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Z13GUI+: Power, Thermals & RGB Drawer for the ASUS ROG Flow Z13 on Linux

An Armoury Crate–style control drawer for the 2025 ASUS ROG Flow Z13 (Ryzen AI Max / Strix Halo) on Linux. It adapts to the hardware it finds, so other AMD Strix Halo machines work with the controls they actually have (experimental). Control performance profiles, TDP, fan curves, undervolt, RGB lighting, battery charge limit, and refresh rate from a touch- and gamepad-friendly GTK4 overlay on KDE Plasma, other Wayland desktops, and Steam Gaming Mode. Powered by the z13ctl-plus daemon.

License

Z13GUI+ is an independently named fork of dahui/z13gui targeting z13ctl-plus. It preserves intentional API and UI compatibility, not runtime-name compatibility. Starting with v2.0.0, the command, service, configuration/runtime paths, desktop and udev filenames, GApplication ID, and Go module all use the Plus namespace. The only installed command is z13gui-plus.

What Plus Adds

  • Power automation — save named configurations, assign separate plugged-in and battery presets, and apply them automatically when the power source changes
  • Independent CPU policy — control minimum CPU frequency, AMD EPP, and boost without coupling them to GPU clocks
  • Expanded telemetry — monitor CPU, GPU, NPU, memory, battery, power, clocks, temperatures, and both fans from a dedicated Overview
  • Battery insight — see health, energy capacity, system draw, charge state, and direction-aware runtime estimates
  • Direct display control — switch the internal panel between 60 Hz and 180 Hz
  • Safer tuning feedback — identify unsaved overrides, high-TDP fan safety, the live fan-curve operating point, and reset all tuning overrides together
  • Faster fan control — select Auto, Balanced, or Turbo without editing a curve

Hardware-control changes are sent through the z13ctl-plus daemon.

Requirements

  • Wayland compositor with layer-shell support, or gamescope (Steam Gaming Mode). GNOME works through a beta overlay backend.
  • GTK 4 and gtk4-layer-shell libraries (see Installation for distro package names)
  • z13ctl-plus daemon running

The Plus and upstream packages can coexist. Installation does not enable the GUI service or manage either controller service; explicitly enable only the GUI that matches your selected daemon.

GNOME support (beta)

Untested beta

GNOME support has not been tested by the maintainer. It ships so GNOME users can try it; please report what works and what does not in an issue.

GNOME's compositor (Mutter) does not implement the layer-shell protocol the drawer normally uses to anchor itself to the screen edge, and installing gtk4-layer-shell cannot add it. When layer-shell is missing on a Wayland session, Z13GUI+ selects the overlay backend automatically: a transparent, monitor-sized window with the drawer against the right edge. Everything outside the drawer is click-through, so the desktop stays usable. The startup log says using the overlay backend (BETA...) when it is active.

Compared with KDE Plasma, Hyprland or Sway:

  • The drawer is an ordinary window, so it is not drawn above fullscreen apps and belongs to the current workspace.
  • It may appear in Alt-Tab while open (it is unmapped when closed).
  • There is no click-outside backdrop: dismiss with Escape, the Armoury Crate button, or by clicking another window.

X11 sessions are not supported by this backend.

Next steps

  • Installation — download the binary or build from source
  • Quick Start — open the drawer and explore the controls
  • Configuration — config file, environment variables
  • Theming — built-in themes and custom color definitions