GitHub - tarpediem/zenvision-linux: Linux userspace driver for the ASUS ZenVision lid OLED (Zenbook 14X OLED Space Edition, UX5401ZAS) — 256x64 monochrome panel over USB

🟢 The first open-source Linux driver for the ASUS ZenVision lid OLED — the protocol was reverse-engineered from scratch (Ghidra on MyASUS). Want live applets and audio-reactive visualisers on top? See the companion app zenvision-studio.

Userspace Linux driver for the ASUS ZenVision lid OLED — the 3.5", 256×64 monochrome screen embedded in the lid of the ASUS Zenbook 14X OLED Space Edition (UX5401ZAS). ASUS only ships software for this screen on Windows (inside MyASUS). This project reverse-engineers the USB protocol and lets you drive the panel from Linux: show images, play animations, or display whatever you like.

Status: working on UX5401ZAS. Other ASUS lid-OLED models may use a similar protocol — reports and PRs welcome.

How it works The lid screen is a Nuvoton M480 USB device (0b05:8835). It is not a DRM display — you don't get a /dev/fb; instead you push a 256×64, 4-bit-grayscale framebuffer to a bulk endpoint after a small command handshake. Full details in PROTOCOL.md. Requirements

Python 3.9+ pyusb and Pillow libusb-1.0 Raw USB access (root, or the provided udev rule)

python -m venv .venv && . .venv/bin/activate pip install pyusb pillow Arch Linux (AUR) yay -S zenvision-linux-git # installs the `zenvision` CLI + the udev rule Usage # Static image (auto-resized to 256x64, converted to grayscale) sudo ./zenvision.py image picture.png

# White test pattern / clear sudo ./zenvision.py image --white sudo ./zenvision.py off

# Play a folder of frames as a smooth animation sudo ./zenvision.py anim frames/ --fps 20 Brightness: --bright 0xff (scale is approximate; tune by eye).

Generate the demo animation examples/spark_demo.py renders a generic rotating-starburst animation into a frames/ folder you can feed to anim: pip install pillow python examples/spark_demo.py --out frames --w 256 --h 64 sudo ./zenvision.py anim frames/ --fps 20 Want a logo? Render any monochrome 256×64 frames into a folder and point anim at it. (Tip: rsvg-convert an SVG, or ffmpeg -i clip.gif frames/%03d.png.) Running without root (udev) Copy the rule so your user can access the device: sudo cp udev/70-zenvision.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/ sudo udevadm control --reload-rules && sudo udevadm trigger The 70- prefix matters: the rule must sort before 73-seat-late.rules so the uaccess tag is applied — otherwise the ACL is never granted. uaccess gives the logged-in user access (the right mechanism on systemd; no plugdev group needed). Then run without sudo. Notes & safety

The panel is firmware-powered and survives a re-plug; experiments are recoverable with a reboot. Sending malformed control reports on the HID interface can soft-reset the MCU (it re-enumerates cleanly) — this driver only uses the vendor interface. This is an independent, unofficial project. Not affiliated with or endorsed by ASUS. No ASUS firmware, binaries, or decompiled code are included or required.

Contributing If you have another ASUS model with a lid OLED, please open an issue with: lsusb, your model number, and whether the framing here works. The protocol doc is written to make porting straightforward. License MIT.