OpenKraken

About

NZXT doesn't ship CAM for Linux, so a Kraken on a Linux box is a cooler with a blank screen and whatever curve it last remembered. OpenKraken is a native PyQt6 app on top of liquidctl: live gauges and graphs for the loop, pump and fan curves, live sensor screens, images and GIFs on the round LCD, and RGB lighting. I built it against a Kraken 2024 Elite RGB on Pop!_OS / COSMIC and Omarchy / Hyprland; it works with any KrakenZ3-class cooler liquidctl recognises.

Liquid-temperature curves are written into the cooler's own firmware, so they keep running after the app closes; CPU/GPU-temperature curves are driven by the app each tick with a firmware failsafe underneath. Lighting speaks a community-reverse-engineered protocol, since liquidctl has none for this generation — it's off by default and never touches your LEDs until you turn it on. Packaged as a signed APT repo for Debian/Ubuntu and a PKGBUILD for Arch. An independent project, not affiliated with or endorsed by NZXT.

Highlights

• Live dashboard — CPU/GPU/liquid temperature, pump and fan RPM, with 1–10 minute graphs
• Firmware curves — liquid-temp curves keep running with the app closed; presets or drag-to-edit
• LCD control — sensor screens with vendor badges, static images and animated GIFs, self-healing when the panel wedges
• RGB lighting — pump ring and RGB Core fans, solid colours and host-streamed effects, opt-in
• Runs everywhere — Wayland-native, tiles cleanly on Hyprland, tray icon in Omarchy's bar
• In-app updates — git pull, .deb or pacman, depending on how you installed it

# Ubuntu / Pop!_OS / Debian — signed APT repository
$ curl -fsSL https://davidboulay.github.io/OpenKraken/openkraken.gpg | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/openkraken.gpg >/dev/null
$ echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/openkraken.gpg] https://davidboulay.github.io/OpenKraken ./" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openkraken.list
$ sudo apt update && sudo apt install openkraken

# Arch / Omarchy — build and install the package
$ git clone https://github.com/davidboulay/OpenKraken
$ cd OpenKraken/packaging/arch && ./build-pkg.sh --install