[!NOTE]
🔬 Help map your headset
SteelSeries' specifications list more settings for most headsets than ASM offers today (base station screen, line out, stream mix, mic and Bluetooth EQ…). With ASM 1.6.2 or later and your headset on, run this once — read-only, about a minute, nothing is changed:
asm-cli tools probe
Then attach ~/asm-probe.json to #331 with your headset's name. One file per model is enough to add what its specification defines.
[!WARNING]
⚠️ WARNING — Pacman repository users
(Arch, CachyOS, EndeavourOS, Manjaro): the repository signing key changed again on 2026-10-12. The key announced in #239 was lost in a CI mistake, and v1.6.0 briefly went out signed with the older retired key (#322). The repository now has a dedicated key, pinned in the release workflow so this cannot silently happen again:
76AA 4ED4 A738 B4FF 07E1 70A2 49F4 994D 1453 1BD4
If sudo pacman -Syu fails with an unknown trust signature error, trust the new key with either:
Not affected: AUR, COPR, PPA, PyPI users.
The SteelSeries GG and Sonar alternative for Linux: manage your SteelSeries Arctis headset on Linux — device settings, 4-channel audio mixer (Game / Chat / Media / Output), automatic media routing, and a full Sonar EQ system powered by PipeWire filter-chain. New here? What works on Linux out of the box, and what ASM adds.
Supported Arctis headsets on Linux: Arctis Nova Pro Wireless, Arctis Nova Pro Wired, Arctis Nova Pro Omni, Arctis Nova Elite, Arctis Nova 7 (Gen 1 & Gen 2), Arctis Nova 7P, Arctis Nova 5 / 5X, Arctis Nova 3 / 3P / 3X, Arctis 7, Arctis 7+, Arctis 5 (2018), Arctis 9 Wireless, Arctis Pro Wireless, Arctis 1 / 7X / 7P Wireless, and Arctis GameBuds / GameBuds X — full list with Product IDs in Supported devices.
🎚️ ASM Presets — browse and share community EQ presets!
🎨 ASM Themes — browse and share color themes, previewed on a miniature of the app!
💬 Join the Discord — chat, share presets and get help from the community!
📝 Share your experience in Discussions — feedback helps improve compatibility for everyone!
Table of contents
Features
🎚️ Audio mixer
- Channel mixer — Game, Chat and Media virtual sinks, an optional Aux channel, and an Output channel for an external device (HDMI, speakers, another sound card)
- Mic card — the volume of what your apps record, which microphone feeds it, and which apps are recording
- Master card — the headset's own output; on a base station or GameDAC, a gauge shows where its volume wheel sits
- Software ChatMix bar — balances Chat against the channels you include, follows the headset's ChatMix dial, and fades like Sonar
- Apps as icons — every card shows the apps playing through it; drag an icon onto another card, or click it, to move the app. Choices persist across restarts
- Per-card output and EQ preset — each card shows the device it plays on and lets you change it, plus a picker for that channel's favourite EQ presets
- Show only the cards you use — hide any card from the Channels menu; the channel keeps working. Profiles remember which cards are shown
- Automatic media routing — browsers and video players (Firefox, VLC, mpv…) are automatically routed to the Media sink
- Smart stream adoption — apps running when ASM starts are pulled into
Arctis_Media instead of staying on a non-Arctis sink
- Bring audio to headset — one click in the tray menu moves any app that got stuck on the wrong output (HDMI, S/PDIF, another sound card) back to your headset
- True multichannel output — 5.1 / 7.1 goes to a receiver or TV as is, and is folded cleanly into stereo for a stereo device
- On-screen overlays — turning the ChatMix dial or a base station's volume wheel shows a bar over fullscreen games (KDE, wlroots, X11, GNOME)
- Streamer mode — a second, independent mix of Game, Chat, Media, Aux and your processed Mic, each with its own Stream volume and mute on its card, delivered as a "Stream Mix" source for OBS (like Sonar's Stream mode in GG). It is taken before your headphone volumes and EQ, so viewers hear the clean game; your headset mix and ChatMix are untouched
- Keyboard control —
asm-cli volume game +5, chat mute, media 40, or several at once (game +5 chat -5); bind it to any key in your desktop's own shortcut settings, including the unused function keys a macropad dial sends (details)
🎛️ EQ & audio processing
- Sonar EQ — full SteelSeries Sonar-style parametric EQ (Game / Chat / Micro channels):
- Interactive EQ curve, up to 10 bands per channel
- 353 Game presets, 9 Chat, 14 Mic — searchable, 9 favorite slots; a Mic preset also sets the mic processing
- Automatic preset per game — applies the matching Game preset when a game starts (Steam, Lutris, Heroic or by executable name), like GG's QuickSet; a preset picked by hand is remembered for that game (a notification says so; the tray menu puts it back to Automatic)
- Macro sliders: Bass / Voice / Treble (±12 dB)
- Spatial Audio on Game, Media and Aux — HeSuVi virtual 7.1 fed with the game's real surround channels, Immersion (0–12 dB) and Distance (reverb) sliders, and an "Only for surround sources" option that leaves stereo audio alone
- Volume Boost — up to +12 dB gain at the end of the filter chain
- Smart Volume — Sonar's loudness targets (Quiet / Balanced / Loud)
- All changes applied live via PipeWire biquad nodes
- Custom 10-band EQ — per-band gain (31 Hz – 16 kHz), save/load presets
- Hardware equaliser — on eleven models (the Nova Elite and Nova Pro Omni still in testing) ASM drives the headset's own EQ instead of a software chain, so the curve survives on the device
- Microphone processing — ClearCast (rnnoise) or DeepFilterNet, noise gate, compressor, and a mic the chain can switch between your headset and a desk microphone on its own
- Audio Profiles — save and restore your complete configuration in one click (EQ mode, presets, macro values, Spatial Audio, volumes, visible cards); instant switching from the Home page or system tray
🎬 Clips
- Rolling 30-second capture — the last thirty seconds of your screen are held in memory and only written to disk when you press Save, so the moment worth keeping is already recorded by the time you decide it was
- One audio track per Sonar channel — game, chat, media and microphone stay separate in the file, so a clip can be re-mixed afterwards instead of being stuck with what you happened to be hearing
- Editor with a live mixer — every track plays at once with its own level and mute; scrubbable timeline with a draggable selection, and trim and levels are saved per clip
- Global shortcut — save without switching windows; the binding belongs to your desktop, and ASM shows the one it actually gave out
- Automatic arming — the buffer arms when a game starts playing audio and is released when the game is gone
- Choose the folder — clips land in your video folder under
ASM Clips, wherever your system puts it; change it from the Clips page
- Opt-in — ships switched off, and installs the packages it needs from the switch that turns it on
🛡️ Stream Guard
- Screen shares carry only what you allow — Discord's Linux client has no source picker and links every playback stream into its capture, so the whole system's audio goes out to the call. Stream Guard cuts the channels you have not allowed, as PipeWire announces them (details)
🎧 Device control
- ANC / Transparent mode — reflects the physical button state in real time
- Device status — battery (and the base station's spare battery), mic mute, sidetone, and more
