Installation

Arch/CachyOS/Arch-based

The official Open Gaming Collective Arch packages are available here: ogc-arch-packaging

Alternatively, using the AUR:

yay -S cardwire

And start the service:

sudo systemctl enable cardwired --now

Nix

Using nixpkgs-unstable (recommended)

services.cardwired = {
    enable = true;
    settings = {
        auto_apply_gpu_state = true;
        experimental_nvidia_block = true;
        battery_auto_switch = true;
        battery_auto_switch_mode = "hybrid";
        external_display_auto_switch = false;
    };
}

Using the repo’s flake (This will be dropped when cardwire hits nixpkgs-26.11):

flake.nix:

cardwire = {
    url = "github:opengamingcollective/cardwire";
    inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
};

configuration.nix:

imports = [ inputs.cardwire.nixosModules.default ];

services.cardwire = {
 enable = true;
 settings = {
     auto_apply_gpu_state = true;
     experimental_nvidia_block = true;
     battery_auto_switch = true;
     battery_auto_switch_mode = "hybrid";
     external_display_auto_switch = false;
 };
};

Fedora/Fedora-based

Cardwire is officially distributed through Terra on Fedora systems

To install Terra, follow the instructions here: https://docs.terrapkg.com/usage/installing

Using Terra

sudo dnf install cardwire

And start the service:

sudo systemctl enable cardwired --now

Bazzite

Cardwire is installed out-of-the-box

Atomic Fedora-based

Cardwire is officially distributed through Terra on Fedora systems

To install Terra, follow the instructions here: https://docs.terrapkg.com/usage/installing

Using Terra

sudo rpm-ostree install cardwire

And start the service:

sudo systemctl enable cardwired --now

Note

Thanks to the Fyra Labs / Terra team for packaging and maintaining Cardwire on Fedora !!

AerynOS

Cardwire is available in the official AerynOS repositories.

sudo moss install cardwire

And start the service:

sudo systemctl enable cardwired --now

Ubuntu / Debian

A .deb package is available on the releases page. You can download and install it using apt.

sudo apt install ./cardwire_*.deb

sudo systemctl enable cardwired --now

Build from source (Alternative)

Install build dependencies:

sudo apt install libbpf-dev libudev-dev pkg-config libegl1-mesa-dev libvulkan-dev libglvnd-dev libwayland-dev libxkbcommon-dev libx11-dev libxcb1-dev libx11-xcb-dev

Install Rust (if not already installed):

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

Install bpf-linker

cargo binstall bpf-linker

Then clone and build:

git clone https://github.com/OpenGamingCollective/cardwire.git

make build
sudo make install

And start the service:

sudo systemctl enable cardwired --now

Other distros

For now, other distros must clone the repo and use make to build and install Cardwire. You will also need to enable BPF LSM manually, see the Enabling BPF LSM (with GRUB) section above.

Build dependencies:

• cargo (plus bpf-linker and a pinned nightly toolchain for the eBPF program)
• libudev-dev
• pkg-config
• Vulkan, EGL, Wayland and X11 development packages (GUI build)

git clone https://github.com/OpenGamingCollective/cardwire.git

make build
sudo make install

And start the service:

sudo systemctl enable cardwired --now