LIQUIDCTL(8)

📦
version 1.16.0 · 6 versions
, in alpine 3.24, arch rolling, epel 10, fedora 43, fedora 44, nixpkgs unstable, ubuntu stonking

okay so bestie, you have stumbled into liquidctl — section 8 of the System Manager's Manual, aka the "yes this is an admin thing" corner of the docs 💅. She monitors and controls liquid coolers and other devices, and she is so much cooler than her manpage font suggests. Let's get into it 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

liquidctl — monitor and control liquid coolers and other devices 💖

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

liquidctl [options] list
liquidctl [options] initialize [all]
liquidctl [options] status
liquidctl [options] set channel speed (temperature percentage) ...
liquidctl [options] set channel speed percentage
liquidctl [options] set channel color mode [color ...]
liquidctl --version
liquidctl --help

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So like, liquidctl is a little utility for overseeing and controlling some hardware monitoring devices that the kernel doesn't support yet. She's doing the lord's work, fr fr. And because she goes straight at the hardware, root privileges are generally required — though bestie, you can dodge that with appropriate udev rules ✨.

liquidctl list outputs all the compatible devices she found on your system 👑. And if there's more than one? No stress — pick your fave for later invocations with --match=substring, where substring matches part of your desired device's description, and the comparison is case insensitive (she's chill like that).

liquidctl list --verbose turns on the display of extra identifiers and addresses that you can also use to select specific devices. These lowkey hit different for certain use cases — like non-interactive scripts, iykyk 🤖.

liquidctl initialize prepares a device for later commands, and most devices must be initialized after every boot, or whenever you resume from a suspended state 😭. Unless you need finer control, you can just initialize everything at once with liquidctl initialize all — one and done, slay. Some devices may output some information at this stage too 📢.

liquidctl status displays the status of all devices that match the filtering options you gave her 🔍.

liquidctl set channel speed lets you set fan and pump speeds. Depending on the device, these can be set to fixed duty values, variable temperature–duty curves, or both 🌡️.

liquidctl set channel color is where you configure and set lighting modes 🎨. The supported lighting modes and extra options vary by device and are listed in later sections of this manual — so keep scrolling bestie. Every color can be specified as:

  • hexadecimal RGB, with or without the prefix '0x': ff7f3f;
  • decimal RGB triple, R,G,B ∊ [0, 255]: rgb(255,127,63);
  • hue-saturation-value HSV triple, H ∊ [0, 360], S,V ∊ [0, 100]: hsv(20,75,100);
  • hue-saturation-lightness HSL triple, H ∊ [0, 360], S,L ∊ [0, 100]: hsl(20,100,62).

liquidctl set channel screen lets you configure the LCD screen integrated into some AIO models 🖥️✨.

And here's the smart-girl part: liquidctl automatically detects when a kernel driver is bound to the device and, whenever possible, uses it instead of going at the device directly. Alternatively, if you wanna force that direct access anyway, there's --direct-access 😤.

💅 OPTIONS 💅

🌸 Device selection options 🌸

Devices can be selected using one or more values taken from list --verbose.

  • -m substring, --match=substring — Filter devices by case insensitive substring of device description.
  • -n number, --pick=number — Pick among many results for a given filter.
  • --vendor=id — Filter devices by hexadecimal vendor id.
  • --product=id — Filter devices by hexadecimal product id.
  • --release=number — Filter devices by hexadecimal release number.
  • --serial=number — Filter devices by serial number.
  • --bus=bus — Filter devices by bus.
  • --address=address — Filter devices by address in bus.
  • --usb-port=port — Filter devices by USB port in bus.
  • -d index, --device=index — (Deprecated), select device by listing index. yeah she's deprecated bestie, tread carefully 🙈

🧚 Animation options 🧚

Some devices and animation modes support additional options ✨.

