Utility for controlling RGB header on MSI boards

How this utility came to be

This utility not only works on any linux system you find around, it also is much more flexible than the 7 colours MSI’s own Gaming App. Futhermore, unlike the MSI’s utility, this does not make your system vulnerable to anybody who cares to fiddle around the system.

• Linux (/dev/port, might work on WSL?) or FreeBSD (/dev/io);
• Only MSI motherboards with NCT6795D super I/O chip;
  • Run a recent version of sensors-detect to check if you have this chip;
• No warranty whatsoever (read the license);
  • If you find your board misbehaving, try clearing CMOS;

Working boards

This is a list of reportedly working motherboards. If the tool works on your motherboard and it is not listed here, consider filling an issue or writing me an email and I’ll add it here.

• B350 MORTAR ARCTIC
• B350 PC MATE
• B350 TOMAHAWK
• B360M GAMING PLUS
• B450 GAMING PLUS AC
• B450 MORTAR
• B450 TOMAHAWK
• H270 MORTAR ARCTIC
• H270 TOMAHAWK ARCTIC
• X470 GAMING PLUS
• X470 GAMING PRO
• Z270 GAMING M7
• Z270 SLI PLUS
• Z370 MORTAR
• Z370 PC PRO

If your board is not working, and your motherboard is not on this list, a new issue would be greatly appreciated.

How to compile and run

To compile this project you’ll need rustc and cargo. Get them at your package manager or here.

Then:

git clone https://github.com/nagisa/msi-rgb
cd msi-rgb
cargo build --release

You’ll need root to run this program:

sudo ./target/release/msi-rgb 00000000 FFFFFFFF 00000000 # for green

The hexa numbers represent each color as a sequence in time per byte so 4 change of colors.

sudo ./target/release/msi-rgb FF000000 00FF0000 0000FF00 # this makes red then green then blue then off then red etc..

Run following for more options:

./target/release/msi-rgb -h

Examples

Heartbeat

sudo ./target/release/msi-rgb 206487a9 206487a9 10325476 -ir -ig -ib -d 5

Police

sudo ./target/release/msi-rgb -d15 FF00FF00 0 00FF00FF

Happy Easter

From colourlovers

sudo ./target/release/msi-rgb 58e01c0d 504fdcb9 e4aa75eb --blink 2 -d 32

Hue wheel (t HUE, 0.9 SATURATION, 1.0 VALUE) (REQUIRES PYTHON)

echo -e "import colorsys, time, subprocess\ni=0\nwhile True:\n  subprocess.call(['target/release/msi-rgb', '-d511'] + list(map(lambda x: ('{0:01x}'.format(int(15*x)))*8, colorsys.hsv_to_rgb((i % 96.0) / 96.0, 0.9, 1))))\n  time.sleep(0.1)\n  i+=1" | sudo python -

Implementation

For implementation details, including the registers used by super I/O and their meanings see the comment in the src/main.rs file.

License

Code is licensed under the permissive ISC license. If you create derivative works and/or nice RGB schemes, I would love to see them :)