HP OMEN RGB Keyboard Driver

Linux kernel driver for HP OMEN laptop RGB keyboard lighting. Controls 4-zone RGB lighting with brightness control.

Inspired by the original hp-omen-linux-module by James Churchill (@pelrun).

Tip

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Features

4-Zone RGB Control - Individual control over each keyboard zone
All-Zone Control - Set all zones to the same color at once
Brightness Control - Adjust brightness from 0-100%
11 Animation Modes - Complete animation system with CPU-efficient timer-based updates
Omen Key Support - The Omen key is mapped to KEY_MSDOS for custom shortcuts
Mute Button LED Control - Automatic LED sync with system mute state via HDA codec
Fan control - RPM readout, max fan, thermal presets (silent / normal / performance) with built-in curves, optional custom curves (see below)
Real-time Updates - Changes apply immediately
Hex Color Format - Use standard RGB hex values

Supported Hardware

HP OMEN laptops with 4-zone RGB keyboard lighting

Model Series	Status
Omen 16-u0000sl	Tested & working
Omen 16-wf1xxx	Tested & working
Omen 16-wf0xxx	Tested & working
Omen 15-en1004ns	Tested & working
Omen 16-wd0xxx	Tested & working
Omen 14-fb0xxx	Tested & working

Installation

Prerequisites

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S linux-headers base-devel alsa-lib

# Fedora
sudo dnf install kernel-devel kernel-headers @development-tools dkms alsa-lib-devel

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install linux-headers-$(uname -r) build-essential libasound2t64

Note: The ALSA libraries are required for the mute button LED control feature. The driver will still compile without them, but LED sync functionality will be disabled.

Important

We've noticed issues when using this driver at the same time with hp_wmi loaded. Since we implement the same things but in an improved way, there's no reason to keep both fighting each other for WMI events (which will cause issues)

sudo modprobe -r hp_wmi
echo "blacklist hp_wmi" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-hp.conf
#regenerate your initramfs (dependent on your distro)

Build and Install

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/alessandromrc/omen-rgb-keyboard.git
cd omen-rgb-keyboard

# Build and install
sudo make install

The module will be built and installed using DKMS, which will automatically rebuild it on kernel updates.

Note

If you need to manually interact with DKMS, remember that the DKMS module name uses hyphens (omen-rgb-keyboard), while the loaded kernel module uses underscores (omen_rgb_keyboard).

Automatic Loading on Boot

The driver is configured to load automatically on boot. If you need to set this up manually:

# Create modprobe configuration (for module options)
sudo cp omen_rgb_keyboard.conf /etc/modprobe.d/

# Create systemd module loading configuration
echo "omen_rgb_keyboard" | sudo tee /etc/modules-load.d/omen_rgb_keyboard.conf

# Create state directory
sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/omen-rgb-keyboard

Alternatively, use the provided installation script:

sudo ./install.sh

Non-Root Access (Optional)

By default, controlling the RGB keyboard requires sudo privileges. To allow your user to control the RGB keyboard without sudo:

# Install udev rules and configure user permissions
sudo ./install-udev-rules.sh

This script will:

Install udev rules that grant access to users in the 'input' group
Add your user to the 'input' group automatically
Reload udev rules to apply changes immediately

Important: After running this script, you need to log out and log back in (or run newgrp input) for the group membership to take effect.

After installation, you can control the keyboard without sudo:

# No sudo needed!
echo "rainbow" | tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/animation_mode
echo "5" | tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/animation_speed

Usage

Loading the Module

# Load the module
sudo modprobe omen_rgb_keyboard

# Check if it loaded successfully
lsmod | grep omen_rgb_keyboard

Controlling RGB Lighting

The driver creates sysfs attributes in /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/:

Individual Zone Control

# Set zone 0 to red
echo "FF0000" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/zone00

# Set zone 1 to green
echo "00FF00" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/zone01

# Set zone 2 to blue
echo "0000FF" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/zone02

# Set zone 3 to purple
echo "FF00FF" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/zone03

All-Zone Control

# Set all zones to the same color
echo "FFFFFF" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/all

Brightness Control

# Set brightness to 50%
echo "50" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/brightness

# Set brightness to 100% (maximum)
echo "100" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/brightness

# Turn off lighting (0% brightness)
echo "0" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/brightness

Mute Button LED Control

The mute button LED is automatically synchronized with your system's mute state (polls every 200ms). When you mute audio, the LED turns on; when unmuted, it turns off.

For HDA/ALSA audio devices: The driver automatically monitors ALSA controls (Master, Speaker, Headphone, PCM) and syncs the LED.