- Headset settings on the Headset page — sidetone, mic volume, volume limiter, sleep timer, ANC and the rest of what your model supports, one card per group, next to the live status
- Several headsets — choose which Arctis ASM drives from the Headset page
- Base station settings (Nova Elite, Nova Pro Omni) — line out (speaker or stream, with the stream mix volumes), on-ear mic sidetone, screensaver and its timeout, home screen view and options, the microphone and Bluetooth EQ presets; ASM reads them from the base at start instead of resetting them
- Arctis Pro GameDAC settings (in testing) — sidetone (four levels, as in GG), DAC gain, line out with the game / chat / aux / mic stream mix, and the screen brightness
- Arctis Nova Pro Wired settings (in testing) — line out with the main / aux / mic stream mix, and the GameDAC screen's dim timer, next to gain, mic volume and sidetone
- Microphone volume on the Arctis 7 and Arctis 1 Wireless families (in testing)
- Headset access: hidraw (default) or libusb — with hidraw the kernel keeps the headset's interfaces and the system keeps seeing the battery; ASM falls back to libusb on its own if hidraw cannot open, and libusb stays available in Settings
- Arctis GameBuds audio source (in testing) — play from the 2.4 GHz dongle or from Bluetooth
- Arctis Pro Wireless settings (in testing) — volume limiter, muted-mic LED, screensaver and screen delay, Bluetooth at power-up and game mute during calls, next to sidetone, auto-off and screen brightness
- DAC OLED display (Nova Pro Wireless / X, Nova Elite, Nova Pro Omni, Arctis Pro GameDAC, Arctis Pro Wireless base):
- Toggle original vs custom display mode
- Brightness, screen timeout, scroll speed
- Choose and reorder elements: Time, Battery, Profile, EQ Preset, Now playing, Weather
- The EQ line follows the channel you are listening to ("Media: Bass Boost")
- Screen off while the session is locked or idle, back on when you return or turn a wheel
- Per-element font size (7–30 pt) · Built-in weather with °C / °F selector
⚙️ App & system
- Runs without a SteelSeries headset — the channels, the Sonar EQ, spatial audio, the router and Clips work on any output device; only battery, ANC, sidetone, ChatMix and the OLED need an Arctis. Off by default, and a connected Arctis always wins
- Self-healing deps — at startup ASM checks every system component (LADSPA plugins, HRIR, PipeWire, wpctl, udev rules…); a one-click dialog installs anything missing with a single
pkexec prompt
- Check for updates — in-app button forces an immediate GitHub check; installs via terminal (pacman / dnf / apt) or in-app wheel (pipx)
- One-click bug reports — auto-uploads a full diagnostic (including the kernel's USB and sound messages from this boot and the previous one) as a GitHub gist and opens a pre-filled issue
- Built-in diagnostics —
asm-daemon --verify-setup, asm-cli diagnose -o file.txt, and asm-cli tools probe, which asks the headset for its state with read-only queries and saves the raw replies
- Status for scripts and bars —
asm-cli status --json gives battery, power, mic and channel levels to Waybar, Polybar or any script (details)
- Plasma 6 widget — headset power and battery, spare battery, noise cancelling and mic state, one click to open ASM
- Themes — 6 built-in color themes plus a custom theme editor with live preview; share your own on the community site or import one in a click (details)
- Community translations — new languages from Crowdin download automatically on startup, no release needed
- Help page — built-in manual in English, French and Spanish
ARCTIS_LOG_LEVEL env var — debug / info / warning, honored by daemon, GUI and router
Screenshots
| Headset status | DAC — OLED display control |
|---|
| |
Supported devices
| Device | Working | Users | Product ID(s) |
|---|
| Arctis 1 / 7X / 7P Wireless | ✅ | 7 | $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{12b3}}$, 12b6, $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{12d5}}$, $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{12d7}}$ |
| Arctis 5 (2018) | ✅ | | $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{12aa}}$ |
| Arctis 7 / 7 2019 / Pro GameDAC | ✅ | 30 | $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{1260}}$, $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{12ad}}$, $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{1280}}$ |
| Arctis Pro 2019 (wired, audio only) | ✅ | | $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{1252}}$ |
| Arctis 7+ / PS5 / Xbox / Destiny | ✅ | 43 | $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{220e}}$, $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{2212}}$, $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{2216}}$, 2236 |
| Arctis 9 Wireless | ✅ | 23 | $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{12c2}}$ |
| Arctis Pro Wireless | ✅ | 64 | $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{1290}}$, $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{1294}}$ |
| Arctis Nova Pro Wireless / X | ✅ | 488 | $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{12e0}}$, $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{12e5}}$, $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{225d}}$ |
| Arctis Nova Pro Wired / Xbox Wired | ✅ | 58 | $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{12cb}}$, $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{12cd}}$ |
| Arctis Nova Pro Omni | ✅ | 66 | $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{2290}}$ |
| Arctis Nova 3 | ✅ | 17 | $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{12ec}}$ |
| Arctis Nova 3P / 3X Wireless | ✅ | 46 | $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{2269}}$, $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{226d}}$ |
| Arctis Nova 5 / 5X | ✅ | 105 | $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{2232}}$, $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{2253}}$, $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{2255}}$, $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{2264}}$ |
| Arctis Nova 7 Gen 1 | ✅ | 59 | $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{2202}}$, $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{2206}}$, $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{223a}}$, $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{227a}}$, $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{22a4}}$ |
| Arctis Nova 7 Gen 2 | ✅ | 229 | $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{22a1}}$, $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{227e}}$, $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{2258}}$, $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{229e}}$, $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{22a9}}$, $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{22a5}}$, $\color{royalblue}{\textbf{22ab}}$ |
✅ Confirmed by at least one opted-in user
🔵 Product IDs shown in blue are actively in use — detected on real users' devices through the app's anonymous usage stats
🔴 Seen in telemetry but not yet declared in a device YAML — support pending
Your model is listed but a setting you know from SteelSeries GG is missing? Run asm-cli tools probe and attach ~/asm-probe.json to #331 — one file per model is enough to add what its specification defines.
Arctis GameBuds charging case (230c, GameBuds X 231a): when the case is plugged into the computer over USB, the Headset page also shows its battery, charging state, lid and which earbuds are seated in it. The case is read alongside the dongle, never instead of it, so plugging or unplugging it does not touch your audio.
