Installing asusctl + supergfxctl for ASUS ROG Laptops

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41

Here is all the commands I did. A lot of them return errors, however it checking journalctl -b -u supergfxd & systemctl status supergfxd does not return any errors.

:~> supergfxctl --help
Optional arguments:
  -h, --help         print help message
  -m, --mode         Set graphics mode
  -v, --version      Get supergfxd version
  -g, --get          Get the current mode
  -s, --supported    Get the supported modes
  -V, --vendor       Get the dGPU vendor name
  -S, --status       Get the current power status
  -p, --pend-action  Get the pending user action if any
  -P, --pend-mode    Get the pending mode change if any
:~> supergfxctl --mode
Error: missing argument to option `--mode`
:~> supergfxctl --version
Graphics mode change error.
Please check `journalctl -b -u supergfxd`, and `systemctl status supergfxd`
Sender is not authorized to send message
:~> supergfxctl --get
Graphics mode change error.
Please check `journalctl -b -u supergfxd`, and `systemctl status supergfxd`
Sender is not authorized to send message
:~> supergfxctl --supported
Graphics mode change error.
Please check `journalctl -b -u supergfxd`, and `systemctl status supergfxd`
Sender is not authorized to send message
:~> supergfxctl --vendor
Graphics mode change error.
Please check `journalctl -b -u supergfxd`, and `systemctl status supergfxd`
Sender is not authorized to send message
:~> supergfxctl --status
Graphics mode change error.
Please check `journalctl -b -u supergfxd`, and `systemctl status supergfxd`
Sender is not authorized to send message
:~> supergfxctl --pend-action
Graphics mode change error.
Please check `journalctl -b -u supergfxd`, and `systemctl status supergfxd`
Sender is not authorized to send message
:~> supergfxctl --pend-mode
Graphics mode change error.
Please check `journalctl -b -u supergfxd`, and `systemctl status supergfxd`
Sender is not authorized to send message
:~> journalctl -b -u supergfxd
Hint: You are currently not seeing messages from other users and the system.
      Users in the 'systemd-journal' group can see all messages. Pass -q to
      turn off this notice.
-- No entries --
:~> systemctl status supergfxd
● supergfxd.service - SUPERGFX
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/supergfxd.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Fri 2025-08-29 10:34:57 PDT; 22min ago
 Invocation: 66d07f301fc541d5b75791217fb1abcb
   Main PID: 1512 (supergfxd)
      Tasks: 17 (limit: 47149)
        CPU: 556ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/supergfxd.service
             └─1512 /usr/bin/supergfxd

Warning: some journal files were not opened due to insufficient permissions.
42

Did you add your user to the “wheel” group as directed in the ROG guide?
Anyway you may try to run those commands as superuser (issue su -first).

43

I believe I did, here’s the output for id [User] (with User as a placeholder)

id [User]
uid=1000([User]) gid=1000([User]) groups=1000([User]),495(wheel)
44

Here is the output for all the commands after putting myself into superuser mode:

localhost:~ # supergfxctl --help
Optional arguments:
  -h, --help         print help message
  -m, --mode         Set graphics mode
  -v, --version      Get supergfxd version
  -g, --get          Get the current mode
  -s, --supported    Get the supported modes
  -V, --vendor       Get the dGPU vendor name
  -S, --status       Get the current power status
  -p, --pend-action  Get the pending user action if any
  -P, --pend-mode    Get the pending mode change if any
localhost:~ # supergfxctl --mode
Error: missing argument to option `--mode`
localhost:~ # supergfxctl --version
5.2.7
localhost:~ # supergfxctl --get
Hybrid
localhost:~ # supergfxctl --supported
[Integrated, Hybrid]
localhost:~ # supergfxctl --vendor
Nvidia
localhost:~ # supergfxctl --status
suspended
localhost:~ # supergfxctl --pend-action
No action required
localhost:~ # supergfxctl --pend-mode
Unknown
45

So supergfxctl is working and you are currently using the “Hybrid” mode, a sensible default in my view.

So if you want to save battery you could issue e.g.

sudo supergfxctl --mode Integrated

to switch off the Nvidia GPU. I don’t know if you might need logout/login or even a reboot after that.
There is apparently a permission problem, the wheel group is not enough apparently and you need superuser power to access supergfxctl.
Anyway since the “Hybrid” mode is what I would keep enabled all the time, I would ignore the plasmoid and just use the command line whenever I would need to occasionally switch to “Integrated”.
In my view you are just lucky enough that it works that way.

46

Fair enough, I might remove plasmoid in that case since it is just a GUI that doesn’t work. Maybe someone else could potentially figure out whats going on, but for now I will just stick with the command line.

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47

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48

Does the supergfxctl group exist?
getent group supergfxctl
From what I have read, It may be that you need to add the user to that group for the utility to work.

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