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ByteKeys: a Linux control centre for laptop lights, fans and battery
Your laptop's control centre, finally on Linux. It brings back the keyboard lighting, performance modes, fan curves and battery charge limit that usually live in a Windows-only vendor app, and detects your hardware automatically.
- Platform
- Linux: .deb for Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Pop!_OS and Zorin; AppImage for any x86_64 distribution
- Keyboards
- White, single-zone, multi-zone and per-key RGB, through the kernel, built-in USB drivers or OpenRGB
- Coverage
- 14 keyboard families: 1 tested, 7 supported, 6 experimental (see the hardware list)
- Performance
- Silent, Balanced and Performance on laptops with an ACPI platform profile
What is ByteKeys?
ByteKeys is a free, open-source control centre for Linux laptops. It controls keyboard lighting from plain white backlights to per-key RGB, switches Silent, Balanced and Performance modes, draws fan curves on supported ASUS laptops and sets a battery charge limit: the jobs that Armoury Crate, NitroSense, OMEN Gaming Hub and MSI Center do on Windows. It ships as a .deb for Debian and Ubuntu and an AppImage for other distributions.
Why it exists
Laptop lighting, fans and performance modes usually live in a vendor app that only runs on Windows.
What it proves for client work
Hardware control through kernel and firmware interfaces, a privileged service behind an app that runs as the user, and open-source releases anyone can audit.
Before you install
Status, requirements and help.
Status and limits
- Keyboard families marked Experimental on the hardware list have not been confirmed on that hardware yet.
- Custom fan curves work only on ASUS laptops with firmware fan curves.
- Colours, fan control and background automations need the background service; portable mode covers brightness only.
Requirements
- Linux on x86_64
- .deb: Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Pop!_OS or Zorin; AppImage: any x86_64 distribution
- From source: Python 3.10 or later with PyQt6 or PySide6
- Some laptops need an extra kernel module; ByteKeys tells you which
Get help
Guides, troubleshooting and downloads live on the ByteKeys site.
Features
What ByteKeys does.
One control centre
CPU and GPU temperatures, fan speeds, battery, performance mode and keyboard on one screen, in a dark or light look.
Lighting for almost any laptop
From white backlights to per-key RGB, with the keyboard's own modes where it has them and software effects everywhere else.
Performance modes and fans
Silent, Balanced and Performance in sync with your desktop's power settings, plus a fan curve per fan and per mode on ASUS laptops.
Battery charge limit
Stop charging at 60 or 80% so a laptop that lives on its charger lasts longer, kept across reboots and sleep.
The launch key works
The key that opens Armoury Crate, NitroSense, OMEN Gaming Hub or MSI Center on Windows opens ByteKeys instead.
Safe by design
A small root service does the hardware work and the app runs as you. The firmware runs the fans, and every fan curve is checked against safety limits.
How it works
Up and running in four steps.
- 1
Download
Get the .deb for Debian, Ubuntu and their derivatives, or the AppImage for any other distribution, from the ByteKeys site.
- 2
Install
Installing the .deb with apt also starts the background service. The AppImage runs in portable mode until you install the service from the app.
- 3
Open ByteKeys
Launch it from the apps menu, or press your laptop's vendor-app key. ByteKeys detects your keyboard and controls.
- 4
Make it yours
Choose lighting and effects, a performance mode, fan curves and a charge limit. Automations stay off until you turn them on.
Specifications
The details.
- Platform
- Linux: .deb for Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Pop!_OS and Zorin; AppImage for any x86_64 distribution
- Keyboards
- White, single-zone, multi-zone and per-key RGB, through the kernel, built-in USB drivers or OpenRGB
- Coverage
- 14 keyboard families: 1 tested, 7 supported, 6 experimental (see the hardware list)
- Performance
- Silent, Balanced and Performance on laptops with an ACPI platform profile
- Fan curves
- ASUS laptops with firmware fan curves (most TUF and ROG since 2021)
- Battery
- Charge limit at 60, 80 or 100% (80 or 100% on LG) where the laptop supports a threshold or conservation mode, set again after boot and resume
- Privacy
- No accounts, telemetry or update checks; key codes are never stored
- Licence
- GPL-3.0-or-later, source on GitHub
Built with
- Python (standard library)
- Qt control centre
- Root service (bytekeysd)
- Kernel LED, platform-profile and hwmon interfaces
- USB HID drivers
- OpenRGB SDK
- .deb and AppImage
Pricing
Free. Really.
Free
$0- Every feature
- Open source, GPL-3.0-or-later
- No accounts, telemetry or update checks
Compare
ByteKeys vs the alternatives.
Fair comparisons, including when the other tool is the better choice for you.
FAQ
ByteKeys questions
Last reviewed
Who makes ByteKeys?
ByteKnot Labs and the ByteKeys contributors. It is free software under the GPL-3.0-or-later licence.
Is ByteKeys free?
Yes. ByteKeys is free and open-source software, released under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later. The source is on GitHub.
Is ByteKeys an Armoury Crate alternative for Linux?
For the main controls, yes. On ASUS laptops it gives Linux keyboard lighting, performance modes, custom fan curves, full fan speed, a battery charge limit and live temperatures, and the Armoury Crate key opens it. It is not made by ASUS and does not do everything Armoury Crate does. The asus-linux project's asusctl and ROG Control Center are another option for ASUS laptops.
Which laptops does ByteKeys support?
Keyboard lighting works where the Linux kernel exposes the keyboard light, on common USB controllers such as Lenovo Legion 4-zone, ITE 8291 per-key, ASUS ROG Aura and Dell G-series, and through OpenRGB. Performance modes need an ACPI platform profile, and custom fan curves need an ASUS laptop with firmware fan curves. It also works on Acer, HP, MSI, Lenovo, Dell and other laptops, with the controls each one's firmware offers.
Can I use ByteKeys with asusctl?
Use one of the two for fan curves. If both run, another program such as asusd can keep rewriting the curves ByteKeys sets.
Can ByteKeys break my fans?
It only uses controls the laptop's firmware runs itself and never drives fan speeds directly, so a crash or a stopped service cannot leave a fan off. Curves must keep the fans at 50% or more from 80 °C and end at 70% or more.
Does ByteKeys go online?
No. It has no accounts, telemetry or update checks and makes no network connections of its own. The only one is to an OpenRGB SDK server, which runs on your own computer unless you set another address.
Which Linux distributions does it run on?
The .deb package is for Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Pop!_OS and Zorin. The AppImage runs on any x86_64 distribution.
Does ByteKeys record what I type?
No. For idle automations and the Reactive effect it notes when an input event happened, and the only key it ever looks at is your launch key. Key codes are never stored or logged.
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