Find your headset's Product ID (the 4 hex digits after 1038:):
lsusb -d 1038:
If your PID isn't listed above, ASM doesn't recognise your headset yet — here's how to get it added.
ASM describes each headset with a small YAML "device profile". Adding a new headset means creating (or extending) one of these. Many "new" headsets are just an existing model with a fresh Product ID (e.g. a new colorway) — in that case adding the single PID is enough.
1. Collect your device's USB details
lsusb -d 1038: # your PID = the 4 hex digits after "1038:"
lsusb -v -d 1038:XXXX > lsusb.log # full interface/endpoint layout (replace XXXX with your PID)
asm-cli diagnose -o asm-diagnose.txt # ASM's view of the device
2. New variant of a model already in the table?
Open the matching profile in ~/.config/arctis_manager/devices/ (e.g. nova_elite.yaml) and add your PID under product_ids::
product_ids:
- 0x2244
- 0x2270 # ← your PID
Then restart the daemon and test:
systemctl --user restart arctis-manager.service
If the device controls respond, it works. If the daemon log shows Failed to find interface, your command interface differs: set command_interface_index: [<interface>, <alt_setting>] to the HID interface from your lsusb -v that carries the 64-byte interrupt endpoint (often [3, 0]).
ℹ️ Edits under ~/.config/arctis_manager/devices/ are perfect for testing, but may be overwritten on update — do step 3 to make support permanent.
3. Open an issue so it ships for everyone
Open an issue and attach lsusb.log + asm-diagnose.txt (and mention whether the quick edit above worked). Brand-new models can need their HID control protocol reverse-engineered from a Windows USB capture, but the lsusb layout is enough to get most variants added in the next release.
Installation
Quick install — any distribution, one command:
curl -fsSL https://loteran.github.io/Arctis-Sound-Manager/install.sh | bash
It detects your distribution, installs the matching native package (pacman repository / COPR / PPA — or a Distrobox container on Bazzite / Silverblue / SteamOS), and runs asm-setup for you. Prefer to read it first? curl … -o asm-install.sh, inspect it, then bash asm-install.sh.
Or install manually for your distribution below. All native packages (AUR / COPR / PPA) pull in every dependency automatically. After installing, run asm-setup once — it configures udev rules, systemd services, PipeWire and downloads the HRIR file.
[!IMPORTANT]
Arch users — use the signed pacman repository, not the AUR, for now. The AUR package is behind the latest release: our release automation stopped being able to push to it (issue #229), and the fix has to reach the AUR through that same automation. The signed pacman repository below is independent of the AUR and always carries the latest release — it's the recommended way to install and update ASM on Arch until the AUR catches up.
Needs no AUR helper, compiles nothing, and — unlike the AUR — is visible to
Discover and GNOME Software, so ASM can be installed and updated from your
software centre like any other application.
The repository is signed with this key — check that it is the one you trust:
76AA 4ED4 A738 B4FF 07E1 70A2 49F4 994D 1453 1BD4
curl -fsSL https://github.com/loteran/Arctis-Sound-Manager/releases/download/pacman-repo/arctis-sound-manager.key -o /tmp/asm.key
sudo pacman-key --add /tmp/asm.key
sudo pacman-key --lsign-key 76AA4ED4A738B4FF07E170A249F4994D14531BD4
sudo tee -a /etc/pacman.conf <<'EOF'
[arctis-sound-manager]
Server = https://github.com/loteran/Arctis-Sound-Manager/releases/download/pacman-repo
EOF
sudo pacman -Sy arctis-sound-manager
asm-setup
Updates then arrive with sudo pacman -Syu, or through your desktop's update
notifier.
For ASM to actually show up in Discover or GNOME Software, those need a
PackageKit backend — which most Arch-family installs do not ship by default.
On KDE:
sudo pacman -S --needed packagekit packagekit-qt6 # GNOME: packagekit only
Without packagekit-qt6, Discover loads no pacman backend at all and searching
for "arctis" returns nothing, however well the repository is configured. The repository also carries python-pulsectl and
noise-suppression-for-voice, which are AUR-only on plain Arch; if your distro
already provides them (CachyOS does), its own versions keep priority.
[!NOTE]
The AUR package is currently behind the latest release (see the note above): the release automation could no longer push to it, which is fixed but has yet to land there. If yay or paru fails with fatal: No current branch, remove the cached clone (rm -rf ~/.cache/yay/arctis-sound-manager) and use the signed pacman repository meanwhile.
paru -S arctis-sound-manager
asm-setup
sudo dnf copr enable loteran/arctis-sound-manager
sudo dnf install arctis-sound-manager
asm-setup
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:loteran/arctis-sound-manager
sudo apt update && sudo apt install arctis-sound-manager
asm-setup
The PPA builds for Ubuntu 24.04 (Noble) and 26.04 (Resolute). Once Ubuntu retires a series, Launchpad stops accepting uploads for it but keeps serving the last package published before then — so 25.10 (Questing) is stuck on 1.2.8, and apt will not say so. On any other series, and on Debian, install the .deb from the latest release instead:
sudo add-apt-repository -r ppa:loteran/arctis-sound-manager # if you added it
curl -fsSL https://api.github.com/repos/loteran/Arctis-Sound-Manager/releases/latest \
| grep -o 'https://[^"]*_all\.deb' | head -1 | xargs curl -fLO
sudo apt install ./arctis-sound-manager_*.deb
The installer does this for you: it checks what the PPA really offers before trusting it.
ASM runs inside a Distrobox container and is exported transparently to the host. Run the script for your distro directly — no need to clone:
Bazzite (full deps including noise-suppression-for-voice):
bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/loteran/Arctis-Sound-Manager/main/scripts/distrobox/bazzite.sh)
SteamOS / Steam Deck:
bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/loteran/Arctis-Sound-Manager/main/scripts/distrobox/steamos.sh)
udev rules in /etc/udev/rules.d/ are reset on major SteamOS updates — re-run the script after each upgrade.
Fedora Silverblue / Kinoite:
bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/loteran/Arctis-Sound-Manager/main/scripts/distrobox/silverblue.sh)
Each script is idempotent. Flags: --reinstall (rebuild container), --no-services (skip systemd).
Troubleshooting — text displays as blocks (font rendering issue)
If the ASM interface shows only squares instead of text, your fontconfig cache is likely corrupted. Run inside the Distrobox container:
rm -rf ~/.cache/fontconfig/*
fc-cache -f -v
Then restart ASM. (Thanks to H0DG3 for identifying this fix!)
