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.

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Supported Devices

HID

Device	Fan Control	RGB	LCD	Pump	Tested
UNI FAN SL / AL / SL Infinity / SL V2 / AL V2	4 groups	Yes	-	-	Yes
UNI FAN TL Controller	4 ports	Yes	-	-	Yes
UNI FAN TL LCD	4 ports	Yes	400x400	-	Yes
Galahad II Trinity AIO	Yes	Yes	-	Yes	Yes
HydroShift LCD AIO	Yes	Yes	480x480	Yes	Yes
Galahad II LCD / Vision AIO	Yes	Yes	480x480	Yes	Yes

* Galahad II LCD / Vision uses the same driver as HydroShift LCD AIO.

Wireless (via TX/RX dongle)

Device	Fan Control	RGB	LCD	Pump	Tested
UNI FAN TL V2 (LCD / LED)	Yes	Yes	400x400	-	Yes
UNI FAN SL V3 (LCD / LED)	Yes	Yes	400x400	-	Yes
UNI FAN SL-INF	Yes	Yes	-	-	Yes
UNI FAN CL / RL120	Yes	Yes	-	-	-
HydroShift II LCD-C (Wireless)	Yes	Yes	-	Yes	Yes
HydroShift II LCD-S (Wireless)	Yes	Yes	-	Yes	Yes
Strimer Plus Wireless	-	Yes	-	-	Yes
Lancool 217 Wireless	-	Yes	-	-	-
Lancool V150 Wireless	Yes	Yes	-	-	-
Universal Screen 8.8" Wireless	-	Yes	-	-	-

Both V1 (VID 0x0416) and V2 (VID 0x1A86) wireless dongles are supported. Binding devices is supported through the GUI.

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.

USB (Standalone LCD)

Device	LCD	Tested	Notes
HydroShift II LCD Circle	480x480	Yes
HydroShift II LCD Square	480x480	Yes
Lancool 207 Digital	1472x720	Yes
Universal Screen 8.8"	1920x480	Yes
Universal Screen 8.8" LED Ring	-	Yes	RGB control supported

Devices stuck in desktop/display mode are detected and can be switched back to LCD mode via the GUI.

Desktop Mode (Virtual Display)

Devices in desktop/display mode (HydroShift II, Lancool 207 Digital, Universal Screen 8.8") are additionally driven as a native secondary monitor via evdi. The daemon auto-attaches an evdi virtual output on detection, the device shows up in your compositor's display settings with its real EDID, and any window can be dragged onto it.

Requirements:

• evdi-dkms — bundles the userspace library (required to link the daemon) and the kernel module (required at runtime for virtual display attach). On Arch this is the evdi-dkms AUR package; on Debian/Ubuntu both pieces are packaged separately (libevdi0-dev + evdi-dkms).
• System ffmpeg libraries (libavcodec/libavformat/libswscale) for H.264 encoding — already pulled in by the base ffmpeg dependency.

The daemon will still start without the kernel module loaded, but desktop-mode devices (HydroShift II, Lancool 207, Universal Screen 8.8") won't get attached as virtual displays until the module is present.

/sys/devices/evdi/add is root-only by default; the package ships a udev rule that grants the active user write access to it (and a modules-load.d drop-in that auto-loads the evdi module at boot), so the per-user daemon creates and opens its own evdi nodes with no root setup step.

Other

Device	RGB	Tested
Strimer Plus (wired)	Yes	-

If you've tested a device that isn't marked as tested above, please open an issue or PR to update this table.

Architecture

lianli-daemon          User service - fan control loop + LCD streaming
  lianli-devices       HID/USB device drivers
  lianli-transport     USB bulk transport (wireless protocol, display streaming)
  lianli-media         Image/video/GIF encoding, sensor gauge rendering
  lianli-shared        IPC types, config schema, device IDs

lianli-gui             Slint desktop app - connects to daemon via Unix socket

The daemon runs as a user systemd service. USB access is granted via udev rules (no root required). The GUI connects over $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/lianli-daemon.sock.

Installing

Arch Linux (AUR)

yay -S lianli-linux-git

Or with any AUR helper (paru, trizen, etc.). This installs binaries, udev rules, the systemd user service, desktop entry, and icons. The package also globally enables lianli-daemon.service and attempts to start it in the current session — no manual systemctl step is required.

The daemon runs as a systemd user service and reads ~/.config/lianli/config.json. If you want it to stay active when no desktop session is logged in, enable linger: sudo loginctl enable-linger $USER.

