Quick Start
Opening the drawer
Press the Armoury Crate button on your Z13. The drawer slides in from the right edge of the screen.
Press it again, click anywhere outside the drawer, or press Escape to close it.
Drawer controls
| Section | What it does |
|---|---|
| Overview | Status, temperatures and load, APU power against the sustained limit, and fans, then memory, clocks, and battery under Details. |
| Profile | Switch between quiet, balanced, and performance hardware profiles. |
| Power Automation | Assign named presets to plugged-in and battery operation. Each row shows what the preset sets. Tap a preset chip to apply it now; a MANUAL badge and Reapply button appear after manual changes. Manage Presets lists every preset with Apply, Edit, and Plugged In / On Battery assignment buttons, plus Save Current Settings (named automatically; rename in Edit). The editor covers name, profile, TDP, undervolt, CPU behavior, refresh rate, and overdrive. Fan mode is never part of a preset. |
| CPU Boost | One-tap switch on the Power tab. |
| Power Tuning | Open the tuning view: TDP (Simple or Advanced PL1/PL2/PL3), fan curve, undervolt, and CPU (minimum frequency and EPP) pages, each with its own Save and Reset. |
| Fan Mode | Select firmware Auto or the Balanced and Turbo curve presets. |
| Battery Limit | Set the charge cap (40–100%). Changes persist across reboots. |
| Refresh Rate | Switch the internal display between 60 Hz and 180 Hz. |
| Keyboard / Lightbar | Tab between the two lighting zones |
| Mode | Lighting effect: static, breathe, cycle, rainbow, strobe, or off |
| Color 1 / Color 2 | Pick from 8 presets or open the custom color picker |
| Speed | Animation speed for modes that support it: slow, normal, fast |
| Brightness | Lighting brightness: low, medium, or high |
| Layout | In Settings, hide cards you do not need. Cards for hardware the machine lacks are hidden automatically. |
| Panel Overdrive | Toggle faster pixel response (may cause slight ghosting) |
| Boot Sound | Enable or disable the startup POST sound |
| Dim | KDE only. Darkens the built-in screen below its lowest brightness, set by Dim Level (20–90%). It works by applying a colour profile, so it does not save battery, and it turns off at every login. For a darker hardware minimum, install the optional z13-backlight-quirk (AUR z13-backlight-quirk-dkms); you can then hide Dim in Layout. |
| Camera | In Settings > Privacy. Off disconnects the built-in webcam and IR camera, so no app can use them, and it stays off after a restart until you turn it back on. Needs z13ctl-plus with camera support; hidden otherwise. |
| Tablet kit chip | When the optional tablet companion is detected, open its posture, health, touchscreen, touchpad, and scrolling controls. |
Changes take effect immediately and are sent to the z13ctl-plus daemon. Saved device settings persist across reboots; CPU power controls reflect live kernel state.
The tablet kit chip is absent until the optional companion reports its first heartbeat. Healthy operation stays unobtrusive; companion errors and stale heartbeats put the chip in a warning state. Enabling the GZ302EA folio touchpad always asks for confirmation because affected firmware can cause a jumping cursor. The optional two-finger hold setting opens the context menu after holding two stationary fingers briefly; moving fingers scrolls and cancels it. "Keep my display scale" stops posture changes from touching the screen scale.
The theme picker button at the bottom-left of the drawer opens the theme view. See Theming for details.
Custom color picker
Click Custom under any color input to open the HSL color picker. Adjust the Hue, Saturation, and Lightness sliders to dial in any color. The preview swatch updates in real time.
Gamepad navigation
Z13GUI+ supports full gamepad control for use in Steam Gaming Mode:
| Input | Action |
|---|---|
| D-pad | Navigate between controls |
| A (Cross) | Activate buttons/switches, or enter edit mode for sliders |
| Left/Right (in edit mode) | Adjust a slider value |
| A (in edit mode) | Commit the value |
| B (Circle) | Cancel edit, go back, or close the drawer |
| L1/R1 (shoulder) | Jump between sections |
Gamepad focus (indicated by a highlight border) is automatically hidden when
the mouse moves. To disable gamepad input entirely, set
Z13GUI_PLUS_NO_GAMEPAD=1.
Gamescope (Steam Gaming Mode)
In Steam Gaming Mode, Z13GUI+ runs as a gamescope X11 overlay. The backend is
selected automatically when GAMESCOPE_WAYLAND_DISPLAY is set and its socket
is present.
The UI scales automatically to match the output resolution. Use
Z13GUI_PLUS_SCALE to override the auto-detected scale factor if the UI appears
too large or small.
Theme and color controls use full-view alternatives on every backend because gamescope does not composite separate popup windows.