Streamdeck Linux is a project that exposes two tools, streamdeckd and sdctl. Streamdeckd is a daemon that connects to elgato streamdeck devices via USB and sdctl provides a command line interface to interact with the daemon and issue commands to the devices. Communication between the two tools is done via a Unix socket.

Usage: streamdeckd [OPTIONS]

Options: -h, --help Print help -V, --version Print version --socket Path to the socket file (default: /run/streamdeckd.sock or $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/streamdeckd.sock) -v, --verbose Enable verbose output

Usage: sdctl [OPTIONS]

Options: -h, --help Print help -V, --version Print version --socket Path to the socket file (default: /run/streamdeckd.sock or $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/streamdeckd.sock)

Commands: list List all connected Streamdeck devices

info Get information about a specific device

clear Clear all images and handlers for a device

brightness Set the brightness of a device (0-100)

button image [] Set the image for a button. is a path to an image file, or when omitted, stdin is used

button on-press [...] Set the command to be executed when the button is pressed

dial on-press [...] Set the command to be executed when the dial is pressed

dial on-turn-cw [...] Set the command to be executed when the dial is turned clockwise

dial on-turn-ccw [...] Set the command to be executed when the dial is turned counterclockwise

touch image [] Set the image for a touchscreen ( is a path to an image file, or when omitted, stdin is used)

touch on-press [...] Set the command to be executed when the touchscreen is pressed

touch on-swipe [...] Set the command to be executed when the touchscreen is swiped

To make sdctl easy for scripting it should only return a exit code of 0 on success. For failure, it should return a non-zero exit code and provide a descriptive error message in stderr.

The callbacks will be provided with the following environment variables, including more information about the event:

• SD_DEVICE: The serial number of the device
• SD_BUTTON: The index of the button that was pressed
• SD_DIAL: The index of the dial that was turned
• SD_X: The x-coordinate of the touch event
• SD_Y: The y-coordinate of the touch event
• SD_X2: The end x-coordinate of a touch swipe
• SD_Y2: The end y-coordinate of a touch swipe

The project is implemented in Rust, and uses the following libraries:

• serde: for serialization and deserialization of data
• tokio: for asynchronous I/O and concurrency
• clap: for command-line argument parsing
• elgato-streamdeck: for interacting with Elgato Stream Deck devices

Since the project requires two binaries, it is structured as follows:

• /src
  • /streamdeckd
  • /sdctl
  • [any common files]

• Rust toolchain (cargo, rustc)
• systemd (for user services)
• Sufficient permissions to install binaries and udev rules

make install

This will:

• Build the binaries
• Install them to /usr/local/bin
• Install the udev rules to /etc/udev/rules.d/40-streamdeck.rules
• Install the systemd user service file to ~/.config/systemd/user/streamdeckd.service
• Enable and start the streamdeckd user service (it will start automatically at login)

make uninstall

This will:

• Stop and disable the user service
• Remove the systemd user service file
• Remove the binaries
• Remove the udev rules

The streamdeckd daemon is installed and managed as a systemd user service. After installation, it will start automatically at login.

You can manually control the service with:

systemctl --user status streamdeckd.service systemctl --user restart streamdeckd.service systemctl --user stop streamdeckd.service

If you want to (re-)enable the service for autostart at login:

systemctl --user enable --now streamdeckd.service

If you want to disable autostart:

systemctl --user disable --now streamdeckd.service

• Callbacks and scripts triggered by Streamdeck events will run as the current logged-in user, preserving your environment and permissions.
• If you have multiple users on the system, each user who wants to use Streamdeck devices should run make install in their own session to set up the user service.