On Linux, OpenRGB needs permission to access the hardware interfaces used for RGB control. These include USB and I2C interfaces. If you run OpenRGB as a background service, the service runs with root permissions and has access to all of these interfaces. However, if you do not use the background service and want to run OpenRGB standalone, you will need to give your user account permission to access the hardware that OpenRGB controls. This is done using a udev rules file. If you have installed OpenRGB using a distribution package (.deb, .rpm, from your distribution's package manager, or from AUR), the udev rules file should have been automatically installed. However, if you're using the AppImage, Flatpak, or self-compiled versions of OpenRGB, you will need to install the rules manually.

Starting with OpenRGB 1.0, the udev rules file is generated by OpenRGB itself rather than being a separate download. When manually installing the udev rules, you will want to install to /etc/udev/rules.d.

If using the AppImage, run the following commands to install the udev rules. Replace the OpenRGB.AppImage name to whatever AppImage version you're using.

sudo mkdir -p /etc/udev/rules.d
sudo ./OpenRGB.AppImage --generate-udev-rules /etc/udev/rules.d/60-openrgb.rules
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
sudo udevadm trigger

If using OpenRGB from Flatpak, run the following commands to install the udev rules.

sudo mkdir -p /etc/udev/rules.d
sudo sh -c 'flatpak run org.openrgb.OpenRGB --print-udev-rules > /etc/udev/rules.d/60-openrgb.rules
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
sudo udevadm trigger

If using a standalone or self-compiled build, run the following commands to install the udev rules.

sudo mkdir -p /etc/udev/rules.d
sudo ./openrgb --generate-udev-rules /etc/udev/rules.d/60-openrgb.rules
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
sudo udevadm trigger