For PipeWire/Bluetooth devices: If you're using PipeWire or Bluetooth headphones, the mute monitor service is installed and enabled automatically.

Check service status:

# Check if service is running
systemctl --user status omen-mute-monitor.service

# View service logs
journalctl --user -u omen-mute-monitor.service -f

# Check if service is enabled
systemctl --user is-enabled omen-mute-monitor.service

# Restart service if needed
systemctl --user restart omen-mute-monitor.service

The service monitors PipeWire mute state using wpctl and notifies the kernel driver via sysfs. It runs as your user (for PipeWire access) and uses sudo only for sysfs writes if needed.

Manual Control:

# Manually turn mute button LED on (disables auto-sync)
echo "1" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/mute_led

# Manually turn mute button LED off
echo "0" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/mute_led

# Set mute state from userspace (for PipeWire/Bluetooth)
echo "1" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/mute_state  # Muted
echo "0" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/mute_state  # Unmuted

Note: Manual control via mute_led disables automatic synchronization until the driver is reloaded.

Reading Current Values

# Check current brightness
cat /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/brightness

# Check current animation mode
cat /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/animation_mode

# Check current animation speed
cat /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/animation_speed

# Check current zone colors
cat /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/zone00
cat /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/zone01
# etc...

Fan control (`/sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/fan/`)

Requires the same HP WMI GUID as RGB; blacklist hp_wmi if both would load (see above). Fan curves need a WMI path, a valid BIOS fan table, and CONFIG_THERMAL in your kernel so a thermal zone can be read.

File	Purpose
`cpu_fan_rpm`, `gpu_fan_rpm`	Read-only RPM (where supported)
`max_fan`	`0` / `1` — automatic vs max fans
`thermal_profile`	Write `silent`, `normal`, or `performance` (WMI preset); read maps EC where possible
`fan_curve`	Read/write the active curve (see Fan curve format below)
`fan_curve_enable`	`0` stops the curve worker; `1` starts it (uses current `fan_curve` points)
`fan_temp_zone`	Optional thermal zone name (e.g. `x86_pkg_temp`); if unset, the driver tries common zone names

After a successful thermal_profile write, built-in preset curves are copied into fan_curve and the worker starts automatically unless you previously set fan_curve_enable to 0 (manual off). Enabling max fan disables the curve path. Custom points overwrite fan_curve; switching thermal_profile again replaces them with that preset’s built-in steps.

With udev rules installed, users in the input group can use tee on these files without sudo, same as RGB.

Fan curve format

Curves are space-separated pairs:

temperature_C:fan_percent

Temperature: degrees Celsius from the selected thermal zone (typically CPU package).
Fan percent: 0–100, mapped by the driver into the EC’s allowed fan range using the BIOS fan table.

You need at least 2 points and may use up to 8 points per curve. Order does not matter; the driver sorts by temperature. Between two adjacent points the driver linearly interpolates fan percent vs temperature; below the lowest point it clamps to that point’s percent, and above the highest it clamps to the last point’s percent.

Example (seven steps):

F=/sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/fan
echo "30:20 40:28 50:38 60:50 72:65 82:78 92:90" | tee "$F/fan_curve"
echo 1 | tee "$F/fan_curve_enable"

Built-in silent / normal / performance presets use five points each; your custom curve can use any count from 2 to 8.

Color Format

Colors are specified in RGB hex format:

FF0000 = Red
00FF00 = Green
0000FF = Blue
FFFFFF = White
000000 = Black (off)

Brightness Range

Brightness is specified as a percentage (0-100):

0 = Completely off
50 = 50% brightness
100 = Maximum brightness

Animation Modes

The driver supports 11 different animation modes:

Basic Modes:

static - No animation, static colors (default)
breathing - Smooth breathing effect that fades in and out
rainbow - Rainbow wave that cycles through all colors
wave - Wave effect that moves across the zones
pulse - Pulsing effect with varying intensity

Advanced Modes:

chase - Lights follow each other in sequence across zones
sparkle - Random sparkle effect with bright white flashes
candle - Warm flickering candle effect with orange/red colors
aurora - Aurora borealis effect with flowing green/blue waves
disco - Disco strobe effect with bright multi-colored flashes
gradient - Custom color cycling with per-zone-group configuration

Animation Speed

Animation speed is controlled by a value from 1-10:

1 = Slowest animation
5 = Default speed
10 = Fastest animation

Examples

Gaming Setup

# Red gaming theme
echo "FF0000" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/all
echo "75" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/brightness

Rainbow Effect

echo "FF0000" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/zone00  # Red
echo "FF8000" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/zone01  # Orange
echo "FFFF00" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/zone02  # Yellow
echo "00FF00" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/zone03  # Green

