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Controlling My Lenovo Legion Keyboard RGB on Linux

LinuxArch LinuxBashHardwareRGBLenovo LegionHyprland

Controlling My Lenovo Legion Keyboard RGB on Linux

I use a Lenovo Legion 15 ACH6 laptop running Arch Linux with Omarchy (Hyprland), and I wanted to control the RGB keyboard lighting without needing Windows or Lenovo Vantage. Here's how I built a simple bash script to do it.

The Problem

On Windows, Lenovo Vantage lets you control the RGB keyboard. On Linux? Nothing. The keyboard just stays on whatever color it was set to last, or sometimes defaults to white.

I wanted:

  • Change keyboard colors from the terminal
  • Match my keyboard to my system theme automatically
  • No Python dependencies or complex tools
  • Something that just works

How It Works

The Legion keyboard uses an ITE RGB controller (vendor ID 048d, product IDs c101 or c965). It communicates via USB HID - you just write 32-byte packets to /dev/hidraw* devices.

The protocol is pretty simple:

Byte 0-1:   Header (0xCC 0x16)
Byte 2:     Effect (0x01=static, 0x03=breath, 0x04=wave, 0x06=hue)
Byte 3:     Speed (1=fast, 4=slow)
Byte 4:     Brightness (1=low, 2=high)
Byte 5-16:  RGB colors for 4 zones
Byte 17-31: Padding and metadata

I reverse-engineered this from the LegionAura and L5P-Keyboard-RGB projects. Big thanks to those developers for figuring out the protocol.

The Script

I wrote a bash script that:

  1. Finds the keyboard HID device automatically
  2. Parses colors (names, hex codes, or RGB values)
  3. Builds the 32-byte HID packet
  4. Sends it to the keyboard

Usage is simple:

./legion-rgb.sh static red
./legion-rgb.sh static "#FF0000"
./legion-rgb.sh effect hue          # rainbow cycling
./legion-rgb.sh effect breath blue

Automatic Theme Syncing

The coolest part: I integrated it with Omarchy's theme system. When I change my desktop theme, the keyboard automatically matches.

Omarchy has a hook system that runs scripts when themes change. I created a hook at ~/.config/omarchy/hooks/theme-set that:

  1. Reads the theme's primary accent color
  2. Applies it to the keyboard

Now when I run:

omarchy-theme-set nord

My desktop theme changes to Nord, and my keyboard automatically turns light blue to match. No extra commands needed.

Installation

If you have a Legion laptop and want to try it:

# 1. Clone/download the scripts
git clone https://github.com/bdarn/lenovo-keyboard-rgb.git

# 2. Install udev rules for permissions
sudo cp 99-legion-rgb.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
sudo udevadm trigger

# 3. Make scripts executable
chmod +x legion-rgb.sh sync-theme.sh

# 4. Install Omarchy hook (optional, for theme sync)
mkdir -p ~/.config/omarchy/hooks
cp omarchy-hook-theme-set ~/.config/omarchy/hooks/theme-set
chmod +x ~/.config/omarchy/hooks/theme-set

# 5. Test it
./legion-rgb.sh static red

Technical Details

Why Bash?

  • No dependencies (works on any Linux system)
  • Simple for this use case (just writing bytes)
  • Easy to read and modify
  • Fast startup

Device Detection The script searches /sys/class/hidraw/ for devices matching the ITE vendor/product IDs. This means it works even if the hidraw device number changes between reboots.

Permissions Instead of running with sudo every time, I created udev rules that give user-level write access to the keyboard HID device.

Limitations

  • Per-key RGB: Not implemented. The protocol supports 4 zones, but I treat them as one color for simplicity.
  • Persistence: Settings don't survive reboots. I run the script on startup via Hyprland.
  • Model-specific: Tested only on Legion 15 ACH6. May work on other models with the same ITE controllers.

What I Learned

  • USB HID is simpler than I thought for basic control
  • Reverse engineering hardware protocols isn't as scary as it seems when good tools exist
  • Bash is perfectly fine for small system utilities
  • Integration with existing tools (Omarchy hooks) > building everything from scratch

Code

The full code is available at github.com/bdarn/lenovo-keyboard-rgb. It includes:

  • legion-rgb.sh - Main RGB controller
  • sync-theme.sh - Theme color extractor
  • omarchy-hook-theme-set - Omarchy integration
  • 99-legion-rgb.rules - Udev permissions

Feel free to use it, modify it, or learn from it!

Hardware: Lenovo Legion 15 ACH6 OS: Arch Linux WM: Hyprland (Omarchy) Tools: Bash, USB HID

Written on a keyboard that finally changes colors on Linux.