DualSense Manager

A small desktop utility to monitor and manage DualSense controllers on Linux. It displays battery level, charging state, controller MAC, controls LEDs/RGB behaviors and auto turn off when idle. Built with Go and the Fyne GUI toolkit.

Features

• Monitor battery level & charging state
• Automatic LED/RGB behavior and charging animations
• Auto-disconnect after inactivity
• System tray support
• Verbose logging option
• CLI mode (preconfigure with ui first, then use flag)

Prerequisites

• libudev and access to /sys/class/leds (udev rules below)
• A Linux desktop environment (system tray support required for tray features)

Building

# From project root
make build
# Or run directly
go run .

Running

• Start normally: ./dualsense-mgr
• Start minimize in system tray: ./dualsense-mgr --minimize or -m
• Debug logging: ./dualsense-mgr --debug or -d
• Show version: ./dualsense-mgr --version or -v
• CLI mode: ./dualsense-mgr --cli or -c

Precompiled binary

A precompiled binary will be provided in the repository release for convenience. You can download that binary and run it directly (ensure it is executable with chmod +x).

udev rules (required) Create a udev rules file to set permissions for DualSense LED controls. Example file:

sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/999-dualsense-final.rules

Paste the following:

# Rule for Player LEDs (white)
SUBSYSTEM=="leds", KERNEL=="*player*", MODE="0666", RUN+="/bin/chmod 666 %S%p/brightness %S%p/trigger"

# Rule for Indicator (RGB) - add multi_intensity
SUBSYSTEM=="leds", KERNEL=="*indicator*", MODE="0666", RUN+="/bin/chmod 666 %S%p/brightness %S%p/trigger %S%p/multi_intensity"

Then reload rules and trigger:

sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
sudo udevadm trigger

This ensures the application (or user processes) can control the controller LEDs via the sysfs LED interfaces.

Usage

Controller should detected automatically.

Controls

• Player LED select: choose how the white "player" LEDs behave. Options typically include showing the battery level or showing the controller number.
• RGB Led select: select the indicator (RGB) LED mode. Options include Battery (color reflects battery level), Static, or Off.
• DeadZone slider: adjusts the joystick deadzone threshold to ignore small stick movements. Increase this value if you observe drift or unintended micro-movements that reset inactive timer.
• Battery alert select: pick the battery percentage threshold that triggers low-battery alerts/notifications (e.g. 15%).
• Delay select: sets the inactivity delay (auto-off) used by the app; when no input is detected for the chosen duration the controller may be disconnected automatically.

Configuration

The app reads controller-specific settings from a YAML configuration file located by default at $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/dualsense-manager/config.yaml (or ~/.config/dualsense-manager/config.yaml). Below is an example configuration generated by the application:

idle_minutes: 10
battery_alert: 15
controllers:
		7C:AA:AA:AA:AA:AA:
				deadzone: 3000
				led_player: 1
				led_rgb_static: '#0F00FF'
		AC:AA:AA:AA:AA:AA:
				led_player: 1
				led_indicator: 1
				led_rgb_static: '#FF0000'

Fields

• idle_minutes: number of minutes of inactivity before the auto-disconnect timer triggers for a controller.
• battery_alert: battery percentage threshold used for alerts (e.g. notifications when below this level).
• controllers: map keyed by controller MAC address. Each entry customizes behavior for that controller:
  • deadzone: joystick deadzone value (integer) used to filter small stick movements.
  • led_player: mode for the player (white) LEDs — integer flag depending on UI choices (e.g. show battery, show player number).
  • led_indicator: enable/disable indicator (RGB) LEDs for this controller (boolean/integer).
  • led_rgb_static: hex color string for static RGB mode (e.g. '#RRGGBB').

Notes

• If a controller-specific setting is missing, the app will use defaults from the global configuration.
• You can edit this file manually or let the application write defaults on first run.

Contributing

Feel free to open issues or submit pull requests. Follow Go formatting conventions (gofmt) and keep changes minimal and focused.

License

GPL-3.0 License

FAQ

Will this be ported to Windows?

No, there are already excellent tools available for Windows, such as DS4Windows or built-in Steam support.

Will this be ported to macOS?

Currently, no. I don’t own a Mac, so I’m unable to develop or test on macOS. However, contributions are welcome if you'd like to help port it.

My controller turns off before the delay time — why?

Steam has built-in controller management that includes auto-disconnect features. If Steam is running, it may power off your controller before this app’s timer triggers. To fix this, disable auto-disconnect in Steam’s controller settings. Alternatively, if you always use Steam, you may not need this app — Steam already handles most of these functions.

My controller don't set RGB Lightbar color?

Sometimes the linux driver doesn't set properly the file to manager the lightbar at connection, just turn off and on the controller to fix it. (The universal repair solution ...)