Subtle White Lighting

echo "FFFFFF" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/all
echo "25" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/brightness

Animation Examples

# Breathing red effect
echo "FF0000" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/all
echo "breathing" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/animation_mode
echo "3" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/animation_speed

# Rainbow wave
echo "rainbow" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/animation_mode
echo "5" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/animation_speed

# Chase effect
echo "00FF00" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/all
echo "chase" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/animation_mode
echo "4" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/animation_speed

# Sparkle effect
echo "FFFFFF" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/all
echo "sparkle" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/animation_mode
echo "2" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/animation_speed

# Aurora effect (uses its own colors)
echo "aurora" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/animation_mode
echo "3" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/animation_speed

# Disco strobe effect
echo "disco" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/animation_mode
echo "6" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/animation_speed

# Candle effect (uses its own warm colors)
echo "candle" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/animation_mode
echo "4" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/animation_speed

Gradient Animation

# Configure gradient: zones 0,1,2 cycle red→green→blue, zone 3 cycles purple→orange
echo "0,1,2:FF0000,00FF00,0000FF;3:800080,FFA500" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/gradient_config

# Start gradient animation at speed 5
echo "gradient" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/animation_mode
echo "5" | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/animation_speed

Omen Key Mapping

The driver intercepts the Omen key press and maps it to KEY_MSDOS, allowing you to bind custom shortcuts to it.

Setting Up Shortcuts

GNOME:

Open Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts
Click "+" to add a custom shortcut
Press the Omen key when prompted
Assign your desired action

KDE Plasma:

System Settings → Shortcuts → Custom Shortcuts
Edit → New → Global Shortcut → Command/URL
Set the trigger to the Omen key
Assign your command

i3/Sway: Add to your config file:

bindsym XF86DOS exec your-command-here

Customizing the Key Mapping

If you want to map the Omen key to a different key, edit src/wmi/omen_wmi.c:

static const struct key_entry hp_wmi_keymap[] = {
    { KE_KEY, OMEN_KEY_SCANCODE, { KEY_MSDOS } },  // Change KEY_MSDOS to your preferred key
    { KE_END, 0 }
};

After changing, rebuild with sudo make install.

Troubleshooting

Module Not Loading

# Check if WMI is supported
sudo dmesg | grep -i wmi

# Check for errors
sudo dmesg | grep -i omen_rgb_keyboard

No RGB Zones Found

# Verify the module loaded
lsmod | grep omen_rgb_keyboard

# Check sysfs path
ls -la /sys/devices/platform/omen-rgb-keyboard/rgb_zones/

Colors Not Changing

Ensure you're using the correct hex format (6 characters, uppercase)
Check that brightness is not set to 0
Verify the module loaded without errors

Secure Boot (Key was rejected by service)

If your Linux distribution enforces strict Secure Boot policies, the kernel will block unsigned drivers from loading, throwing an error like: modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'omen_rgb_keyboard': Key was rejected by service.

To resolve this, you must sign the kernel module using a trusted Machine Owner Key (MOK) so your UEFI firmware allows it to load.

If you already have existing keys (you may already have a MOK/key pair, common if you previously set up Secure Boot module signing, e.g. for NVIDIA drivers): Configure DKMS to use your existing private key and public certificate before running dkms install.
If you do not have a MOK: You will need to generate a key pair, enroll it in your firmware via mokutil, and script DKMS to use it.

For instructions and automated scripts to handle MOK generation and DKMS signing, see the Community DKMS Signing Guide or the Arch Wiki DKMS Documentation.

Technical Details

Driver Name: omen-rgb-keyboard
WMI Interface: Uses HP's native WMI commands for maximum compatibility
Buffer Layout: Matches HP's Windows implementation exactly
Animation System: CPU-efficient timer-based updates with 20 FPS
State Persistence: Saves settings to /var/lib/omen-rgb-keyboard/state
Kernel Compatibility: Linux 5.0+

License

GPL-3.0

Contributing

Feel free to submit issues and pull requests.

Disclaimer

This driver is provided as-is, use at your own risk. The author is not responsible for any damage to your hardware.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 59 Commits
.github/workflows		.github/workflows
docs		docs
scripts		scripts
src		src
.gitignore		.gitignore
99-omen-rgb-keyboard.rules		99-omen-rgb-keyboard.rules
CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md		CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
Makefile		Makefile
README.md		README.md
dkms.conf		dkms.conf
hp_wmi-blacklist.conf		hp_wmi-blacklist.conf
install-udev-rules.sh		install-udev-rules.sh
install.sh		install.sh
omen_rgb_keyboard.conf		omen_rgb_keyboard.conf

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