Troubleshooting — Spatial Audio is silent / audio cuts out inside the container
Inside a Distrobox, ASM's daemon is supposed to talk to your host PipeWire through the sockets the install script forwards (pipewire-0 / pipewire-0-manager) — it must not run a second PipeWire daemon of its own. Two symptoms point at a broken container/host audio split:
-
A second PipeWire is running in the container. The container should only connect to the host graph, never start its own pipewire.service. Check both sides:
# inside the ASM container
systemctl --user is-active pipewire filter-chain
pipewire --version
# on the host (a normal terminal, NOT `distrobox enter`)
pipewire --version
If the container and host report different PipeWire versions, the container's filter-chain (which links to the host daemon across the forwarded socket) can be unstable — a client/server version skew. Align the container's pipewire package with the host's, or run ASM natively.
-
filter-chain keeps crashing on PipeWire 1.6.7. A shutdown race in filter-chain 1.6.7 can SIGSEGV when the service is restarted while audio is flowing (which ASM does on EQ/Spatial changes), killing the surround sink. If coredumpctl list pipewire shows repeated crashes tied to toggling Spatial Audio, this is the cause; a PipeWire update on the side that runs filter-chain resolves it.
ASM ships a first-class NixOS module (nix/module.nix) that wires up udev rules, systemd user services, PipeWire filter-chain, and all LADSPA plugins automatically. The module replaces asm-setup, so you normally don't need to run it — but since v1.1.68 it is safe to do so (the crash on the missing update-desktop-database tool has been removed), which is useful for the HRIR repair described below.
Flake-based config — add to your flake.nix:
inputs.arctis-sound-manager = {
url = "github:loteran/Arctis-Sound-Manager?dir=nix";
inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
};
Then in your nixosSystem modules:
inputs.arctis-sound-manager.nixosModules.default
{
services.pipewire = { enable = true; alsa.enable = true; pulse.enable = true; };
services.arctis-sound-manager.enable = true;
}
Classic config (flakes disabled):
git clone https://github.com/loteran/Arctis-Sound-Manager.git /etc/nixos/Arctis-Sound-Manager
In /etc/nixos/configuration.nix:
imports = [ /etc/nixos/Arctis-Sound-Manager/nix/module.nix ];
services.pipewire = { enable = true; alsa.enable = true; pulse.enable = true; };
services.arctis-sound-manager.enable = true;
Then rebuild and replug the headset once so udev applies the new rules:
sudo nixos-rebuild switch
⚠️ Spatial Audio first run — required for Game & Media audio: open ASM → Settings → Spatial Audio and pick any HRIR profile. This copies the selected WAV to ~/.local/share/pipewire/hrir_hesuvi/hrir.wav (profiles are bundled, no download needed). Without this step, the Game and Media channels are silent — the filter-chain convolver fails to load and only the Chat channel (which has no convolver) produces audio.
Stub HRIR file (installs older than v1.1.68): the HRIR file shipped in the Nix store is a read-only 3.6 KB stub (epoch timestamp) that leaves Game and Media silent. Since v1.1.68, asm-setup detects undersized HRIR files and replaces them automatically. On an older install, repair it manually:
rm ~/.local/share/pipewire/hrir_hesuvi/hrir.wav && asm-setup
KDE audio popup: the small "Audio Volume" widget in the KDE taskbar only shows physical hardware sinks. The ASM virtual channels (Arctis_Game / Arctis_Chat / Arctis_Media) appear in pavucontrol → Playback tab or in KDE System Settings → Audio → Applications. Use those to route each app to the right channel.
Full module docs and options: nix/README.md.
Install system deps first:
# Debian / Ubuntu
sudo apt install pipx libusb-1.0-0 libpulse0 libudev1 swh-plugins curl
# noise-suppression-for-voice (rnnoise LADSPA) is not packaged for Debian/Ubuntu —
# ASM builds it from source automatically when you enable ClearCast mic suppression.
# Fedora / Nobara
sudo dnf install pipx libusb1 pulseaudio-libs systemd-libs ladspa-swh-plugins curl
sudo dnf copr enable lkiesow/noise-suppression-for-voice
sudo dnf install ladspa-realtime-noise-suppression-plugin
Then install ASM:
git clone --branch main https://github.com/loteran/Arctis-Sound-Manager.git
cd Arctis-Sound-Manager
bash scripts/install.sh
PATH tip: if asm-cli or asm-daemon are not found after install, run:
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc && source ~/.bashrc
USB permissions: if the headset isn't detected, ASM shows a one-click Install rules dialog at startup. Manual fallback: sudo asm-cli udev write-rules --force --reload
First launch
After asm-setup completes, launch the GUI with:
asm-gui
Or find Arctis Sound Manager in your application launcher (KDE, GNOME, etc.).
The daemon (arctis-manager.service) starts automatically at login — the GUI is separate and must be opened manually the first time.
System tray mode
asm-gui --systray
Starts minimised to the system tray. From there you can switch Audio Profiles, open the full window, or quit. This is the recommended mode for daily use.
Autostart at login
The easiest way is the in-app toggle: Settings → General → Start with system — ASM handles the correct setup for your desktop environment automatically.
If the toggle doesn't work for your DE, use the manual method:
systemctl --user enable --now arctis-gui.service
An arctis-gui.service unit is installed by asm-setup. If missing:
asm-cli desktop write
systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable --now arctis-gui.service
Add to ~/.config/hypr/hyprland.conf (or your compositor's startup config):
exec-once = asm-gui --systray
Add to your WM startup file (~/.config/i3/config, ~/.xinitrc, etc.):
asm-gui --systray &
Or create an XDG autostart entry:
asm-cli desktop write # writes ~/.config/autostart/arctis-sound-manager.desktop
Upgrading
⚠️ Upgrading to 1.2.1 on Arch — remove, then reinstall
Up to 1.2.0, the Arch package shipped its own copies of dbus-next and pulsectl inside
site-packages. From 1.2.1 they are proper dependencies (python-dbus-next,
python-pulsectl), so pacman refuses to install those packages over the files the old version
still owns, and the upgrade aborts:
error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)
python-dbus-next: /usr/lib/python3.14/site-packages/dbus_next/... exists in filesystem
Remove the old package first — it takes its bundled copies with it — then install:
paru -R arctis-sound-manager
paru -S arctis-sound-manager
Your audio profiles in ~/.config/arctis_manager/profiles/ are preserved, and asm-setup runs
again on install. Fresh installs are unaffected, and later upgrades work normally.
Do not reach for pacman --overwrite here: it leaves the files owned by both packages, and
the ASM upgrade then deletes them on its way out — gutting python-dbus-next and
python-pulsectl. If you already did, repair them with
sudo pacman -S python-dbus-next python-pulsectl.
paru -Syu arctis-sound-manager && asm-setup
sudo dnf upgrade arctis-sound-manager && asm-setup
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade arctis-sound-manager && asm-setup
cd Arctis-Sound-Manager && git pull
pipx install --force .
asm-cli desktop write
asm-cli udev write-rules --force --reload
systemctl --user daemon-reload && systemctl --user restart arctis-manager.service
pipx upgrade may fail on wheel installs — use pipx install --force . instead.