  • --speed=value — Abstract animation speed (device/mode specific).
  • --time-per-color=value — Time to wait on each color (seconds).
  • --time-off=value — Time to wait with the LED turned off (seconds).
  • --alert-threshold=number — Threshold temperature for a visual alert (degrees Celsius).
  • --alert-color=color — Color used by the visual high temperature alert.
  • --direction=string — If the pattern should move forward or backward.
  • --start-led=number — The first led to start the effect at.
  • --maximum-leds=number — The number of LED's the effect should apply to.

🍓 Other options 🍓

  • --fan-mode=channel:mode[,...] — Set the fan modes.
  • --single-12v-ocp — Enable single rail +12V OCP.
  • --pump-mode=mode — Set the pump mode.
  • --temperature-sensor=number — The temperature sensor number for the Commander Pro.
  • --legacy-690lc — Use Asetek 690LC in legacy mode (old Krakens).
  • --non-volatile — Store on non-volatile controller memory.
  • --direct-access — Directly access the device despite kernel drivers.
  • --unsafe=features — Comman-separated bleeding-edge features to enable.
  • -v, --verbose — Output additional information.
  • -g, --debug — Show debug information on stderr.
  • --json — Output machine-readable JSON. Only supported with list, initialize and status.
  • --version — Display the version number.
  • --help — Show the embedded help.

🔥 EXIT STATUS 🔥

1 if there was an error, 0 otherwise. That's it, that's the tea ☕.

🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

If LANG is set to C, non-ASCII characters are escaped from the output of --json. (Not me being careful about encoding 💀)

🎀 FILES 🎀

  • $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/liquidctl/*, /var/run/liquidctl/*, /tmp/liquidctl/* — Internal data used by some drivers.

⭐ EXAMPLE ⭐

liquidctl list --verbose
liquidctl initialize all
liquidctl --match kraken set pump speed 90
liquidctl --product 170e set led color fading 350017 ff2608
liquidctl status

👑 DEVICE SPECIFICS 👑

💜 Aquacomputer D5 Next

💜 Aquacomputer Farbwerk

💜 Aquacomputer Farbwerk 360

💜 Aquacomputer Octo

💜 Aquacomputer Quadro

  • Cooling channels: (D5 Next:) fan, pump; (Octo:) fan[1-8]; (Quadro:) fan[1-4]; (Farbwerk/Farbwerk 360:) not applicable.
  • Lighting channels: not yet supported 😭.

💜 ASUS Ryujin II 360

  • Cooling channels: pump, fans, pump-fan, external-fans.

💜 ASUS Ryujin III 360, EVA, Extreme, White

  • Cooling channels: pump, pump-fan.
  • Screen: not yet supported.

💜 ASUS Ryuo II 240

  • Cooling channels: fans, fan. There is only a single fan channel, no cap.

💜 Corsair iCUE Elite Capellix H100i, H115i, H150i

💜 Corsair Commander Core

💜 Corsair Commander Core XT

💜 Corsair Commander ST

  • Cooling channels: fans, fan[1-6]; (only non-XT/Elite Capellix:) pump.
  • Lighting channels: not yet supported.

💜 Corsair Commander Pro

💜 Corsair Lighting Node Pro

💜 Corsair Lighting Node Core

💜 Corsair Obsidian 1000D

  • Cooling channels (only Commander Pro and Obsidian 1000D): sync, fan[1-6].

Where the fan connection types can be set with --fan-mode=channel:mode[,...], and the allowed modes are: off, dc, pwm.

  • Lighting channels: (only Lighting Node Core:) led; (only Commander Pro and Lighting Node Pro:) sync, led[1-2].

Mode / number of colors:

  • clear — 0
  • off — 0
  • fixed — 1
  • color_shift — 2
  • color_pulse — 2
  • color_wave — 2
  • visor — 2
  • blink — 2
  • marquee — 1
  • sequential — 1
  • rainbow — 0
  • rainbow2 — 0

When applicable the animation speed can be set with --speed=value, where the allowed values are: fast, medium, slow 🏃‍♀️.

