steelseriesgg-rs – SteelSeries GG for Linux

Open-source SteelSeries GG replacement for Linux. Control SteelSeries keyboards and headsets: RGB lighting, GameSense-compatible server, profiles, and (optional) audio/Sonar integration.

Quickstart

git clone https://github.com/Ven0m0/steelseriesgg-rs.git
cd steelseriesgg-rs
cargo build --release
./target/release/ssgg devices

To run the daemon as a user service after installing the package:

systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable --now ssgg.service

Features

• RGB lighting: static, breathing, spectrum, wave, reactive, gradient, custom per-zone, off
• GameSense server: HTTP API compatible with SteelSeries GameSense
• Profiles: save/load device configurations
• Daemon mode: background service with animations + GameSense overlays
• Audio mixer (feature audio): domain model, PulseAudio/PipeWire wiring planned
• Sonar API (feature sonar): control SteelSeries Sonar via HTTP (Sonar must be running)

Supported Devices WIP

Keyboards

• Apex Pro / Apex Pro TKL / Apex Pro TKL 2023
• Apex 3 / Apex 3 TKL
• Apex 5
• Apex 7 / Apex 7 TKL

Headsets

• Arctis 1 / Arctis 1 Wireless
• Arctis 5 / Arctis 7 / Arctis 7 (2019 Edition)
• Arctis 9 / Arctis Pro / Arctis Pro Wireless
• Arctis Nova Pro / Arctis Nova Pro Wireless
• Arctis Nova 5 / Arctis Nova 3 / Arctis Nova 1

Installation

Prerequisites

• Linux with udev
• Rust 1.94.1 (recommended/tested and pinned in rust-toolchain.toml for local development)
• Rust 1.88+ as the minimum supported version for environments that do not honor rust-toolchain.toml (for example, distro packaging)

No extra HID development packages are required for the default source build.

Arch package

sudo pacman -U ssgg-*.pkg.tar.zst

What you get: /usr/bin/ssgg, systemd user unit, udev rules, docs.

After install:

sudo usermod -aG input $USER
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
sudo udevadm trigger
systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable --now ssgg.service   # optional

For boot without login: sudo loginctl enable-linger $USER.

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/Ven0m0/steelseriesgg-rs.git
cd steelseriesgg-rs
cargo build --release

For the optional audio feature on Debian/Ubuntu, install libpulse-dev first:

sudo apt install libpulse-dev

Binary: target/release/ssgg.

Optional Build Optimizations

The project includes optional build optimizations in .cargo/config.toml. These are not required but can improve build times:

sccache (compilation cache):

cargo install sccache
# Then uncomment the rustc-wrapper line in .cargo/config.toml

lld (faster linker):

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install lld

# Fedora
sudo dnf install lld

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S lld

# Then uncomment the lld line in .cargo/config.toml

These optimizations are experimental and optional. The project builds successfully without them.

Device permissions (udev)

sudo cp assets/99-steelseries.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
sudo udevadm trigger
sudo usermod -aG input $USER

Log out/in to apply the group change.

Usage

List devices

ssgg devices

RGB lighting

Set a static color:

ssgg rgb --color red
ssgg rgb --color "#ff5500"

Set brightness:

ssgg rgb --brightness 80

Apply effects:

ssgg rgb --effect breathing --color cyan
ssgg rgb --effect spectrum
ssgg rgb --effect wave --direction left-to-right

Available effects: static, breathing, spectrum, wave, reactive, gradient, off

Profiles

Save current configuration:

ssgg profile save my-profile

Load a profile:

ssgg profile load my-profile

List profiles:

ssgg profile list

Audio mixer (feature audio)

View audio status:

ssgg audio status

Set volume:

ssgg audio volume --channel master --level 75

Mute/unmute:

ssgg audio mute --channel game
ssgg audio unmute --channel game

Adjust chat mix:

ssgg audio chat-mix --balance 25

SteelSeries Sonar (feature sonar)

The Sonar integration provides direct control over the SteelSeries Sonar audio device through its HTTP API. Sonar must be running for these commands to work.

View Sonar status:

ssgg sonar status

Discover the dynamic Sonar API port:

ssgg sonar discover

List audio devices:

ssgg sonar devices

Set volume for a channel (classic mode):

ssgg sonar volume master 80
ssgg sonar volume game 100
ssgg sonar volume chat 75

Get current mode:

ssgg sonar mode

Control streamer mode volumes:

# Set monitoring volume
ssgg sonar streamer monitoring master 75
ssgg sonar streamer monitoring game 80

# Set streaming volume
ssgg sonar streamer streaming master 90

List available configurations:

ssgg sonar configs

GameSense server

Start the GameSense HTTP server:

ssgg server

The server runs on port 27301 by default and is compatible with games that support SteelSeries GameSense.

Daemon mode

Run as a background daemon with device control and GameSense server:

ssgg daemon

The daemon will run in the foreground and can be stopped gracefully with Ctrl+C or systemctl --user stop ssgg.service when running as a systemd service.

Run as systemd user service

systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable --now ssgg.service
journalctl --user -u ssgg.service -f

Configuration

Configuration is stored in ~/.config/ssgg/config.toml:

[gamesense]
enabled = true
bind = "127.0.0.1"
port = 27301

[audio]
master_volume = 100
game_volume = 100
chat_volume = 100

[general]
default_profile = "default"
debug = false

Dependencies (core crates)

Crate	Purpose
hidapi	HID device communication
tokio	Async runtime
axum	GameSense HTTP server
reqwest	Sonar HTTP client
serde / serde_json	Serialization
clap	CLI argument parsing
tracing	Logging
libpulse-binding	Audio integration (feature audio)

Feature Flags

• audio - Enable audio mixer with PulseAudio support (optional)
• sonar - Enable SteelSeries Sonar API integration (optional, requires audio)

By default, no optional features are enabled. The Arch package ships with default features only.

Build with audio support:

cargo build --release --features audio

Build with all features:

cargo build --release --all-features

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Contributing

Issues and PRs are welcome. Please run cargo fmt && cargo clippy --all-targets --locked before submitting.

Acknowledgments

• hidapi — HID access
• apex-tux and apex7tkl_linux — keyboard inspiration