legion-gpu-mode-switcher/README.md
pongsn bbfc1f165b Initial release: GPU mode tray app for Lenovo Legion
PyQt6 system tray app for switching between Hybrid and NVIDIA-only
GPU modes via lenovolegionlinux (legion_cli). Includes polkit policy
for passwordless switching, KDE autostart entry, and install script.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-06-29 02:23:11 -05:00

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# gpu-mode-tray
A lightweight KDE system tray application for switching GPU modes on Lenovo Legion laptops running the [lenovolegionlinux](https://github.com/johnfanv2/LenovoLegionLinux) driver.
## Features
- Shows current GPU mode in the system tray (chip icon: red/green split for Hybrid, solid green for NVIDIA only)
- Switch between **Hybrid** (AMD iGPU drives internal display, NVIDIA exposes HDMI) and **NVIDIA only** (dGPU drives everything) with one click
- No password prompt for the active desktop session (polkit `allow_active: yes`)
- Tracks pending mode switches before reboot — shows an orange badge on the icon and allows cancelling the switch
- Triggers a reboot prompt after switching; also offers "Reboot now" from the tray menu
- Installs itself as a KDE autostart entry
## Compatibility
| Component | Requirement |
|-----------|-------------|
| Hardware | Lenovo Legion laptop with MUX switch support via lenovolegionlinux |
| Init system | systemd (for `systemctl reboot`) |
| Desktop | Any DE with system tray support (KDE, XFCE, …). GNOME on Wayland requires the AppIndicator extension |
| Autostart | XDG-compliant DEs (`~/.config/autostart/`) |
Not Arch or KDE specific — works on any systemd-based distro (Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE, Debian, etc.) as long as the lenovolegionlinux driver is installed.
## Tested on
- **Lenovo Legion 5 Pro Gen 7** (BIOS JUCN66WW)
- AMD Radeon 680M (iGPU) + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Laptop GPU
- KDE Plasma 6.6 on Wayland, kernel 6.18, Manjaro Linux
> **Note:** This machine requires `force=1` for the legion_laptop module and the `--donotexpecthwmon` flag for `legion_cli`. Other Legion models with full hwmon support may work without these workarounds — the commands would need adjusting in `main.py` and the sudoers/polkit config.
## Dependencies
- Python 3.8+
- PyQt6
- Arch/Manjaro: `sudo pacman -S python-pyqt6`
- Ubuntu/Debian: `sudo apt install python3-pyqt6`
- Fedora: `sudo dnf install python3-qt6`
- Or via pip: `pip install pyqt6`
- [lenovolegionlinux](https://github.com/johnfanv2/LenovoLegionLinux) driver (`legion_cli` must be in `$PATH`)
- polkit (`pkexec`)
## Installation
```bash
git clone https://github.com/pongsn/gpu-mode-tray.git
cd gpu-mode-tray
sudo bash install.sh
```
`install.sh` will:
1. Install the polkit policy to `/usr/share/polkit-1/actions/` (enables passwordless switching for the active session)
2. Install the app to `/usr/local/bin/gpu-mode-tray`
3. Install the autostart entry to `~/.config/autostart/` (starts on next login)
## Usage
```bash
gpu-mode-tray &
```
Right-click the tray icon to switch GPU mode. A reboot is required for any mode change to take effect — this is a hardware MUX limitation, same as on Windows.