The animation direction can be set with --direction=value, where the allowed values are: forward or backward. --start-led=number, the first LED that the lighting effect should be for. --start-led=number, the first LED that the lighting effect should be for (yes bestie, she said it twice — it's that important 💅). --maximum-led=number, the number of LEDs that the lighting effect should applied to. --temperature-sensor=number, The temperature sensor that should be used to control the fan curves, probe 1 by default.

💜 Corsair Hydro H110i GT

  • Cooling channels: fan1, fan2.
  • Pump mode (initialize --pump-mode mode): quiet (default), extreme.
  • Lighting channels: not yet supported.

💜 Corsair Hydro H80i GT, H100i GTX, H110i GTX

💜 Corsair Hydro H80i v2, H100i v2, H115i

💜 EVGA CLC 120 (CL12), 240, 280, 360

  • Cooling channels: pump, fan.
  • Lighting channels: logo.

Modes:

  • rainbow — 0 colors — only available on EVGA coolers
  • fading — 2 colors
  • blinking — 1 color
  • fixed — 1 color
  • blackout — 0 colors — no high-temperature alerts

The rainbow mode speed can be configured with --speed=[1–6]. The speed of the other modes is instead customized with --time-per-color (fading and blinking) and --time-off (blinking only).

All modes except blackout support a visual high-temperature alert configured with --alert-threshold and --alert-color 🚨.

All current settings can be saved on non-volatile on-board memory by passing --non-volatile to any write command. However, since write-cycles are limited, this option should be used sparingly — no spam-clicking that one, bestie 🙈.

💜 Corsair H100i Pro, H115i Pro, H150i Pro

  • Cooling channels: fan, fan[1–2]; (only H150i Pro:) fan3.
  • Pump mode (initialize --pump-mode mode): quiet, balanced (default), performance.

Lighting channel: logo.

Modes:

  • alert — 3 colors
  • shift — 2–4 colors
  • pulse — 1–4 colors
  • blinking — 1–4 colors
  • fixed — 1 color

💜 Corsair Hydro H100i Platinum, H100i Platinum SE, H115i Platinum

💜 Corsair Hydro H60i Pro XT, H100i Pro XT, H115i Pro XT, H150i Pro XT

💜 Corsair Hydro H100i, H115i, H150i Elite RGB

  • Cooling channels: fan, fan[1–2]; (only H150i Pro XT/Elite RGB:) fan3.
  • Pump mode (initialize --pump-mode mode): quiet, balanced (default), extreme.
  • Lighting channels: sync, led.

Number of colors, per channel and mode, split by which device you're on:

  • led + off — 0 colors (Platinum), 0 colors (Pro XT/Elite RGB), 0 colors (Platinum SE)
  • led + fixed — 1 color (Platinum), 1 color (Pro XT/Elite RGB), 1 color (Platinum SE)
  • led + super-fixed — 24 colors (Platinum), 16 colors (Pro XT/Elite RGB), 48 colors (Platinum SE)

💜 Lian Li Uni SL, SL v2, AL, AL v2, SL-Infinity

  • Cooling channels: fan[1–4].
  • Lighting channels: none.

💜 MSI MPG Coreliquid K360

  • Cooling channels: fan1, fan2, fan3, fans, waterblock-fan, pump.
  • Lighting channels: sync.

LCD screens: lcd. 💖

okay so here's the full mode menu for that screen, and the number next to each one is how many colors it eats:

  • disable — 0 colors
  • steady — 1 color
  • blink — 0 colors
  • breathing — 1 color
  • clock — 2 colors
  • color pulse — 0 colors
  • color ring — 0 colors
  • color ring double flashing — 0 colors
  • color ring flashing — 0 colors
  • color shift — 0 colors
  • color wave — 2 colors
  • corsair ique — 0 colors
  • disable2 — 0 colors
  • double flashing — 1 color
  • double meteor — 0 colors
  • energy — 0 colors
  • fan control — 0 colors
  • fire — 2 colors
  • flashing — 1 color
  • jazz — 0 colors
  • jrainbow — 0 colors
  • lava — 0 colors
  • lightning — 1 color
  • marquee — 1 color
  • meteor — 1–2 colors
  • movie — 0 colors
  • msi marquee — 1 color
  • msi rainbow — 0 colors
  • planetary — 0 colors
  • play — 0 colors
  • pop — 0 colors
  • rainbow — 0 colors
  • rainbow double flashing — 0 colors
  • rainbow flashing — 0 colors
  • rainbow wave — 0 colors
  • random — 0 colors
  • rap — 0 colors
  • stack — 1 color
  • visor — 2 colors
  • water drop — 1 color

