this project.
Will this work on my laptop?
Compablity table:
Product name | Turbo Mode (Implemented) | Turbo Mode (Tested) | RGB (Impelmented) | RGB (Tested) |
---|---|---|---|---|
AN515-45 | - | - | Yes | Yes |
AN515-55 | - | - | Yes | Yes |
AN517-41 | - | - | Yes | Yes |
PH315-52 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
PH315-53 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
PH317-53 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
PH317-54 | Yes | No | Yes | No |
PH517-51 | Yes | No | Yes | No |
PH517-52 | Yes | No | Yes | No |
PH517-61 | Yes | No | Yes | No |
PH717-71 | Yes | No | Yes | No |
PH717-72 | Yes | No | Yes | No |
PT314-51 | No | No | Yes | Yes |
PT315-51 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
PT315-52 | Yes | No | Yes | No |
PT515-51 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
PT515-52 | Yes | No | Yes | No |
PT917-71 | Yes | No | Yes | No |
Obviously, I don't have access to all these models, so if it worked(or not) for you, kindly please mention your model on issues so we can ship this to Linux kernel.
You can find your model using this command:
sudo dmidecode -s system-product-name
RGB Keyboard:
I think dynamic RGB effects should work only on 4zone RGB keyboards like 300 series but haven't tested other models.
Check the output of this command:
# file /sys/bus/wmi/devices/7A4DDFE7-5B5D-40B4-8595-4408E0CC7F56/
If the directory exists, it may work fine. Otherwise, RGB will not work at all.
Requirements
Secure boot must be disabled.
Install linux headers using your distro package manager:
Ubuntu (or other Debian baseds distros):
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r) gcc make
Arch (I don't use arch anymore btw):
sudo pacman -S linux-headers
Install one time (Module won't work after reboot)
git clone https://github.com/JafarAkhondali/acer-predator-turbo-and-rgb-keyboard-linux-module
cd "acer-predator-turbo-and-rgb-keyboard-linux-module"
chmod +x ./install.sh
sudo ./install.sh
ExodiaOS Repo
Install as a systemd service (Will work after reboot) For Arch Linux fromwget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Exodia-OS/exodia-repo/master/x86_64/Predator-Sense-systemd-git-1.0-2-any.pkg.tar.zst
sudo pacman -U Predator-Sense-systemd-git-1.0-2-any.pkg.tar.zst
Install as a systemd service (Will work after reboot)
git clone https://github.com/JafarAkhondali/acer-predator-turbo-and-rgb-keyboard-linux-module
cd "acer-predator-turbo-and-rgb-keyboard-linux-module"
chmod +x ./*.sh
sudo ./install_service.sh
Install as an openrc service (Will work after reboot)
git clone https://github.com/JafarAkhondali/acer-predator-turbo-and-rgb-keyboard-linux-module
cd "acer-predator-turbo-and-rgb-keyboard-linux-module"
chmod +x ./*.sh
sudo ./install_openrc.sh
Usage
Turbo mode should work fine by using the turbo button on keyboard.
For RGB, the module will mount a new character device at /dev/acer-gkbbl-0
to communicate
with kernel space.
To make it easier to interact with this device, a simple python script has been attached.
./facer_rgb.py
or check help for more advanced usage:
./facer_rgb.py --help
usage: facer_rgb.py [-h] [-m MODE] [-z ZONE] [-s SPEED] [-b BRIGHTNESS] [-d DIRECTION] [-cR RED] [-cG GREEN] [-cB BLUE]
Interacts with experimental Acer-wmi kernel module.
-m [mode index]
Effect modes:
0 -> Static [Accepts ZoneID[1,2,3,4] + RGB Color]
1 -> Breath [Accepts RGB color]
2 -> Neon
3 -> Wave
4 -> Shifting [Accepts RGB color]
5 -> Zoom [Accepts RGB color]
-z [ZoneID]
Zone ID(Only in static mode):
Possible values: 1,2,3,4
-s [speed]
Animation Speed:
0 -> No animation speed (static)
1 -> Slowest animation speed
9 -> Fastest animation speed
You can use values between 1-9 to adjust the speed or increase speed even more than 255, but keep in mind
that values higher than 9 were not used in the official PredatorSense application.