How the mixer works
ASM creates virtual sinks on top of your Arctis device plus one external output:
| Sink | Default use | Key |
|---|
| Arctis_Game | Games, general audio | G |
| Arctis_Chat | Voice apps (Discord, TeamSpeak…) | C |
| Arctis_Media | Browsers, video players | M |
| Arctis_Aux | Anything you want kept apart — off unless you turn it on | A |
| External Output | HDMI, USB speakers, sound card… (5.1 / 7.1 native) | O |
Each channel can also be sent to another device than the headset, from its card on the Home page or next to its EQ.
Streamer mode (off by default, switch next to the Channels menu) adds a second mix for OBS or any recorder. Each Arctis_<Ch> monitor (Game, Chat, Media, Aux) and the processed Mic feed a small stream-mix filter-chain, which publishes one stereo source, <device> Stream Mix (effect_output.sonar-stream-mix). It is tapped before the personal volumes and before the per-channel EQ and spatial audio, so the headphone EQ/HRTF and the ChatMix dial never reach it; 7.1 game audio is downmixed to stereo with the centre kept. Each channel has its own volume and mute (the Stream slider on its card), applied live. Turning the mode on or off restarts the filter-chain once, a short dropout like switching a preset. In OBS, add the source as an Audio Input Capture and remove separate desktop and mic captures.
The media router (asm-router) automatically moves browsers and video players to Arctis_Media. Moving an app yourself — by dragging its icon onto a card, or from its menu — is saved as a persistent override.
The stream guard (asm-stream-guard) decides which of these channels a screen share is allowed to carry. Discord's Linux client offers no source picker: it creates its own capture node and links every playback stream into it, continuously, so the whole system's audio goes out to the call. Pick the allowed channels in the bar at the top of the Sonar page — Game only, by default — and the guard cuts everything else as PipeWire announces it. Sources are matched by the channel they play on, so moving an app to another channel is all it takes to include or exclude it.
The External Output card routes audio directly to the physical sink, bypassing virtual stereo sinks — this preserves true 5.1 / 7.1 passthrough. Pick its device from the Output card.
Sharing and downloading EQ presets
ASM lets you share any Sonar EQ preset with one click and import presets shared by the community.
Exporting a preset
- Open the Sonar EQ tab and select or create a preset.
- Click the Share button (export icon) next to the preset name.
- Choose how to share:
- Copy link — copies an
arctis-asm://import?data=… deep link to your clipboard.
- Save as file — saves a
.json file you can send directly.
- Publish to community — opens a browser form pre-filled with your preset data; sign in with GitHub and submit.
Importing a preset
- Open the Sonar EQ tab.
- Click Import preset (import icon).
- Paste one of the supported link formats, then click Import:
- ASM deep link —
arctis-asm://import?data=… (generated by ASM's Share button)
- SteelSeries community link —
https://www.steelseries.com/deeplink/gg/sonar/config/v1/import?url=… (links from the SteelSeries community or GG software)
ASM automatically detects the link format, downloads the preset if needed, and saves it locally.
You can also double-click an arctis-asm:// link in a browser if you registered the URL handler with asm-setup.
Community site — ASM Presets
loteran.github.io/asm-presets — browse, vote for, and download EQ presets shared by the community.
| Action | How |
|---|
| Browse presets | Open the site — no login required |
| Filter by channel / device | Use the search bar and dropdowns |
| Import a preset into ASM | Click Import in ASM on any card |
| Vote for a preset | Click the ♡ button (requires GitHub login) |
| Publish a preset | Click Share a Preset, sign in with GitHub, fill in the form |
| Delete your preset | Click 🗑 on your own preset card (only visible when logged in) |
Controlling channels from a key
Sonar on Windows let you bind a key to a channel's volume. On Linux the same
thing is available, from the other end: ASM exposes the action as a command,
and your desktop binds the key.
asm-cli volume game +5 # five points up
asm-cli volume chat -5 # five points down
asm-cli volume media 40 # set an exact level
asm-cli volume game mute # mute, unmute, or toggle
asm-cli volume game +5 chat -5 # several channels from one key
asm-cli volume --list # what each channel is at right now
Bind those in your desktop's keyboard settings — KDE's Custom Shortcuts,
GNOME's Custom Shortcuts, or your window manager's config. A macropad that
sends an otherwise unused key (F20, F21…) works exactly like any other key
here, which is the usual way to get physical dials for the channels.
Why a command rather than a shortcut inside ASM: on Wayland an application
cannot claim a key combination for itself — the compositor owns that, and the
portal that hands them out is not available on every desktop, nor can it grant
a specific key. Binding a command has none of those limits and works the
same on X11, Wayland, and any desktop.
The volume is applied straight to PipeWire, so a bound key works whether or
not the ASM window is open, and the new level is remembered the same way the
sliders' are.
Headset status in scripts and status bars
asm-cli status prints the headset's state; --json makes it readable by
Waybar, Polybar, i3blocks, desktop widgets or any script:
asm-cli status --json | jq .status.headset_battery_charge # 90
{"schema": 1, "daemon": true,
"device": {"name": "Arctis Nova Pro Wireless", "vendor_id": "0x1038", "product_id": "0x12e0"},
"power": "on",
"status": {"headset_battery_charge": 90, "mic_status": "muted", "...": "..."},
"channels": {"game": {"present": true, "volume": 100, "muted": false}, "...": {}}}
power is on, off or unknown, the same on every headset family.status holds whatever your headset reports (battery, mic, ANC, base
station…), under the variable names of its profile.- The exit code is
1 when asm-daemon is not running; the JSON is printed
anyway, with "daemon": false.
Example Waybar module showing the battery, hidden when the headset is off:
"custom/headset": {
"exec": "asm-cli status --json | jq -c 'if .power == \"on\" then {text: \"🎧 \\(.status.headset_battery_charge)%\", tooltip: .device.name} else {text: \"\"} end'",
"return-type": "json",
"interval": 30,
"on-click": "asm-gui"
}
Virtual surround 7.1
Virtual 7.1 surround is included automatically with the install — it deploys a PipeWire HeSuVi filter-chain and downloads the HRIR file. 57 HRIR profiles from HeSuVi are bundled and selectable from the Settings tab with instant apply.