When it applies, the animation speed goes through --speed=value, and the allowed values are: 0, 1 and 2. ✨ The LCD screen settings are controlled with the settings flag, which needs the arguments "brightness;direction" — an allowed brightness is an integer in the range 0-100, and orientations 0-3 correspond to the orientations up, right, down and left.

NZXT Kraken X40, X60

  • NZXT Kraken X31, X41, X61

both of these support the same modes and options as a Corsair Hydro H80i GT (or similar), but they require --legacy-690lc to be passed on all invocations. every single one. no skipping. 💅

NZXT Kraken M22

  • NZXT Kraken X42, X52, X62, X72

Cooling channels (only X42, X52, X62, X72): pump, fan.

Lighting channels: logo, ring, sync.

and here's which modes each lighting channel actually does:

  • off — logo: yes, ring: yes, 0 colors
  • fixed — logo: yes, ring: yes, 1 color
  • super-fixed — logo: yes, ring: yes, 1–9 colors
  • fading — logo: yes, ring: yes, 2–8 colors
  • alternating — logo: no, ring: yes, 2 colors
  • breathing — logo: yes, ring: yes, 1–8 colors
  • super-breathing — logo: yes, ring: yes, 1–9 colors
  • pulse — logo: yes, ring: yes, 1–8 colors
  • tai-chi — logo: no, ring: yes, 2 colors
  • water-cooler — logo: no, ring: yes, 0 colors
  • loading — logo: no, ring: yes, 1 color
  • wings — logo: no, ring: yes, 1 color

When it applies, the animation speed can be set with --speed=value, where the allowed values are: slowest, slower, normal, faster, fastest. And the animation direction can be set with --direction=value, where the allowed values are: forward or backward. 🦋

NZXT Kraken X53, X63, X73

Cooling channels: pump.

Lighting channels: external, ring, logo, sync.

NZXT Kraken Z53, Z63, Z73

Cooling channels: pump, fan.

Lighting channels: external.

LCD screens: lcd.

NZXT Kraken 2023 Standard, Elite

  • NZXT Kraken 2024 Elite RGB
  • NZXT Kraken 2024 Plus

Cooling channels: pump, fan.

Lighting channels: none.

LCD screens: lcd. and the mode menu is:

  • off — 0 colors
  • fixed — 1 color
  • fading — 2–8 colors
  • super-fixed — 1–40 colors
  • alternating-[3-6] — 1–2 colors
  • pulse — 1–8 colors
  • breathing — 1–8 colors
  • super-breathing — 1–40 colors
  • candle — 1 color
  • starry-night — 1 color
  • loading — 1 color
  • tai-chi — 1–2 colors
  • water-cooler — 2 colors
  • wings — 1 color

When it applies, the animation speed can be set with --speed=value, where the allowed values are: slowest, slower, normal, faster, fastest. The animation direction can be set with --direction=value, where the allowed values are: forward or backward.

Corsair HX750i, HX850i, HX1000i, HX1200i, HX1500i

Corsair RM650i, RM750i, RM850i, RM1000i

Cooling channels: fan.

Lighting channels: none.

Setting a fixed fan speed changes the fan mode to software control. To revert back to hardware control, run initialize again. 😌

(Experimental feature) The +12V rails normally function in multiple-rail mode. Single-rail mode can be selected by passing --single-12v-ocp to initialize. To revert back to multiple-rail mode, run initialize again without that flag.

NZXT E500, E650, E850

Cooling channels: none (feature not supported yet).

