Acer Sense

A laptop control panel for Acer Nitro / Predator laptops, in your DankMaterialShell bar. A pill shows the current power profile + live CPU temp; clicking it opens a popout with everything in one place.

Features

• Power profile — low-power / quiet / balanced / performance (platform_profile)
• Fans — Auto / Quiet (configurable %) / Max (linuwu-sense fan_speed)
• Battery — charge level, status, cycle count, 80% charge limit toggle, USB charging while closed
• GPU — current mode + temperature/usage; switch hybrid/integrated/nvidia via envycontrol (with confirmation)
• Live temps & fan RPM in the popout; the bar pill content is configurable (CPU temp / fan RPM / nothing)
• The discrete GPU is only queried while the popout is open, so it never gets woken from sleep just to draw the bar

Requirements

• DankMaterialShell ≥ 1.4.0
• An Acer Nitro or Predator laptop with the linuwu-sense kernel module loaded (provides acer-wmi nitro_sense / predator_sense in sysfs). Without it, the profile still works but fan/battery controls won't.
• Optional: nvidia-smi and envycontrol — the GPU section auto-hides if absent.

Tested on an Acer Nitro (ANV15-51). Predator support uses the same linuwu-sense interface (predator_sense) and is best-effort — reports welcome.

Installing linuwu-sense

The fan, charge-limit and USB-charging controls write to the acer-wmi nitro_sense / predator_sense sysfs nodes, which are provided by the linuwu-sense DKMS kernel module.

This plugin does not install it for you — a bar widget has no business compiling and loading kernel modules. Install it once yourself:

Arch / CachyOS (AUR):

yay -S linuwu-sense-dkms-git      # or: paru -S linuwu-sense-dkms-git
sudo modprobe linuwu_sense        # load now (auto-loads on boot afterwards)

Other distros — build from source following the upstream README (clone → make → install via DKMS so it survives kernel updates → sudo modprobe linuwu_sense).

Verify it loaded — this directory should now exist:

ls /sys/devices/platform/acer-wmi/nitro_sense   # or predator_sense on a Predator

Then restart DMS (dms restart).

Without the module the panel still shows the power profile, battery readout and CPU temp; the fan/battery/USB controls are hidden and the popout shows a notice with these install steps:

Install

Via DMS (after it's in the registry)

dms plugins install acerSense

Or in DMS: Settings (Mod+,) → Plugins → Browse → Acer Sense.

Manually

git clone https://github.com/raphamzn/dms-acer-sense.git \
  ~/.config/DankMaterialShell/plugins/acerSense
dms restart

Privileged helper (required for the control buttons)

Writing to platform_profile, fan_speed, battery_limiter, etc. needs root. A small whitelisted helper + a single NOPASSWD rule handle that. Run once:

sudo sh ~/.config/DankMaterialShell/plugins/acerSense/helper/install.sh

This installs /usr/local/bin/acer-ctl and /etc/sudoers.d/acer-ctl (NOPASSWD scoped to that one binary, for the user who runs the script). Without this step the panel is read-only — telemetry shows, but the buttons do nothing.

Enable

Settings → Plugins → Scan for Plugins → enable Acer Sense → add acerSense to your DankBar.

Settings

• Language — UI language: English (default) / Português / Español
• Pill content — what shows next to the icon: CPU temp / fan RPM / nothing
• Fan Quiet (%) — the speed used by the "Quiet" preset
• Refresh interval — sysfs poll cadence

Translations

UI strings live in translations.js — English keys with pt/es overrides and a tr(key, lang) fallback. To add a language, add its code to each entry (and to the selector in AcerSenseSettings.qml); PRs welcome.

Security

acer-ctl is a ~60-line POSIX sh script that validates every argument against a strict whitelist before touching sysfs. The sudoers rule grants NOPASSWD to that binary only, so the surface is one auditable file. Review helper/acer-ctl before installing.

⚠️ The GPU switch button actually runs envycontrol -s <mode>, which ends the graphics session and requires a reboot. Use it only when you really intend to switch.

Credits

Built for DankMaterialShell by AvengeMedia. Hardware control via Linuwu-Sense.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.