The Game, Media and Aux channels accept 5.1 / 7.1, so a game set to surround sends its real centre and rear channels to Spatial Audio instead of a stereo mix. With Only for surround sources ticked, the virtual surround turns itself on only while something plays 5.1 / 7.1. A channel sent to a surround receiver or TV gets its channels untouched; on a stereo device with Spatial Audio off, surround is folded into stereo (centre and surrounds at -3 dB).
┌──────────────────────────┐
7.1 audio source │ Virtual Surround Sink │
(game, movie…) ──► (PipeWire filter-chain) ├──► Headset (stereo)
└──────────────────────────┘
Also available as a standalone repo: arctis-virtual-surround — install virtual surround independently with a single bash install.sh.
bash scripts/setup-surround.sh
This installs the filter-chain config in ~/.config/pipewire/filter-chain.conf.d/, downloads the HRIR file, and enables the filter-chain systemd user service.
Advanced: replace ~/.local/share/pipewire/hrir_hesuvi/hrir.wav with any 14-channel HeSuVi-compatible WAV and restart filter-chain manually.
Themes
ASM ships 6 built-in color themes: SteelSeries (default), Aurora Glass, Neon Pulse, Slate Premium, Arctic and Matcha SV. Switch themes from the dropdown in Settings → Interface Theme — the change applies live to every page, dialog and the tray menu, no restart needed.
Custom themes
Click Create theme in Settings to open the theme editor:
- 15 color pickers grouped into Backgrounds, Accents, Text and Audio channels
- Live preview — the whole app restyles as you pick colors
- Start from scratch or duplicate any existing theme via Duplicate from
User themes are saved as .ini files in ~/.config/arctis-sound-manager/themes/.
Sharing and downloading themes
Themes are shared exactly like EQ presets, from Settings → Export theme (or the Share button in the theme editor):
- Copy link — copies an
arctis-asm://import-theme?data=… deep link to your clipboard.
- Save as file — saves an
.ini file you can send directly.
- Publish to community — opens a browser form pre-filled with your theme; sign in with GitHub and submit.
Import theme accepts either form: paste a deep link, load an .ini file, or browse the community site.
Community site — ASM Themes
loteran.github.io/asm-presets — the same site as the EQ presets, under the Themes tab: browse, vote for, and import themes shared by the community.
Every theme is shown as a miniature of ASM's home page painted in its colors — the sidebar, the four channel cards and their volume sliders — so you can see how a theme actually looks before importing it, not just its palette.
| Action | How |
|---|
| Browse themes | Open the site, Themes tab — no login required |
| Import a theme into ASM | Click Import in ASM on any card |
| Vote for a theme | Click the ♡ button (requires GitHub login) |
| Publish a theme | Use Publish to community from ASM, or Share a Theme on the site |
| Delete your theme | Click 🗑 on your own theme card (only visible when logged in) |
Built-in themes cannot be edited or deleted — duplicate one into a custom theme instead.
Translations
ASM supports community translations via Crowdin. No release is needed — the app checks GitHub on every startup and silently downloads any updated .ini files.
How it works:
- Every day at 06:00 UTC, a GitHub Action pulls approved translations from Crowdin and opens a PR
- On each startup, ASM fetches updated files and saves them to
~/.config/arctis_manager/lang/
- The language selector in Settings updates immediately — no restart needed
- Languages below 80% coverage fall back string-by-string to English
To request a new language, open a GitHub issue. See CONTRIBUTING.md for full details.
Community stats
Based on 1391 unique users (73218 anonymous data points) — last updated 2026-10-29
Anonymous usage data shared voluntarily by opted-in users.
View interactive dashboard →
| Distribution | Install method | Users |
|---|
| CachyOS | 🎯 AUR | 👥 552 |
| Arch Linux | 🎯 AUR | 👥 292 |
| Nobara Linux 44 (KDE Plasma Desktop Edition) | 🎯 COPR | 👥 84 |
| Fedora Linux 44 (KDE Plasma Desktop Edition) | 🎯 COPR | 👥 78 |
| Linux Mint 22.3 | 🎯 PPA | 👥 71 |
| Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS | 🎯 PPA | 👥 44 |
| Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS | 🎯 PPA | 👥 29 |
| EndeavourOS | 🎯 AUR | 👥 29 |
| Omarchy | 🎯 AUR | 👥 28 |
| Fedora Linux 44 (Workstation Edition) | 🎯 COPR | 👥 27 |
| Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | 🎯 PPA | 👥 18 |
| Nobara Linux 43 (KDE Plasma Desktop Edition) | 🎯 COPR | 👥 14 |
| Garuda Linux | 🎯 AUR | 👥 14 |
| Manjaro Linux | 🎯 AUR | 👥 10 |
| Bazzite | 📦 Source | 👥 10 |
| Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS | 🎯 PPA | 👥 9 |
| Fedora Linux 44 (Forty Four) | 🎯 COPR | 👥 9 |
| NixOS 26.11 (Zokor) | 📦 Source | 👥 8 |
| NixOS 26.05 (Yarara) | 📦 Source | 👥 6 |
| Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie) | 🎯 PPA | 👥 6 |
| Ubuntu 24.04.5 LTS | 🎯 PPA | 👥 5 |
| Zorin OS 18.1 | 🎯 PPA | 👥 4 |
| SteamOS | 📦 Source | 👥 4 |
| PikaOS 4 | 📦 Source | 👥 4 |
| Artix Linux | 🎯 AUR | 👥 4 |
| Fedora Linux 43 (KDE Plasma Desktop Edition) | 🎯 COPR | 👥 3 |
| Ultramarine Linux 44 (Plasma Edition) | 📦 Source | 👥 2 |
| Ubuntu 26.10 | 🎯 PPA |
| Headset | Installs |
|---|
| Arctis Nova Pro Wireless | 488 |
| Arctis Nova 7 (Gen 2) | 229 |
| Arctis Nova 5 Wireless | 105 |
| Arctis Nova Pro Omni | 66 |
| Arctis Pro Wireless | 64 |
| Arctis Nova 7 (Gen 1) | 59 |
| Arctis Nova Pro Wired | 58 |
| Arctis Nova Elite | 44 |
| Arctis 7+ | 43 |
| Arctis Nova 3 Wireless | 39 |
| Arctis GameBuds | 35 |
| Arctis Nova 3 | 24 |
| Arctis 7/Pro Gaming | 23 |
| Arctis 9 Wireless | 23 |
| Arctis Nova 7P (Gen 2) | 17 |
| Arctis 1/7X/7P Wireless | 7 |
| Arctis Nova 7P (Gen 1) | 7 |
| Arctis Pro GameDAC | 7 |
| Distribution | Installs |
|---|
| CachyOS | 552 |
| Arch Linux | 292 |
| Nobara Linux 44 (KDE Plasma Desktop Edition) | 84 |
| Fedora Linux 44 (KDE Plasma Desktop Edition) | 78 |
| Linux Mint 22.3 | 71 |
| Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS | 44 |
| Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS | 29 |
| EndeavourOS | 29 |
| Omarchy | 28 |
| Fedora Linux 44 (Workstation Edition) | 27 |
| Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | 18 |
| Nobara Linux 43 (KDE Plasma Desktop Edition) | 14 |
| Garuda Linux | 14 |
| Manjaro Linux | 10 |
| Bazzite | 10 |
Uninstall
Native packages ship a cleanup hook — paru -R / dnf remove / apt remove removes PipeWire configs and restarts pipewire automatically. Audio profiles in ~/.config/arctis_manager/profiles/ are preserved by default.
