apex-tux - Linux support for the Apex series OLED screens

Make use of your OLED screen instead of letting the SteelSeries logo burn itself in :-)

Screenshots

Features

• Music player integration (requires DBus)
• Discord notifications (requires DBus)
• Bitcoin price
• Clock
• System metrics
• Scrolling text
• No burn-in from constantly displaying a static image

Supported media players

• Lollypop (tested)
• Firefox (Results may vary)
• Chromium / Chrome (Results may vary)
• mpv
• Telegram
• VLC
• Spotify

Source: Arch Wiki

Supported devices

This currently supports the following devices:

• Apex Pro
• Apex 5
• Apex 7 (untested)

Other devices may be compatible and all that is needed is to add the ID to apex-hardware/src/usb.rs.

Installation

For installing this software, follow these steps:

UDev

1. Get the device id: lsusb | grep "SteelSeries Apex":

$ lsusb | grep "SteelSeries Apex"
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 1038:1610 SteelSeries ApS SteelSeries Apex Pro

The id is the right part of the ID.

2. Enter the following data from here (Shoutout to @ToadKing).

If those don't work and lead to an "Access denied" error please try the following rules and save the rules as 97-steelseries.rules:

cat /etc/udev/rules.d/97-steelseries.rules
SUBSYSTEM=="input", GROUP="input", MODE="0666"

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="1038", ATTRS{idProduct}=="<PRODUCT ID HERE>", MODE="0666", GROUP="plugdev"
KERNEL=="hidraw*", ATTRS{idVendor}=="1038", ATTRS{idProduct}=="<PRODUCT ID HERE>", MODE="0666", GROUP="plugdev"

1. Replace the ATTRS{idProduct}== value with the device id.

2. Save all files to /etc/udev/rules.d/97-steelseries.rules.

3. Finally, reload the udev rules: sudo udevadm control --reload && sudo udevadm trigger

Rust

• Install Rust nightly using rustup
• Install required dependencies
  • For Ubuntu: sudo apt install libssl-dev dbus-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev
• Clone the repository: git clone git@github.com:not-jan/apex-tux.git
• Change the directory into the repository: cd apex-tux
• Compile the app using the features you want
  • If you don't run DBus you have to disable the dbus feature: cargo build --release --no-default-features --features crypto,usb
  • Otherwise just run cargo build --release --features sysinfo,hotkeys,image
  • If you don't have an Apex device around at the moment or want to develop more easily you can enable the simulator: cargo build --release --no-default-features --features crypto,clock,dbus-support,simulator

Configuration

The default configuration is in settings.toml. This repository ships with a default configuration that covers most parts and contains documentation for the important keys. The program will look for configuration first in the platform-specific $USER_CONFIG_DIR/apex-tux/, then in the current working directory. You can also override specific settings with APEX_* environment variables.

You can also run the software to find errors on configuration and to decide what is the right setup you need:

$ target/release/apex-tux
23:43:05 [INFO] Registering MPRIS2 display source.
23:43:05 [INFO] Registering Sysinfo display source.
23:43:05 [WARN] Couldn't find network interface `eth0`
23:43:05 [INFO] Instead, found those interfaces:
23:43:05 [INFO]         lo
23:43:05 [INFO]         wlp3s0
23:43:05 [INFO]         enp2s0
23:43:05 [INFO]         docker0
23:43:05 [WARN] Couldn't find sensor `hwmon0 CPU Temperature`
23:43:05 [INFO] Instead, found those sensors:
23:43:05 [INFO]         acpitz temp1: 67°C (max: 67°C / critical: 120°C)
23:43:05 [INFO]         amdgpu edge: 47°C (max: 47°C)
23:43:05 [INFO]         iwlwifi_1 temp1: 39°C (max: 39°C)
23:43:05 [INFO]         k10temp Tctl: 66.5°C (max: 66.5°C)
23:43:05 [INFO]         nvme Composite HFM001TD3JX013N temp1: 36.85°C (max: 36.85°C / critical: 84.85°C)
23:43:05 [INFO]         nvme Composite Samsung SSD 980 PRO 1TB temp1: 32.85°C (max: 32.85°C / critical: 84.85°C)
23:43:05 [INFO]         nvme Sensor 1 HFM001TD3JX013N temp2: 36.85°C (max: 36.85°C)
23:43:05 [INFO]         nvme Sensor 1 Samsung SSD 980 PRO 1TB temp2: 32.85°C (max: 32.85°C)
23:43:05 [INFO]         nvme Sensor 2 HFM001TD3JX013N temp3: 43.85°C (max: 43.85°C)
23:43:05 [INFO]         nvme Sensor 2 Samsung SSD 980 PRO 1TB temp3: 38.85°C (max: 38.85°C)
23:43:05 [INFO] Registering Clock display source.
23:43:05 [INFO] Registering Gif display source.
23:43:05 [INFO] Registering Coindesk display source.
23:43:05 [INFO] Registering DBUS notification source.
23:43:05 [INFO] Found 5 registered providers
23:43:05 [INFO] Trying to connect to DBUS with player preference: Some("spotify")
23:43:05 [INFO] Trying to connect to DBUS with player preference: Some("spotify")
23:43:05 [INFO] Connected to music player: "org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.spotify"

In our case we need to set a right value for the sensor(acpitz temp1, critical temperatured one, i.e., cpu) and the network interface(wlp3s0, wifi) in the [sysinfo] section.

You can set your default media player on the [mpris2] section.

Usage

Simply run the binary under target/release/apex-tux and make sure the settings.toml is in your current directory. The output should look something like this:

23:18:14 [INFO] Registering Coindesk display source.
23:18:14 [INFO] Registering Clock display source.
23:18:14 [INFO] Registering MPRIS2 display source.
23:18:14 [INFO] Registering DBUS notification source.
23:18:14 [INFO] Found 3 registered providers
23:18:14 [INFO] Trying to connect to DBUS with player preference: Some("Lollypop")
23:18:18 [INFO] Trying to connect to DBUS with player preference: Some("Lollypop")
23:18:18 [INFO] Connected to music player: "org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Lollypop"
23:34:01 [INFO] Ctrl + C received, shutting down!
23:34:01 [INFO] unregister hotkey ALT+SHIFT+A
23:34:01 [INFO] unregister hotkey ALT+SHIFT+D

You may change sources by pressing Alt+Shift+A or Alt+Shift+D (This might not work on Wayland). The simulator uses the arrow keys.

Autostarting

To start on boot the binary must be started under an interactive daemon, i.e. by your Desktop Environment. A systemd service will fail unless compiled without hotkey support. Most DEs support the following method/path but you may have to find your equivalent.

-Create apex-tux.desktop in ~/.config/autostart
-Edit apex-tux.desktop to contain:

[Desktop Entry]
Exec=/path/to/apex-tux/apex-tux
Name=apex-tux
Path=/path/to/apex-tux
Terminal=true
Type=Application

Development

If you have a feature to add or a bug to fix please feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request.

TODO

• Windows support
• Test this on more than one Desktop Environment on X11
• More providers
  • Games?
  • GIFs?
• Change the USB crate to something async instead
• Add documentation on how to add custom providers
• Switch from GATs to async traits once there here
• Add support for more notifications
• Package this up for Debian/Arch/Flatpak etc.

Windows support ETA, when?

I've written a stub for SteelSeries Engine support on Windows, there is an API for mediaplayer metadata but my time is kind of limited and I don't run Windows all that often. It will happen eventually but it's not a priority.

Why nightly Rust?

Way too many cool features to pass up on :D