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Add a PyQt6 GUI frontend (vrgb-gui) with FN-key brightness sync, tray, and profiles#6

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Add a PyQt6 GUI frontend (vrgb-gui) with FN-key brightness sync, tray, and profiles#6
mrw1986 wants to merge 5 commits into
vrgb-dev:mainfrom
mrw1986:feat/gui

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@mrw1986 mrw1986 commented Jun 3, 2026

Summary

Adds a PyQt6 desktop GUI (vrgb-gui) for VRGB — covering the "simple GUI frontend / color picker / brightness control / profile management" items listed under Future Development in the README.

It's a thin frontend, not a reimplementation: the GUI imports the vrgb script as a module (importlib) and calls its existing functions in-process, so the HID protocol, report-id mapping and config logic are shared with the CLI — no duplicated device code.

What's included

  • vrgb-gui.py — the GUI:
    • HS color wheel + value slider, hex entry, preset swatches (live preview while dragging, persisted on release)
    • Unified brightness slider tied to FN+F4 / FN+F3. The keyboard has two brightness layers that multiply — the firmware backlight (asus::kbd_backlight, 0..max, set via logind) and vrgb's HID intensity byte. The slider exposes a single brightness B and decomposes it into a firmware step F and HID intensity I such that (F/max)·(I/255) = B, so the two layers never double-dim. A poll mirrors hardware FN-key changes back into the slider. Falls back to pure-HID brightness when the LED node / logind is unavailable.
    • Power on/off, firmware/autonomous toggle, OEM rainbow (auto-disabled on mappings where rainbow_supported is false)
    • Profile manager (save / load / delete)
    • System-tray applet (on/off, brightness-step submenu, color submenu + full dialog, profiles); closing the window hides to tray
    • In-GUI "Start at login" toggles that create/remove the XDG autostart entries (opt-in per user)
    • All device I/O runs on a worker thread; if the vrgb group isn't active in the session yet, persisting actions fall back to pkexec (Polkit) — and only ever run the root-owned /usr/local/bin/vrgb, never a user-writable script.
  • install-gui.sh, vrgb-gui.desktop — installer + launcher.
  • vrgb.py: get_real_home() now also honors PKEXEC_UID, so a pkexec-elevated CLI run reads/writes the invoking user's ~/.config/vrgb instead of /root's.
  • README updated with a GUI section.

Notes

  • Developed and tested on an ASUS Vivobook S16 (M5606WA), ITE5570 0B05:5570 mapping, on Fedora/KDE.
  • Requires PyQt6 (sudo dnf install python3-pyqt6 on Fedora).
  • KDE tray menus render over DBusMenu, which can't host embedded widgets, so the tray uses submenus (brightness steps / color swatches) rather than an inline slider.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

mrw1986 and others added 5 commits June 2, 2026 21:37
@mrw1986 @claude
Add PyQt6 GUI frontend (vrgb-gui)
256dcc8 
A desktop frontend that imports the vrgb CLI as a module and drives the
keyboard in-process (shared HID protocol + config logic, no duplication).
Device I/O runs on a worker thread; persisting actions fall back to
pkexec when the vrgb group is not yet active in the session.

Features:
- HS color wheel + value slider, hex entry, preset swatches
- Live throttled preview, persisted on release
- Brightness slider, power toggle, firmware/autonomous toggle
- OEM rainbow toggle (auto-disabled on unsupported device mappings)
- Profile save/load/delete
- System-tray applet (quick on/off, brightness, profiles); close-to-tray

Adds install-gui.sh, vrgb-gui.desktop, and README docs.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
@mrw1986 @claude
Harden GUI + fix 13 review findings
659eeb3 
Critical:
- pkexec only ever runs the root-owned /usr/local/bin/vrgb; never a
  user-writable script (removes a local privesc primitive)
- vrgb.py get_real_home() now honors PKEXEC_UID, so a pkexec'd CLI writes
  the invoking user's ~/.config/vrgb instead of /root's
- parent all tray QActions to self so 'Quit' is not garbage-collected

High:
- clear _interacting on brightness commit (UI refresh no longer freezes)
- only set quitOnLastWindowClosed(False) when a tray exists, else closing
  the window exits instead of orphaning a headless process
- track + kill the pkexec subprocess on shutdown; add a 120s timeout; drain
  the worker (wait/terminate) before quitting so the QThread isn't destroyed
  while running

Medium/low:
- stop mutating process-global sys.stdout/stderr from the worker thread
- process the op queue strictly FIFO (drop racy _coalesce reordering)
- brightness applies the on-screen color (slider routes through the color path)
- gate all device-dependent widgets on detection
- 'Save current' commits on-screen state before snapshotting
- emit deep-copied config snapshots across the thread boundary
- clamp hue for gray colors; guard zero-radius wheel geometry

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
@mrw1986 @claude
Tie the GUI brightness slider to the FN+F4/F3 keys
ab757a6 
The keyboard has two brightness layers that multiply: the firmware backlight
(FN keys -> asus::kbd_backlight, 0..max) and vrgb's HID intensity byte. They
were independent, so the slider and the FN keys ignored each other.

The slider now exposes a single unified brightness B (0..100%), decomposed into
a firmware step F and HID intensity I such that (F/max)*(I/255) == B — smooth and
no double-dimming. Firmware writes go through logind SetBrightness (passwordless
for the active session). A 300ms poll watches the firmware level so FN+F4/F3 move
the slider and the HID intensity too, with a settle window to ignore self-induced
changes. Degrades to pure-HID brightness when the LED node / logind is absent.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
@mrw1986 @claude
Add in-GUI autostart toggles + tray brightness slider & color picker
f5aa5a6 
- 'Start at login' section in the window with two checkboxes that create/remove
  the user XDG autostart entries (restore lighting / start tray), reflecting their
  current state — so autostart is opt-in per user, not forced by the installer.
- Tray menu now embeds a live brightness slider and a color-swatch row plus a
  'More colors…' QColorDialog. They drive the main window's controls, reusing the
  firmware decomposition, preview throttling and persistence. The tray slider
  re-syncs to the current brightness each time the menu opens.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
@mrw1986 @claude
Fix tray controls for KDE: use submenus instead of embedded widgets
11bb2af 
KDE renders system-tray menus over DBusMenu, which silently drops QWidgetAction
embedded widgets — the brightness slider, color swatch row and captions showed up
blank. Replace them with standard, DBusMenu-renderable items:

- Brightness submenu of discrete steps (10/25/50/75/100%), exclusive + checkable,
  with the step nearest the current brightness ticked on open.
- Color submenu of preset swatches (colored QIcon) plus a 'More colors…' dialog.

Both still route through the main window's controls (set_brightness_external /
_apply_hex), so the firmware decomposition, preview and persistence are reused.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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vrgb-dev commented Jun 5, 2026

Thanks for the work. I'll review over the weekend.

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@mrw1986 @vrgb-dev