paru -R arctis-sound-manager # Arch / CachyOS / Manjaro
sudo dnf remove arctis-sound-manager # Fedora
sudo apt remove arctis-sound-manager # Debian / Ubuntu
For source/pipx installs or a full wipe, use the standalone uninstaller:
bash scripts/uninstall.sh # interactive, auto-detects install method
# or without cloning:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/loteran/Arctis-Sound-Manager/main/scripts/uninstall.sh | bash
--pipx # only the pipx install
--pkg # only the distro package
--all # both (for duplicate installs)
--all --purge # also wipe PipeWire configs, HRIR, systemd units, udev rules
--yes # non-interactive
--purge still preserves ~/.config/arctis_manager/profiles/. A final prompt offers to delete them too for a true clean slate.
Troubleshooting
Safe mode (EQ auto-disabled after a crash)
ASM has a safety net for the PipeWire audio filter-chain. If that service
crashes in a loop (a known issue with very large HeSuVi 7.1 graphs on some
builds, e.g. SteamOS), instead of leaving you with audio that cuts in and out,
ASM disables the EQ configs and keeps a stable, flat audio path — this is
safe mode. While it's active, the Sonar EQ and the virtual 7.1 surround are
turned off.
When safe mode is on, a banner appears at the top of the Sonar page:
- Click Re-enable EQ to clear it: ASM restores the EQ configs and restarts
the filter-chain. If the graph genuinely still crashes, safe mode re-arms
automatically, so you can't get stuck in a crash loop.
- You usually won't need the button: ASM auto-clears safe mode on its own
after an ASM or PipeWire version change (the most common way the underlying
crash gets fixed), then re-tests the audio graph.
The safe-mode state (and the disabled configs) also show up in the in-app bug
report, under Filter-chain safe mode & config presence.
The GUI does not open on X11 (Linux Mint, Ubuntu 24.04…)
If asm-gui in a terminal ends with "xcb-cursor0 or libxcb-cursor0 is needed
to load the Qt xcb platform plugin", Qt is missing one system library. This
happens when PySide6 was installed with pip (Ubuntu 24.04 / Mint 22 have no
PySide6 package). Install it and start ASM again:
sudo apt install libxcb-cursor0 # Debian / Ubuntu / Mint
sudo dnf install xcb-util-cursor # Fedora
sudo pacman -S xcb-util-cursor # Arch
The .deb now depends on it, and asm-gui names the package instead of
crashing.
An app has no sound / plays on the wrong device
Sometimes an application ends up playing to the wrong output — a TV over HDMI,
an S/PDIF port, or another sound card — instead of your headset, so you hear
nothing. This happens when PipeWire/WirePlumber remembers an old output for that
app.
Open the system tray menu → Bring audio to headset to fix it in one
click. It finds every app currently playing on a non-Arctis device and moves it
back to your default Arctis sink (a notification reports how many apps were
moved); apps already on a channel are left untouched. It does not change a
channel's own output: if you sent a channel to another device, pick the headset
on that channel's card to bring it back.
It is safe to click at any time — if nothing is misrouted, it does nothing.
Reporting a bug
In-app reporter (recommended)
Open ASM → Help page → Report a Bug. The dialog collects a full diagnostic (version, libs, distro, PipeWire state, USB devices, udev rules, last 100 log lines) and either:
- Submits automatically via
gh CLI — uploads as a secret gist and opens a pre-filled issue
- Opens GitHub manually — saves the report to
~/.cache/arctis-sound-manager/reports/ for drag-and-drop
CLI equivalents
asm-daemon --verify-setup # preflight checks, exits 0/1 with per-distro install hints
asm-cli diagnose -o /tmp/asm.txt # full local diagnostic dump
asm-cli tools probe # read-only queries to the headset, raw replies saved to ~/asm-probe.json
ARCTIS_LOG_LEVEL=debug systemctl --user restart arctis-manager
journalctl --user -u arctis-manager -f
Tips for a good report
- Describe expected vs actual behaviour — "Game channel silent after switching to Sonar EQ" beats "audio broken"
- Include steps to reproduce
- One issue per report
→ Open a new issue
Development
python src/arctis_sound_manager/scripts/daemon.py # daemon
python src/arctis_sound_manager/scripts/gui.py --no-enforce-systemd # GUI
python src/arctis_sound_manager/scripts/video_router.py # media router
Project structure
src/arctis_sound_manager/
│
├── scripts/ # Entry points (installed as CLI commands)
│ ├── daemon.py # asm-daemon — device manager service
│ ├── gui.py # asm-gui — graphical interface
│ ├── video_router.py # asm-router — automatic media routing
│ ├── stream_guard.py # asm-stream-guard — screen-share audio filter
│ ├── cli.py # asm-cli — udev / desktop / diagnose tools
│ └── setup.py # asm-setup — post-install automation
│
├── gui/ # PySide6 user interface
│ ├── main_app.py # Main window + sidebar navigation
│ ├── home_page.py # Audio mixer (Game / Chat / Media / Output cards)
│ ├── sonar_page.py # Sonar EQ — presets, Spatial Audio, macro sliders
│ ├── equalizer_page.py # Custom EQ mode toggle + 10-band sliders
│ ├── headset_page.py # Device info and live status (battery, mic, ANC)
│ ├── device_page.py # App settings (language, startup, update check)
│ ├── dac_page.py # GameDAC OLED control (clock, weather, brightness)
│ ├── help_page.py # Built-in user manual (EN / FR / ES)
│ ├── theme.py # Theme engine — built-in + user themes, QSS
│ ├── theme_editor_page.py # Custom theme editor with live preview
│ ├── eq_curve_widget.py # Interactive parametric EQ curve (biquad RBJ)
│ ├── sonar_toggle_widget.py # Sonar ↔ custom EQ toggle + spatial audio switch
│ ├── anc_widget.py # ANC / Transparent mode control
│ ├── profile_bar.py # Audio profile quick-switch bar
│ ├── systray_app.py # System tray icon + single-instance IPC
│ ├── tray_eq_presets.py # Tray menu EQ preset switcher
│ ├── status_widget.py # Headset status widget (battery, mic, sidetone)
│ ├── settings_widget.py # Settings panel (theme, language, paths)
│ ├── preset_import_dialog.py # Preset import (ASM link / SteelSeries link / file)
│ ├── preset_export_dialog.py # Preset export (copy link / save file / publish)
