Centro

English · Español

A control panel for Linux laptops and desktops: temperatures, fan curves, power profiles that switch themselves, battery care, hybrid graphics and privacy toggles — in one window and one bar icon.

It started on an MSI GF63, where MSI Center doesn't exist for Linux. But it detects your hardware instead of assuming it: on a machine with no embedded controller, no battery or no discrete GPU, those controls simply don't appear.

Note: the user interface is currently in Spanish. Translations are very welcome — every string lives in a single file, bin/centro.

Profiles that switch themselves. It notices whether you're gaming, working or idle and adjusts the CPU ceiling, the fan curve and the machine's own performance scenario. You pick which programs count as what from a list of what's running.

A fan curve you drag. Six points, moved with the mouse. You can't save an invalid curve: each point only moves between its neighbours.

Extended cooling. The fan keeps running after the temperature drops, because the heatsink is still hot. Configured as a range — from / until — plus a minimum time.

Battery care. Charge limit (always charging to 100% wears it out faster) and real health against its original capacity.

Privacy. Turning the camera off really disconnects it: /dev/video* disappears from the system, and the key's indicator light goes off with it.

Automatic keyboard backlight. On at dusk, off in the morning. Time-based, because most laptops have no ambient light sensor; if yours has no backlit keyboard, the control doesn't appear.

Every sensor. Frequency and temperature per thread, disks with their temperature, memory, network, and what's using the machine right now.

Tools. A stress test that tells you whether the CPU had to throttle from heat, a fan test, a machine report copied to the clipboard, and the log.

Bar widget for Omarchy: the hottest component's temperature always visible, and the full detail plus profile and GPU buttons when you open it.

It's one project, not two: the window and the widget write the same configuration and the daemon applies it, so whichever you change, the other one knows.

Nothing is assumed. Before drawing a single control, hw.py looks for:

What your machine doesn't have doesn't show up. No dead buttons, no fields stuck at —. And if the embedded controller isn't one with a known register map, everything else still works but the fan curve isn't offered: writing blindly into someone else's laptop controller is the quick way to break it.

The Fn keys win. If you turn the camera off with Fn+F6, or raise the keyboard light with its key, the program adopts that instead of undoing it. A key press is the user talking.

centrod   the daemon. The ONLY thing running as root.
centro    the window (GTK4 + libadwaita)
fresco    terminal shortcut
hw.py     hardware layer: everything is detected, nothing is hardcoded

Neither the window nor the widget ever asks for a password. They only write ~/.config/centro/centro.conf, a plain text file that belongs to you. The daemon reads it and applies it. All privileged writing lives in one place.

The discrete GPU is never polled while it sleeps. Its state comes from sysfs; nvidia-smi is only asked if it's already awake. Polling it in a loop would keep it awake and undo its own power saving.

Needs python3, python-gobject and libadwaita.

omarchy plugin add https://github.com/jose22072000/linux-hardware-center.git --enable

That puts the widget in the bar. For the profiles and the fan curve to actually work you also need the service, which requires permissions:

sudo ~/.config/omarchy/plugins/centro.panel/instalar.sh

Two steps on purpose: the widget only reads, but changing the fan curve or the CPU ceiling writes into the machine's controller and that needs root. If you stop after the first step, the widget says so instead of showing you buttons that would do nothing.

git clone https://github.com/jose22072000/linux-hardware-center.git
cd linux-hardware-center
sudo ./instalar.sh

You get the window and the service; the bar widget is Omarchy-only and is skipped automatically.

To remove everything: sudo ./instalar.sh desinstalar. Your configuration stays, in case you come back.

On a desktop you get everything above except battery and embedded controller. Fan control through hwmon's pwm, which is what desktops use, isn't there yet: you'll see temperatures but won't be able to drive the fans.

Dependencies: python3, python-gobject and libadwaita for the window. The bar widget needs nothing beyond what Omarchy already ships.

Permissions: the widget and the window never ask for a password — they only read sensors and write a text file of yours in ~/.config/centro/.

The centrod service does run as root, because changing the fan curve, the CPU ceiling or the charge limit writes into the machine's controller. It's installed separately and deliberately, with instalar.sh. All privileged writing lives there and nowhere else.

Your configuration is never overwritten. If ~/.config/centro/centro.conf already exists, the installer leaves it alone and tells you. Uninstalling leaves it in place.

What the installer touches: /usr/local/lib/centro/, /usr/local/bin/centrod, /etc/systemd/system/centrod.service, /etc/modules-load.d/drivetemp.conf (so SATA disks report their temperature), and in your home ~/.local/bin/, ~/.local/share/applications/ and ~/.config/centro/. sudo ./instalar.sh desinstalar removes all of it.

If something doesn't work on your machine, open an issue with the output of Tools → Copy machine report: it carries the CPU model, which sensors were detected and what controls your machine has. That's enough to add support for hardware I don't have in front of me.

What helps most right now:

• trying it on laptops from other brands (Lenovo, ASUS, HP…) and saying what gets detected and what doesn't
• trying it on a desktop: it should show sensors and profiles, but it doesn't drive fans through pwm yet
• translations: the interface is in Spanish and every string sits in one place, bin/centro

MIT. Includes gpu-mode by Dima Panov, also MIT — see TERCEROS.md.