OpenRGB recognizes and controls connected RGB hardware

In the next article we are going to take a look at OpenRGB. This is a free software to control the RGB lighting of the accessories and components of our equipment. The project is focused on supporting products from multiple hardware manufacturers, to reduce the load of necessary programs installed on our equipment.

One of the biggest problems with RGB lighting is the software ecosystem that surrounds it. Each manufacturer has its own application, its own brand, its own style. If you want to mix and match devices, you'll end up with a bunch of conflicting and functionally identical apps competing for your computer's resources in the background. In addition to that, these applications are proprietary and are usually for Windows. OpenRGB sets out to fix this, since seeks to control all our RGB devices from a single application.

This is software that seeks that above all the players have an alternative to eliminate the different software supplied by the different manufacturers as they are; Razer, MSI, Corsair, Asus, ASRock, G.Skill, Gigabyte, HyperX, ThermalTake and others. The software automatically recognizes connected RGB accessories and compatible PC components. Depending on the possibilities of the respective device, it will allow us to make adjustments to the LEDs.

General characteristics of OpenRGB

• The tool is still under development, and is currently not supported by all manufacturers and modules.
• We can set colors and select effect modes for a wide variety of RGB hardware.
• It will also give us option to save and load profiles.
• It will give us the possibility of control lighting from third party software using OpenRGB SDK.
• This program also offers us a command line interface.
• We will have the option of connect multiple instances of OpenRGB to synchronize lighting across multiple PCs.
• The program can work standalone, or in a client/server setup without peripherals.
• will allow us to see Device Information.
• No official/manufacturer software required.
• The graphical view of the device's LEDs makes it easy to custom pattern creation.

These are just some of the features of the program. They can consult all of them in detail from the GitLab page of the project.

Install OpenRGB on Ubuntu

Through PPA

We will not find the OpenRGB packages using the default Ubuntu repository. Therefore, we will have to use a third party PPA. To add it, just open a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run the command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:thopiekar/openrgb

After adding the source, and updating the list of available software from the installed repositories, we can now move on to install OpenRGB on Ubuntu. To do this, we will only have to open a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and execute the installation command:

sudo apt install openrgb

From the same terminal, we can check which version of the program has been installed. To do so, all you have to do is run the command:

openrgb --version

After finishing the installation, there is only run OpenRGB software using the terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and typing in it:

openrgb

We can also start the program by searching for the program's launcher on our computer.

uninstall

In case you want remove the program from your computer, it will only be necessary to open a terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T) and execute the command in it:

sudo apt autoremove openrgb --purge

We can also delete repository that we use for the installation. To get rid of this PPA, in the same terminal it will only be necessary to write:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:thopiekar/openrgb

Download as AppImage

If you don't want to install anything on your computer, but want to try the program, you can use the APPImage file that can be downloaded from the project website.

In addition to using the web browser to download the program, we will also have the option of using wget in the terminal to download the latest version of the program published today. It will only be necessary to use the command as follows:

wget https://openrgb.org/releases/release_0.7/OpenRGB_0.7_x86_64_6128731.AppImage

Once the download is finished, there is nothing more than give the necessary permissions to the downloaded file. To do this, just type the command:

chmod +x ./OpenRGB_0.7_x86_64_6128731.AppImage

Now we can double click on the file, or we can also start it by typing in the terminal:

./OpenRGB_0.7_x86_64_6128731.AppImage

The creators of the program offer a Settings page by OpenRGB, from which information about the program's settings can be obtained. What's more, To consult more information about the program, users can go to the project website.