AlienFX-linux

Ported version of AlienFX for Linux, which gives complete light support for most of the device dell produce.

Check out Example-App/ for a sample application. All testing applications are located in alienfx-cli/ folder.

Tested on linux:

• Alienware elc (g-series,alienware m series)
• Darfon (alienware series)

AlienFan-SDK

Library for controlling fans and sensors of Alienware hardware.

Supported devices:

Any Alienware/Dell G-series hardware from 2010 to 2025.

AlienFX-SDK

Better AlienFX/LightFX SDK than Dell official's one without any limitations:

• Better performance. Update rate can be very high for modern devices.
• Tiny footprint both in code and RAM.
• Full hardware features support - per-key and per-device effect set, hardware brightness, hardware power buttons.
• Using direct hardware access, so no additional software required.

Supported devices:

Any Alienware/Dell G-series hardware with RGB lights from 2010 to 2025. Including mouses, keyboards, monitors. Read more details about supported devices and models here

Supported device API versions:

• ACPI-controlled lights - 3 lights, 8 bit/color (v0) - Aurora R6/R7 (using this API require AlienFan-SDK library from AlienFX-Tools project). Not Planned
• 9 bytes 8 bit/color, reportID 2 control (v1) - Ancient notebooks - deprecated and removed.
• 9 bytes 4 bit/color, reportID 2 control (v2) - Older notebooks (like m14/17x, 13R1/R2)
• 12 bytes 8 bit/color, reportID 2 control (v3) - Old notebooks (like 15R5)
• 34 bytes 8 bit/color, reportID 0 control (v4) - Modern notebooks/desktop (all m-series, x-series, Dell g-series, Aurora R8+)
• 64 bytes 8 bit/color, featureID 0xcc control (v5) - Modern notebooks internal per-key RGB keyboard (all m- and x-series)
• 65 bytes 8 bit/color, interrupt control (v6) - Mouses
• 65 bytes 8 bit/color, featureID control (v7) - Monitors
• 65 bytes 8 bit/color, Interrupt control (v8) - External keyboards

Check compatibility list and API details here.

Some notebooks can have 2 devices - APIv4 (for logo, power button, etc) and APIv5 for keyboard.

Supported hardware features:

• Multiply devices detection and handling
• User-provided device, light or group (zone) names
• Change light color
• Change multiply lights color
• Change light hardware effect (except APIv0 and v5)
• Change multiply lights hardware effects (except APIv0 and APIv5)
• Hardware-backed global light off/on/dim (dim is software for v6 and should be done by application)
• Global (all lights) hardware light effects (APIv5, v8)
• Power/indicator button light control (AC/battery hardware switch and effects)

Dependencies

• cmake
• ninja

Build

mkdir build/
cd build/
cmake .. -G Ninja -DALIENFX_BUILD_CLI=ON -DALIENFX_BUILD_EXAMPLE=ON #OPTIONAL -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug
ninja

It would build 3 executables:

• AlienFX-SDK - static library with AlienFX SDK
• alienfx-cli - command line tool for testing and configuring lights
• Example-App - sample application

Help Menu

AlienFX CLI v1.2.0
Control all of your Alienware device from the comfort of your terminal


alienfx_cli [OPTIONS] SUBCOMMAND


OPTIONS:
  -h,     --help              Print this help message and exit
  -v                          Display program version information and exit
          --brightness UINT [255]
                              Global brightness 0-255
          --tempo UINT [5]    Tempo for actions
          --length UINT [5]   Length for actions
  -r,     --repeat INT:NONNEGATIVE [1]
                              Repeat count (0 = infinite)
  -d,     --delay INT:NONNEGATIVE [0]
                              Delay between repeats (ms)
  -s,     --save              Save to hardware (persist across reboots)

SUBCOMMANDS:
  setall                      r g b - set all lights
  setone                      dev light r g b - set one light
  setzone                     zone r g b - set zone lights
  setaction                   dev light action r g b [action r g b] - set light and enable
                              action
  setpower                    dev light r g b r2 g2 b2 - set power button colors
  setzoneaction               zone action r g b [action r g b] - set all zone lights and enable
                              action
  setdim                      [dev] br - set brightness
  setglobal                   dev type mode [r g b [r g b]]
  status                      Show devices, lights and zones
  probe                       Probe lights and set names (interactive)
  createlightzone             Interactively create a light zone/group
  getpowerprofile             Get current power profile
  supportedprofiles           Get supported power profiles
  setpowerprofile             Set power profile (requires root)
  reset                       Reset device (if supported)

UPDATES

UPDATE (#1)

For now if u want to configure any device you have to run HOME=/home/username sudo ./alienfx_cli probe And configure + probe all ur device (this time it would save it to config files

Once done u can see ur devices by running ./alienfx_cli status which would output

Device #0 - Alienware AW-ELC, VID#6268, PID#1361, APIv4, 4 lights
  Light ID#0 - Left
  Light ID#1 - Middle Left
  Light ID#2 - Middle Right
  Light ID#3 - Right
More devices in ur case

And then u can use any of the function of alienfx-cli Example: To set all lights to red i would do ./alienfx_cli setall 255 0 0 and every light would be red

Currently all device in windows version are supported (except some acpi device)

UPDATE (#2)

Added Create Zone command createlightzone its intractive

Now u can create ur custom zone of any light type

Example:

I wanna make WASD key change colour together i can create a zone and then directly change color of that zone

❮ ./alienfx_cli status
2026-02-28 18:25:11.404 (   0.013s) [        CB3267C0]               main.cpp:42    INFO| 1 low-level devices found.
Device #0 - Alienware AW-ELC, VID#0x187c, PID#0x551, APIv4, 4 lights
  Light ID#0 - Left
  Light ID#1 - Middle Left
  Light ID#2 - Middle Right
  Light ID#3 - Right
5 zones:
  Zone #1 (1 lights) - left
  Zone #2 (1 lights) - middle_left
  Zone #3 (1 lights) - middle_right
  Zone #4 (1 lights) - right
  Zone #5 (4 lights) - all

UPDATE (#3)

• Added setpower for setting power button colors and --save for permanently applying the light effects
• Added reset for supported device to reset the light chip.

Credits

• T-Troll - for original sdk and resources
• StromyCoder - for testing in m18 r2
• ZackSM - for testing m18 r1

All the other people for testing and feedback.