Lighting channels: none.

NZXT Grid+ V3

Cooling channels: fan[1–6], sync.

Lighting channels: none.

NZXT Smart Device (V1)

Cooling channels: fan[1–3], sync.

Lighting channels: led. and the modes:

  • off — 0 colors
  • fixed — 1 color
  • super-fixed — 1–40 colors
  • fading — 2–8 colors
  • alternating — 2 colors
  • breathing — 1–8 colors
  • super-breathing — 1–40 colors
  • pulse — 1–8 colors
  • candle — 1 color
  • wings — 1 color

When it applies, the animation speed can be set with --speed=value, where the allowed values are: slowest, slower, normal, faster, fastest. The animation direction can be set with --direction=value, where the allowed values are: forward or backward.

NZXT HUE 2

  • NZXT HUE 2 Ambient
  • NZXT H1 V2
  • NZXT Smart Device V2
  • NZXT RGB & Fan Controller
  • NZXT RGB & Fan Controller (3+6 channels)
  • NZXT 2023 RGB Controller

Cooling channels (only Smart Device V2, H1 V2 and RGB & Fan Controllers): fan[1–3].

Lighting channels (all but H1 V2): led[1–6], sync.

and the mode menu for the whole fam:

  • off — 0 colors
  • fixed — 1 color
  • super-fixed — 1–40 colors
  • fading — 2–8 colors
  • alternating-[3-6] — 2 colors
  • pulse — 1–8 colors
  • breathing — 1–8 colors
  • super-breathing — 1–40 colors
  • candle — 1 color
  • starry-night — 1 color
  • wings — 1 color

When it applies, the animation speed can be set with --speed=value, where the allowed values are: slowest, slower, normal, faster, fastest. The animation direction can be set with --direction=value, where the allowed values are: forward or backward.

ASUS Strix GTX 1050 OC

  • ASUS Strix GTX 1050 Ti OC
  • ASUS Strix GTX 1060 6GB
  • ASUS Strix GTX 1060 OC 6GB
  • ASUS Strix GTX 1070
  • ASUS Strix GTX 1070 OC
  • ASUS Strix GTX 1070 Ti
  • ASUS Strix GTX 1070 Ti Advanced
  • ASUS Strix GTX 1080
  • ASUS Strix GTX 1080 Advanced
  • ASUS Strix GTX 1080 OC
  • ASUS Strix GTX 1080 Ti
  • ASUS Strix GTX 1080 Ti OC
  • ASUS Strix GTX 1650 Super OC
  • ASUS Strix GTX 1660 Super OC
  • ASUS Strix GTX 1660 Ti OC
  • ASUS Strix RTX 2060 Evo
  • ASUS Strix RTX 2060 Evo OC
  • ASUS Strix RTX 2060 OC
  • ASUS Strix RTX 2060 Super
  • ASUS Strix RTX 2060 Super Advanced
  • ASUS Strix RTX 2060 Super Evo Advanced
  • ASUS Strix RTX 2060 Super OC
  • ASUS Strix RTX 2070
  • ASUS Strix RTX 2070 Advanced
  • ASUS Strix RTX 2070 OC
  • ASUS Strix RTX 2070 Super Advanced
  • ASUS Strix RTX 2070 Super OC
  • ASUS Strix RTX 2080 OC
  • ASUS Strix RTX 2080 Super Advanced
  • ASUS Strix RTX 2080 Super OC
  • ASUS Strix RTX 2080 Ti
  • ASUS Strix RTX 2080 Ti OC
  • ASUS TUF RTX 3060 Ti OC

Cooling channels: none.

Lighting channels: led. the entire squad above shares these modes:

  • off — 0 colors
  • fixed — 1 color
  • flash — 1 color
  • breathing — 1 color
  • rainbow — 0 colors

Corsair Vengeance RGB

Cooling channels: none.

Lighting channels: led.

  • off — 0 colors
  • fixed — 1 color
  • breathing — 1–7 colors
  • fading — 2–7 colors

When it applies, the animation speed can be set with --speed=value, where the allowed values are: slowest, slower, normal, faster, fastest.

