linx

linux driver for the lian li 8.8" universal screen — the lcd + led ring in lancool III and similar cases.

reverse-engineered from L-Connect 3's lianli.lcd207.dll. no windows required.

hardware

component	usb id	what it does
lcd (monitor mode)	1cbe:a088	TI MCU — display commands
lcd (desktop mode)	1a86:ad21	WCH HID — standby, wake only
led ring	0416:8050	60 rgb leds, 3 groups of 20

two mutually exclusive usb modes. monitor mode takes display commands. desktop mode is standby — linx wake switches it back.

display: 480x1920 portrait. pixel (0,0) at top-left.

install

arch (pkgbuild)

makepkg -si

installs linx cli, linx-gui, udev rules (no root needed), and a systemd user service.

manual

sudo pacman -S python-pyusb python-pycryptodome python-pillow ffmpeg
pip install -e .
pip install -e '.[gui]'   # optional — needs python-gobject + libadwaita
sudo cp dist/linx.udev /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/70-linx.rules
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules && sudo udevadm trigger

unplug and replug after installing udev rules.

gui

linx-gui

gtk4 + libadwaita control panel. connect, pick content, adjust, push to device.

• viewport editor — drag a crop box over your image/video. scroll to resize. rotate the source with the arrow buttons until your content is oriented how you want it. cyan edge = physical screen top.
• live sync — toggle the Live button and the device updates as you drag the crop box around. wysiwyg.
• led brightness — slider controls led ring brightness for both manual color and ambilight.
• ambilight — toggle it on, leds sample the screen edges and match. pixel-exact.
• state persistence — mode, file paths, rotation, brightness all saved on close and restored on relaunch.

cli

linx test                      # connection test + firmware info
linx image photo.png           # display an image (any pillow format)
linx play video.mp4            # play video (any ffmpeg format, loops)
linx play clip.gif --no-loop   # play once
linx color red                 # solid color (just pushes a jpeg, instant)
linx color 0xFF8800            # hex works too
linx matrix                    # matrix rain screensaver
linx matrix --duration 120     # longer matrix
linx brightness 75             # display brightness 0-100
linx stop                      # stop playback + clear display
linx led red                   # led ring color
linx led 255,128,0             # custom rgb
linx led off                   # leds off
linx wake                      # wake from desktop/standby
linx version                   # firmware version
linx upload boot.jpg /usr/data/boot.jpg   # upload to device fs

ctrl+c stops playback. add -a for ambilight (led edge-matching).

systemd service

systemctl --user enable --now linx    # start + autostart
systemctl --user stop linx            # stop
systemctl --user edit linx            # override default (matrix)

config

optional toml at /etc/linx.conf or ~/.config/linx/config.toml:

[display]
brightness = 80

[matrix]
duration = 60
fps = 30

[ambilight]
enabled = false

cli args override config. --config /path/to/file.toml for explicit config.

how it works

des-cbc encrypted usb bulk transfers. key = iv = slv3tuzx (yeah, really). each command is a 512-byte packet: 500-byte plaintext, encrypted, padded to 512 with [0xA1, 0x1A] trailer.

display layers (bottom to top):

• h264 decoder — persistent framebuffer, survives stop_play
• jpg background (cmd 101) — opaque, covers h264
• png overlay (cmd 102) — transparent, composites on top

clearing after h264 playback requires pushing a black jpeg to the background layer. the h264 decoder framebuffer has no clear command — it just holds the last frame forever.

video encoding uses nvenc (h264_nvenc) when available — near-zero cpu. falls back to libx264 ultrafast.

python api

from linx import LCDDevice, LEDDevice, WIDTH, HEIGHT

lcd = LCDDevice()
lcd.connect()       # auto-wakes from desktop mode
lcd.init()
lcd.set_brightness(80)
lcd.prepare_display()
lcd.push_png(png_bytes)          # overlay layer
lcd.push_image(jpg_bytes, 101)   # background layer (covers h264)
lcd.play_h264('video.h264')
lcd.stop_play()
lcd.clear_layers()               # actually clears the screen
lcd.close()

led = LEDDevice()
led.connect()
led.set_all(255, 0, 0)
led.set_leds([(r, g, b)] * 60)
led.off()
led.close()

known issues

• uaccess requires local session — udev rules use uaccess tag, needs systemd-logind. won't work over pure ssh. use sudo linx as fallback.
• font paths are arch-specific — matrix rain uses noto/dejavu mono from /usr/share/fonts/. falls back to pillow default on other distros.

license

unlicense. do whatever you want with it.