-b [brightness]
Keyboard backlight Brightness:
0 -> No backlight (turned off)
100 -> Maximum backlight brightness
-d [direction]
Animation direction:
1 -> Right to Left
2 -> Left to Right
-cR [red value]
Some modes require specific [R]GB color
0 -> Minimum red range
255 -> Maximum red range
-cG [green value]
Some modes require specific R[G]B color
0 -> Minimum green range
255 -> Maximum green range
-cB [blue value]
Some modes require specific RG[B] color
0 -> Minimum blue range
255 -> Maximum blue range
-save [profile name]
Add as last argument to save to a profile
-load [profile name]
Loads the profile if it exists
-list
Lists all the saved profiles in config directory
config directory is "$HOME/.config/predator/saved profiles/"
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-m MODE
-z ZONE
-s SPEED
-b BRIGHTNESS
-d DIRECTION
-cR RED
-cG GREEN
-cB BLUE
-save NAME
-load NAME
-list
Sample usages:
Breath effect with Purple color(speed=4, brightness=100):
./facer_rgb.py -m 1 -s 4 -b 100 -cR 255 -cG 0 -cB 255
Neon effect(speed=3, brightness=100):
./facer_rgb.py -m 2 -s 3 -b 100
Wave effect(speed=5, brightness=100):
./facer_rgb.py -m 3 -s 5 -b 100
Shifting effect with Blue color (speed=5, brightness=100):
./facer_rgb.py -m 4 -s 5 -b 100 -cR 0 -cB 255 -cG 0
Zoom effect with Green color (speed=7, brightness=100):
./facer_rgb.py -m 5 -s 7 -b 100 -cR 0 -cB 0 -cG 255
Static waving (speed=0):
./facer_rgb.py -m 3 -s 0 -b 100
Static mode coloring (zone=1 => most left zone, color=blue):
./facer_rgb.py -m 0 -z 1 -cR 0 -cB 255 -cG 0
Static mode coloring (zone=4 => most right zone, color=purple) and save it as example:
./facer_rgb.py -m 0 -z 4 -cR 255 -cB 255 -cG 0
Load the previously saved profile:
./facer_rgb.py -load example
Known problems
If installation failed, check this issue If something didn't look right, do a reboot (or boot to windows) and play a little with some Predator Sense app to reset ACPI registers.
Uninstall:
Simply run ./uninstall.sh
and (hopefully) everything should be back to normal.
If you have installed it as a service, simply run ./uninstal_service.sh
Uninstall FOR Arch Linux Only
If you install it from AUR repository RUN sudo pacman -R Predator-Sense-systemd-git
Feedback:
If this worked or didn't worked for you, kindly make a new issue, and attach the following if possible:
sudo dmidecode | grep "Product Name" -B 2 -A 4
sudo cat /sys/firmware/acpi/tables/DSDT > dsdt.aml
Contributing
Are you a developer?
- Fork it!
- Create your feature branch:
git checkout -b my-new-feature
- Commit your changes:
git commit -am 'Add some feature'
- Push to the branch:
git push origin my-new-feature
- Submit a pull request
Roadmap:
- Send patch to kernel mainline (currently only turbo mode for 315-53 is implemented)
- Implement Turbo mode
- Implement RGB Dynamic effects (4-zone)
- Implement RGB Static coloring (4-zone)
- Install as a systemd service (Thanks to Kapitoha)
- Add support for saving\load\list profiles (Thanks to jayrfs)
- Install as openrc service (Thanks to Axtloss)
- Make binary package For Arch Linux (By mmsaeed509).
- GUI (Zehra is working on this, but it's still in beta )
- Custom Fans speed
- Implement RGB Dynamic effects (per key RGB)
- Implement RGB Static coloring (per key RGB)
License
GNU General Public License v3