Lian Li Linux

Open-source Linux replacement for L-Connect 3.
Fan speed control, RGB/LED effects, LCD streaming, and sensor gauges for all Lian Li devices.

Generative AI was used during development in two areas:

• Reverse engineering. AI assisted with analyzing USB packet captures and vendor software to understand device communication protocols — decoding packet structures, identifying encryption and compression schemes, cross-referencing control opcodes, and translating findings to Rust.
• Frontend UI. AI helped scaffold the Vue/TypeScript frontend for the Tauri GUI, including component layout, styling, and state wiring.

All AI output is reviewed personally before being committed. Protocols for devices I own were validated against real hardware, others rely on community testing and feedback. Bug reports are welcome.

Edge Hub Advanced (39b0:0101) exposes read-only identity, firmware version and three temperatures on its device card. Unavailable or stale sensors are marked explicitly. Physical sensor accuracy still needs hardware validation; no fan, RGB or firmware-update commands are sent.

Both V1 (VID 0x0416) and V2 (VID 0x1A86) wireless dongles are supported. Binding devices is supported through the GUI, which reports command completion or failure. Wireless control requires both TX and RX dongles. Saved fan and lighting settings do not automatically bind an unbound group on startup, use the GUI to bind it explicitly.

Wireless SL V3 fans support hardware motherboard PWM sync. Other wireless fans can follow a selected Linux PWM header; if that source is missing or becomes unreadable, they run at full speed until it returns.

Note: Wireless devices with LCDs still need to be plugged in via USB to control the LCD. LCD cannot be controlled through wireless dongle alone.

The RGB page offers software effects for supported wireless devices and verified wired frame-capable controllers. Choose an effect per zone, adjust colors, speed, brightness and direction, then save. Supported effects include Rainbow, Rainbow Morph, Breathing, Color Cycle, Runway, Meteor, Wave, Tide, Ping Pong and Twinkle, plus Static and Off. Direct mode edits individual LEDs; presets preserve either effects or direct colors.

Wireless devices and compatible wired receivers loop uploaded animations. Other supported wired LED controllers receive frames from the daemon, capped at 20 fps, and require the daemon to remain running. Large uploads may use fewer frames to fit device memory without changing the animation duration. Hardware effect controllers such as TL retain their existing modes.

When a device is connected both ways at once it shows once as a wireless group and the duplicate wired entry is hidden, control and telemetry go over RF. Merging wired LCD fans into their wireless group needs the V2 dongle, V1 dongles show both entries.

HydroShift II, Lancool 207 Digital and Universal Screen 8.8" can extend your desktop. Hyprland uses native headless monitors. Other sessions try Hermes-KMS first, then EVDI. Desktop capture needs a logged-in graphical session, even with a system daemon. These optional backends are not required for cooling, RGB or LCD playback. See desktop setup and requirements.

If you have tested a device not marked above, please report your results with a diagnostic export.

yay -S lianli-linux-git

To build the package directly:

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/sgtaziz/lian-li-linux.git
cd lian-li-linux/packaging/archlinux
makepkg -si

For immutable Fedora distributions such as Bazzite, use the recommended Distrobox installation below.

Enable RPM Fusion Free for full FFmpeg with libx264, then install the project package:

sudo dnf install https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm
sudo dnf copr enable sgtaziz/lian-li-linux
sudo dnf install lian-li-linux

Use the release artifact matching your distribution: Ubuntu 24.04, Ubuntu 26.04 or Debian 13, amd64. These packages are distribution-specific because their linked libraries differ. See download verification and installation.

We strongly recommend Distrobox on immutable distributions such as Bazzite, Fedora Silverblue and Kinoite. It keeps the application and its dependencies inside a Fedora container, avoiding application package layering and dependency conflicts with the host image.

Follow the Distrobox installation guide, including host USB rules, the host bridge and user/system service setup. Complete the host setup steps too: installing the package inside the box alone is not enough. Optional desktop kernel modules still belong on the host.

Native package layering on immutable Fedora is an advanced alternative for users who specifically need a host installation. It changes the host deployment and requires reboots. Prefer Distrobox for normal use.

See build dependencies and installation. cargo build --release builds the daemon, GUI, control helper and session helper, including the frontend.

Open Lian Li Linux after installation. Installation Health checks setup and links to repair instructions. Fresh native installs leave both daemon services stopped: choose User (at login) or System (at boot) and select Enable and start. Only one mode can own the hardware.

Use Settings → Configuration to manage services, transfer settings/media, restore backups and manage storage. The system daemon needs access to every LCD asset, including images, video and fonts referenced by templates.

• Service setup, switching and recovery
• USB permissions and udev rules
• LCD assets and managed storage
• Startup image uploads
• Configuration and template backups
• OpenRGB and separate AL V2 regions

The GUI saves changes through the daemon. User configuration lives in ~/.config/lianli/; system configuration lives in /var/lib/lianli/.

Hardware video acceleration is disabled by default. Enable it in Settings and save to recreate active video streams without restarting the daemon. See hardware video for supported paths and diagnostics.

LCD cards also offer pixel conditioning, with cancellation and restoration of the previous display.

Start with troubleshooting. Before opening an issue, export a diagnostic report from Installation Health. The export requires daemon logs and includes logs from the last daemon startup. Review the report before sharing it.

The Rust daemon owns hardware, cooling and media playback. The Tauri/Vue GUI communicates with it over a Unix socket. lianli-control manages service ownership and state transfer; lianli-session captures desktop outputs in the graphical session.

MIT. See LICENSE.

This project is not affiliated with Lian Li Industrial Co., Ltd. Protocol information was obtained through reverse engineering for interoperability purposes.