ASUS Aura LED Controller

Cooling channels: none.

Lighting channels: led[1–4], sync.

  • off — 0 colors
  • static — 1 color
  • breathing — 1 color
  • flashing — 1 color
  • spectrum_cycle — 0 colors
  • rainbow — 0 colors
  • spectrum_cycle_breathing — 0 colors
  • chase_fade — 1 color
  • spectrum_cycle_chase_fade — 0 colors
  • chase — 1 color
  • spectrum_cycle_chase — 0 colors
  • spectrum_cycle_wave — 0 colors
  • chase_rainbow_pulse — 0 colors
  • rainbow_flicker — 0 colors
  • gentle_transition — 0 colors
  • wave_propagation — 0 colors
  • wave_propagation_pause — 0 colors
  • red_pulse — 0 colors

Gigabyte RGB Fusion 2.0 5702 Controller

Gigabyte RGB Fusion 2.0 8297 Controller

Cooling channels: none.

Lighting channels: led[1–8], sync.

  • off — 0 colors
  • fixed — 1 color
  • pulse — 1 color
  • (double-)?flash — 1 color
  • color-cycle — 0 colors

When it applies, the animation speed can be set with --speed=value, where the allowed values are: slowest, slower, normal, faster, fastest, ludicrous. 🔥 (yes really, ludicrous is a legal value here, iconic)

EVGA GTX 1070 FTW

  • EVGA GTX 1070 FTW DT Gaming
  • EVGA GTX 1070 FTW Hybrid
  • EVGA GTX 1070 Ti FTW2
  • EVGA GTX 1080 FTW

Cooling channels: none.

Lighting channels: led.

  • off — 0 colors
  • fixed — 1 color
  • breathing — 1 color
  • rainbow — 0 colors

Lian Li GA II LCD

Cooling channels: pump, fan.

This device does not support speed profiles for any channels, only fixed speeds are supported. 🫶

So here's the lighting tea, bestie 💅 every single one of these modes is a whole vibe, and whether your pump or your fan can actually pull it off depends on the mode. Also the color count, because some of these are doing the absolute most.

  • rainbow — pump yes ✨ fan yes ✨ colors: 0
  • rainbow-morph — pump yes ✨ fan yes ✨ colors: 0
  • static — pump yes ✨ fan yes ✨ colors: 1
  • breathing — pump yes ✨ fan yes ✨ colors: 1
  • runway — pump yes ✨ fan yes ✨ colors: 2
  • meteor — pump yes ✨ fan yes ✨ colors: 4
  • ticker-tape — pump yes ✨ fan no ✨ colors: 4
  • fluctuation — pump yes ✨ fan no ✨ colors: 4
  • transmit — pump yes ✨ fan no ✨ colors: 2
  • colorful-starry-night — pump yes ✨ fan no ✨ colors: 0
  • static-starry-night — pump yes ✨ fan no ✨ colors: 1
  • big-bang — pump yes ✨ fan no ✨ colors: 4
  • burst — pump yes ✨ fan no ✨ colors: 1
  • color-morph — pump yes ✨ fan no ✨ colors: 0
  • bounce — pump yes ✨ fan no ✨ colors: 4

Now, when a mode supports it, you can set the animation speed with --speed=value, and bestie the allowed values are exactly these, no freestyling:

  • slowest
  • slower
  • normal
  • faster
  • fastest

And the direction of the animation? That's --direction=value, where the allowed values are:

  • forward
  • backward
ngl if you pass something that isn't on those lists, it's not gonna be the slay you were hoping for — stick to the exact values. 🫶

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

The complete documentation is available in the project's sources and homepage. That's the real main character resource right there — go read it, fr fr. 💖

Okay that's the whole page, bestie!! 🎀 This one's from liquidctl, dated 2026-03-03, and it lives in section LIQUIDCTL(8) of your manual. Go light up those channels and ate, periodt. 👑✨

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