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

• 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

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

Source: Arch Wiki

This currently supports the following devices:

• Apex Pro
• Apex 5
• Apex 7

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

For installing this software, follow these steps:

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

• Install Rust nightly using rustup
• Install required dependencies
  • For Ubuntu: sudo apt install libssl-dev libdbus-1-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev
• Clone the repository: git clone [email protected]: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

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.

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.

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

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

• 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.

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.

Way too many cool features to pass up on :D