From Source

1. Clone the repo and submodules:

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/sgtaziz/lian-li-linux.git && cd lian-li-linux

If you already cloned without --recurse-submodules, run: git submodule update --init --recursive

2. Install dependencies:

• Rust (stable, 1.75+)
• ffmpeg and ffprobe in PATH (for video/GIF decoding)
• System libraries:

# Arch
sudo pacman -S hidapi libusb ffmpeg fontconfig mesa libxkbcommon wayland libx11 libinput libdrm clang cmake pkg-config nasm
yay -S evdi-dkms         # AUR - bundles both libevdi (required) and the DKMS kernel module

# Ubuntu / Debian
sudo apt install libhidapi-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev libudev-dev libfontconfig-dev \
  libxkbcommon-dev libwayland-dev libx11-dev libinput-dev libdrm-dev \
  libgl-dev libegl-dev clang cmake pkg-config ffmpeg nasm \
  libavcodec-dev libavformat-dev libswscale-dev libavutil-dev \
  libevdi0-dev              # required to build/link the daemon
sudo apt install evdi-dkms  # optional, only needed at runtime for desktop-mode devices

# Fedora
sudo dnf install hidapi-devel libusb1-devel fontconfig-devel \
  libxkbcommon-devel wayland-devel libX11-devel libinput-devel libdrm-devel \
  mesa-libGL-devel mesa-libEGL-devel clang cmake pkg-config ffmpeg \
  ffmpeg-devel nasm
# evdi is not packaged in Fedora repos — build libevdi from source to link the daemon:
#   https://github.com/DisplayLink/evdi  (evdi-dkms is only needed at runtime)
# You can also download https://github.com/displaylink-rpm/displaylink-rpm
# Make sure to install replace ffmpeg-free with ffmpeg if ffmpeg-free is installed

3. Build:

cargo build --release

Binaries: target/release/lianli-daemon and target/release/lianli-gui

4. Install udev rules (required for USB access without root):

sudo cp packaging/udev/99-lianli.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
sudo udevadm trigger
# If evdi is already loaded, apply the new evdi chmod rule without a reboot:
[ -e /sys/module/evdi ] && sudo udevadm trigger --action=add /sys/module/evdi

5. Install and start the daemon:

# Copy binaries
sudo install -Dm755 target/release/lianli-daemon /usr/bin/lianli-daemon
sudo install -Dm755 target/release/lianli-gui /usr/bin/lianli-gui

# Install user service
sudo install -Dm644 packaging/systemd/lianli-daemon.service /usr/lib/systemd/user/lianli-daemon.service

# Auto-load evdi at boot (for desktop-mode LCD support)
sudo install -Dm644 packaging/modules-load.d/lianli-evdi.conf /usr/lib/modules-load.d/lianli-evdi.conf

systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable --now lianli-daemon.service

A default config is created automatically at ~/.config/lianli/config.json on first run.

6. Install desktop entry and icons:

# Install icons
for size in 32x32 128x128 256x256 scalable; do mkdir -p ~/.local/share/icons/hicolor/$size/apps; done
cp assets/icons/32x32.png ~/.local/share/icons/hicolor/32x32/apps/com.sgtaziz.lianlilinux.png
cp assets/icons/128x128.png ~/.local/share/icons/hicolor/128x128/apps/com.sgtaziz.lianlilinux.png
cp assets/icons/128x128@2x.png ~/.local/share/icons/hicolor/256x256/apps/com.sgtaziz.lianlilinux.png
cp assets/icons/icon.svg ~/.local/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/com.sgtaziz.lianlilinux.svg

# Install desktop entry
cp packaging/desktop/com.sgtaziz.lianlilinux.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/
update-desktop-database ~/.local/share/applications/

With Docker

./docker/build.sh

The script builds the image (matching your UID/GID), mounts a cargo cache, and runs cargo build --release. Artifacts land in target/release/ on the host. Then follow steps 4-6 from "From Source" above.

Configuration

The daemon reads ~/.config/lianli/config.json. The GUI edits this file via the daemon's IPC socket.

LCD Streaming

Each LCD entry specifies a target device (by serial), media type, and orientation:

Type	Description
image	Static image (JPEG, PNG, BMP, GIF)
video	Video file (decoded frame-by-frame via ffmpeg)
gif	Animated GIF
color	Solid RGB color
sensor	Live sensor gauge (CPU temp, GPU temp, etc.)

Fan Curves

Fan curves map a temperature source (any shell command) to a speed percentage. Points are linearly interpolated; temperatures outside the curve range clamp to the nearest point's speed.

Fan Speed Modes

Mode	Description
0	Off (0% PWM)
"curve-name"	Follow a named fan curve
1-255	Constant PWM duty (1=0.4%, 128=50%, 255=100%)
"__mb_sync__"	Mirror motherboard PWM signal (hardware passthrough)

Troubleshooting

Daemon won't start / no devices found:

# Check udev rules are loaded
sudo udevadm test /sys/bus/usb/devices/<your-device>

# Check daemon logs
journalctl --user -u lianli-daemon -f

GUI says "Daemon offline":

# Verify daemon is running
systemctl --user status lianli-daemon

# Check socket exists
ls -la $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/lianli-daemon.sock

Permission denied on USB device:

# Re-trigger udev after plugging in device
sudo udevadm trigger

License

MIT. See LICENSE.

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