victus-control

Fan control for HP Victus / Omen laptops on Linux. Stock firmware keeps both fans near 2000 RPM in AUTO—even while the CPU cooks. victus-control delivers a real “Better Auto” curve, manual RPM control, and keyboard lighting support via a patched hp-wmi driver, a privileged backend, and a GTK4 desktop client.

Warning

Validated primarily on HP Victus 16-s00xxxx running CachyOS (Arch). Other models may work but are unverified—monitor thermals carefully.

Why victus-control

• Better Auto mode (selectable from the GTK UI or CLI) samples CPU/GPU temps & utilisation every ~2 s, clamps to each fan’s hardware max, and reapplies targets every 90 s with the firmware-required 10 s stagger. Result: fans climb smoothly with load instead of idling at 2000 RPM like HP’s AUTO.
• Manual mode exposes eight RPM steps (~2000 ➜ 5800/6100 RPM) with per-fan precision and watchdog refreshes that keep settings alive through firmware quirks.
• Keyboard lighting toggles single-zone RGB colour and brightness.

System Requirements

• 64-bit Linux with systemd (Arch-based distros confirmed).
• Packages installed automatically: meson, ninja, gtk4, git, dkms, linux-headers.
• Root privileges for installing the DKMS module, sudoers rules, and systemd units.

Install & Update

git clone https://github.com/Batuhan4/victus-control.git
cd victus-control
sudo ./install.sh

The installer handles dependency install, user/group creation, DKMS module registration, build + install, and restarts victus-backend.service. Log out/in afterwards so your user joins the victus group.

Background services

• victus-healthcheck.service runs during boot to ensure the patched hp-wmi DKMS module is built for the current kernel and that hp_wmi is loaded before the backend starts.
• victus-backend.service launches automatically at boot, stays active 24/7, and keeps Better Auto applied even when no UI client is connected—so fan tweaks persist without needing to open the app.

Daily Usage

• Launch the GTK app (victus-control) or use the CLI client (test_backend.py).
• Mode dropdown offers AUTO, Better Auto, MANUAL, MAX:
  • Better Auto is enforced by the background service on each boot, keeps fans in manual PWM, and dynamically adjusts RPMs based on temps/utilisation—ideal for gaming or heavy workloads.
  • Manual maps slider positions to calibrated RPM steps; fan 2 honours the 10 s offset automatically.
• Keyboard tab exposes RGB colour + brightness controls.
• Backend status: systemctl status victus-backend.service (logs via journalctl -u victus-backend).

Developing

meson setup build --prefix=/usr
meson compile -C build
sudo meson install -C build

• Smoke test (requires backend running): python test_backend.py.
• The installer fetches hp-wmi-fan-and-backlight-control; it’s git-ignored to keep the repo lean.

Troubleshooting

• Fans ignore commands: ensure the DKMS module is loaded (dkms status | grep hp-wmi-fan-and-backlight-control, sudo modprobe hp_wmi).
• Permission errors: confirm victus group membership (groups $USER), then re-run the installer or sudo usermod -aG victus $USER.
• Socket missing: sudo systemd-tmpfiles --create; sudo systemctl restart victus-backend.service.
• Uninstall: sudo systemctl disable --now victus-backend and sudo dkms remove hp-wmi-fan-and-backlight-control/0.0.2 --all.

Contributing

See AGENTS.md for coding style, testing, and PR expectations. Hardware validation notes are welcome in PR descriptions.

License

GPLv3. See LICENSE for the full text.