MControlCenter

MControlCenter

MControlCenter is a Free and Open Source GNU/Linux application that allows you to change the settings of MSI laptops.

Features

• CPU and GPU temperature display
• Fan speed display
• Switch between modes (Since version 0.2):
  • High Performance
  • Balanced
  • Silent
  • Super Battery
• Automatic mode switching (charger status/system power profile)
• Change the maximum battery level limit
• Advanced Fan Speed Control (Since version 0.4)
• Change other settings such as keyboard backlight mode, USB Power Share, etc.

TODO

• Saving multiple fan speed profiles

Supported devices

With version 0.5.0 the app uses the msi-ec driver that comes with the linux kernel (you’ll need to reinstall the driver), so device support depends on whether the kernel driver supports your device or not.

List of tested devices by msi-ec

If your device is not on the list, follow the steps on the msi-ec github page and open an issue there to add support for your device.

Installation

Pre-Installation

• Check the output of cat /sys/devices/platform/msi-ec/shift_mode in your terminal, if it says No such file or directory it means that you need to install or reinstall (uninstall first then install) the msi-ec driver. or the application will open but will have limited functionality!

• If you’re not installing from the packages, You’ll need to install libqt6widgets6 or its equivalent on your distribution (qt6-base for example). the application will fail to open without it!

• To get temperature and fan curve support, you’ll need to install ec_sys, which comes installed on most distributions, or acpi_sys (fedora) with write_support=1. the app can still work with only msi-ec installed.

Installation from packages

Ubuntu/Mint/openSUSE (No Debian)

1. Download the correct package for your distribution from the releases page
2. Double click to open it in the software manager (ex. Discover or GNOME software)
3. Install

Arch Linux (AUR)

An officially maintained package is available under the name mcontrolcenter-bin. You can install it using any AUR helper (yay/paru): yay mcontrolcenter-bin

Or you can use the generic installer in the releases page

Fedora

An official copr repo can be used

Open your terminal, and run these commands:

1. sudo dnf copr enable teackot/msi
2. sudo dnf install mcontrolcenter

However, if you didn’t follow the above method (built from source or used the generic installer), some extra steps are needed because fedora doesn’t come with ec_sys module by default:

1. Open a terminal, then install dkms and make:

   sudo dnf install kernel-devel dkms make

2. Clone the repo:

   git clone https://github.com/saidsay-so/acpi_ec.git

3. Change the directory to the cloned repo:

   cd acpi_ec/

4. Run the install script as sudo:

   sudo ./install.sh

5. Reboot

Unsupported distributions

No need to try the generic installer, it won't work.

1. Debian: for some reason, they did something weird with ec_sys and related functions don’t work.
2. Nixos: the app is packaged in the repos, but i don’t maintain the package, so dont report bugs.
3. All immutable distributions: that means SteamOS, Bazzite, Fedora Silver blue, and others. the necessary drivers can’t be installed.

Current packages are built using OBS

If your distribution is not listed, try the generic installer:

1. Download MControlCenter-x.x.x.tar.gz from the releases page
2. Unpack the archive with the program
3. Open a terminal in the unpacked directory
4. Run the script sudo ./install
5. (Optional) sudo ./uninstall to uninstall

Note: In some cases, building from source can be a good option too, steps for it can be found further down.

Extra tweaks

Laptops with dedicated GPUs

For laptops with a dedicated Nvidia graphics card, the power limits won’t react to performance mode changes. To fix this, you need to be using the Nvidia proprietary driver.

Enable and start the nvidia-powerd service:

1. sudo systemctl enable --now nvidia-powerd
2. Reboot.

Laptops with AMD dGPUs (usually AMD Advantage models) don’t need any steps, as power limits and smartshift functionality work correctly with each performance mode.

Laptops with RGB keyboards

Try using OpenRGB, and make sure you’re using the latest version if your distribution ships old versions.

Regular laptops with only 1 color can be controlled directly by the app. However, RGB keyboards are wired over USB, thats why openRGB is needed.

MUX switching

For laptops with a dGPU AND a mux switch, there is a workaround for switching modes: Install supergfxctl and couple it with a widget like supergfxctl-plasmoid for KDE, or supergfxctl-gex for GNOME.

Building from source

After installing the main package (qt6-base or libqt6widgets6), you’ll need to install other packages to build the app.

For ubuntru/Linux mint: qt6-base-dev and/or qt6-tools-dev also build-essential

For Arch qt6-tools And for fedora qt6-qttools

After you install the packages:

Make sure the app is completely closed if it was installed before (check if there is a system tray icon and close it).

Download the source code and extract the zip file.

Open the scripts folder.

Open a terminal inside the folder, then run these scripts in order:

1. build
2. create installer

If things went well, you should see a compressed file,

4. Extract it.
5. Open a terminal inside the new folder
6. Run the UNINSTALL script as sudo, it might fail if you don’t have MCC installed. thats fine.
7. Run the INSTALL script as sudo, the last line should be a confirmation that the install was successful.
8. Check your apps, McontrolCenter should be there.

If the installation was successful but the app fails to run, open a terminal and type mcontrolcenter, copy the output and open an issue (IF there isn’t one already).

Launch MControlCenter on session startup

To restore settings after a reboot, add MControlCenter to startup, in many desktop environements, this is available in the settings under an “Autostart” page.

Else, you can execute this command in the terminal:

cp /usr/share/applications/mcontrolcenter.desktop ~/.config/autostart/mcontrolcenter.desktop

Localization

You can help translate the MControlCenter app into your native language

1. Copy /src/i18n/MControlCenter_en.ts to src/i18n/MControlCenter_xx.ts where xx is language code into which the translation is being made.
2. Open MControlCenter_xx.ts in text editor and change language="en_US" to your language code.
3. Translate strings into your language directly in a text editor or use the QT Linguist app or Lokalize.
4. Translate GenericName in app shortcut resources/mcontrolcenter.desktop. To do this, add the line GenericName[xx]=translated generic name.
5. Open a pull request on github with a screenshot of the UI using the new language.