│ ├── preset_share.py # Preset sharing helpers (deep link encode/decode)
│ ├── report_dialog.py # One-click bug report (gist + GitHub issue)
│ ├── system_deps_dialog.py # Self-healing deps check dialog
│ ├── install_dialogs.py # Package install confirmation dialogs
│ ├── udev_dialog.py # udev rules install / reload dialog
│ ├── first_run_dialog.py # First-run wizard (udev, services, HRIR)
│ ├── telemetry_dialog.py # Anonymous telemetry opt-in dialog
│ ├── dbus_wrapper.py # Synchronous D-Bus client (daemon ↔ GUI bridge)
│ ├── components.py # Reusable UI components (cards, sliders, buttons)
│ ├── ui_utils.py # UI helpers (DPI scaling, icon loading)
│ ├── base_app.py # Shared QApplication base
│ ├── main_app_proto_widget.py # Prototype widget base for pages
│ └── presets/ # Bundled Sonar presets (Game / Chat / Mic)
│
├── core.py # CoreEngine — USB lifecycle, polling, device init
├── config.py # Device YAML parsing + settings definitions
├── constants.py # XDG-compliant path constants (config, data, lang)
├── device_state.py # Shared physical-node names for audio routing
├── dbus_service.py # D-Bus interfaces (Settings / Status / Config)
├── loopback_manager.py # Dynamic pw-loopback sinks (Arctis_Game/Chat/Media)
├── sonar_to_pipewire.py # PipeWire filter-chain (EQ) config generator
├── pw_utils.py # Native PipeWire stream management + routing overrides
├── pactl.py # PulseAudio / PipeWire sink and stream helpers
├── service_control.py # Single entry point for systemctl / dinitctl
├── profile_manager.py # Audio profiles — snapshot, save, load, apply
├── settings.py # Persistent settings (JSON, XDG-compliant)
├── preset_sync.py # EQ preset sync (cloud ↔ local)
├── eq_types.py # EQ band data types (EqBand, BandType…)
├── oled_renderer.py # OLED image renderer (PIL)
├── oled_protocol.py # OLED HID framing (per-device interface / report id)
├── oled_manager.py # OLED scroll / animation loop + weather clock
├── weather_service.py # Weather fetch for the OLED (Open-Meteo)
├── hrir_catalog.py # HRIR profile catalog (57 bundled profiles)
├── bug_reporter.py # Diagnostic collector for bug reports
├── diagnose.py # asm-cli diagnose — full system diagnostic dump
├── system_deps_checker.py # Startup self-healing dependency checker
├── udev_rules.py # udev rule generation (SteelSeries USB rules)
├── udev_checker.py # udev rule presence / content verifier
├── update_checker.py # GitHub release update checker
├── lang_updater.py # Online translation updater (GitHub → ~/.config)
├── telemetry.py # Anonymous opt-in usage telemetry
├── autostart.py # Autostart management (systemd / XDG / DE-specific)
├── init_system.py # Init system detection (systemd vs dinit)
├── systemd.py # systemd user unit helpers
├── status_parser_fn.py # USB HID status frame parser (battery, mic, ANC…)
├── usb_devices_monitor.py # USB hotplug monitor (pyudev)
├── cli_tools.py # Shared CLI utilities
├── log_setup.py # Logging configuration (ARCTIS_LOG_LEVEL)
├── i18n.py # Translation singleton with EN fallback
├── utils.py # Misc helpers
├── lang/ # Bundled translation files (.ini, one per language)
└── devices/ # Per-device configuration YAMLs
scripts/
├── install.sh # Source installer
├── uninstall.sh # Interactive uninstaller (pipx / pkg / all)
├── setup-surround.sh # Standalone virtual surround setup
├── distrobox/ # Distrobox scripts (Bazzite, SteamOS, Silverblue)
├── pipewire/ # PipeWire config templates
└── reverse-engineering/ # USB capture + opcode-decode helpers (new devices)
nix/ # NixOS module
├── module.nix # NixOS module (udev, systemd, filter-chain, LADSPA)
├── package.nix # Nix derivation
└── README.md # NixOS-specific documentation
💬 Share your experience
Tried ASM on your headset or distro? Found a bug or have a feature idea?
Join GitHub Discussions →
Your feedback helps improve compatibility for everyone — especially for headsets not yet confirmed working.
Maintainers
| Area | Maintainer |
|---|
| Arctis Sound Manager | loteran |
Clips — capture, library, editor, sharing, and the asm-clipd daemon | Denkiyaa |
Clips was designed and written by Denkiyaa (#156, #159), who maintains it: questions, bug reports and pull requests touching the clip capture pipeline, the editor or the opt-in installer go to them. .github/CODEOWNERS requests their review automatically.
Contributors
Thanks to everyone who has contributed code, fixes, or community support:
| Contributor | Contribution |
|---|
| Denkiyaa | Designed and built the Clips feature — rolling screen capture with one audio track per Sonar channel, poster-frame library, trim/mix editor and sharing, the opt-in package installer, and the asm-clipd daemon (#159); the Channels output-device picker; stopped the Home page rebuilding its application lists twice a second (#187); clips at the game's real frame rate, GPU export and wheel-proof dropdowns (#323); the headset's settings on the Headset page in cards, and a Settings page that no longer scrolls sideways (#333); sidetone left off for headsets nobody configured (#332) |
| Michsior14 | Fix Arctis 7+ power status recognition (#67) |
| H0DG3 | Identified the fontconfig cache fix for font rendering on Bazzite/Distrobox |
| cookiekiller | Diagnosed the loopback watchdog orphan-recreation bug (#84); detailed analysis and fix suggestions for per-channel EQ coupling, Discord routing override, and weather log spam (#85) |
|
License
This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0.
The majority of the source code is original work — Copyright (C) 2026 loteran.
25 files are partially derived from Linux Arctis Manager by Giacomo Furlan (elegos), used under GPL-3.0 — Copyright (C) 2022 Giacomo Furlan (elegos).
The HRIR profiles used by Spatial Audio (src/arctis_sound_manager/hrir_assets/) come from HeSuVi by Matt Gore, used under the MIT License — Copyright 2021 Matt Gore; see LICENSE-HeSuVi.txt. Most are recordings of commercial surround virtualizers made by the HeSuVi community; the product names (Dolby, DTS, Windows Sonic, Razer, Sennheiser…) are trademarks of their owners, and ASM is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.
