lenovo-legion-profiles

What this does

Lenovo Legion laptops expose their thermal mode through /sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile. Fn+Q usually cycles the firmware profiles, but Lenovo changed the Linux-facing names for the red and purple slots in newer kernels.

This script watches platform_profile, treats each firmware change as an Fn+Q press, and applies its own 4-step cycle so the hidden purple slot stays reachable from the keyboard.

The script now auto-detects which kernel ABI is present:

• Legacy mapping: low-power → balanced → balanced-performance → performance
• Current mapping: low-power → balanced → performance → max-power

custom is left alone and is not part of the Fn+Q override cycle.

Profile mapping

Current Lenovo Gamezone docs describe the modern profile names like this:

• low-power → blue LED
• balanced → white LED
• performance → red LED
• max-power → purple LED
• custom → purple LED

Older kernels exposed the same red and purple slots like this:

• balanced-performance → red LED
• performance → purple LED

The script maps both layouts to the same logical order:

blue → white → red → purple → blue

Compatibility note

Lenovo's Gamezone driver used to expose the red and purple firmware slots with confusing Linux names on some Legion models:

• BIOS Performance showed up as balanced-performance
• BIOS Extreme showed up as performance

That meant the LED colors and Linux profile names did not line up cleanly.

Newer kernels switched the Gamezone driver to expose the purple Extreme slot as max-power instead of overloading performance. Current kernel documentation now describes the mapping as:

• low-power → blue LED
• balanced → white LED
• performance → red LED
• max-power → purple LED
• custom → purple LED

This project handles both layouts, so the same Fn+Q override logic works on older and newer kernels.

Requirements

Hardware and kernel

• A Lenovo Legion laptop that exposes platform_profile
• A kernel with CONFIG_ACPI_PLATFORM_PROFILE
• A kernel that also exposes platform_profile_choices

Check support with:

ls /sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile
cat /sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile_choices

If either sysfs file is missing, this tool will not work on that machine.

Software

• inotifywait from inotify-tools

Install it per distro:

• Arch / Manjaro / EndeavourOS

sudo pacman -S inotify-tools

• Debian / Ubuntu / Pop!_OS / Mint

sudo apt install inotify-tools

• Fedora

sudo dnf install inotify-tools

Installation (Suggested)

The recommended path is the installer, because systemd runs the copy in /usr/local/sbin. Editing the repo file alone does not update the installed service.

Run:

./install.sh

The installer prompts for install or uninstall, copies the current script into place, installs the tracked systemd unit, reloads systemd, and starts or removes the service.

Installation (Manual)

Install dependencies

Install inotify-tools as shown above for your distro.

Copy the script

Place the script somewhere root-owned and executable, for example:

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/sbin
sudo cp legion-fnq-override.sh /usr/local/sbin/legion-fnq-override.sh
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/sbin/legion-fnq-override.sh

/var/lib/legion-fnq-state will be created automatically by the script if needed.

Install the systemd service

Create /etc/systemd/system/legion-fnq-override.service:

[Unit]
Description=Override Lenovo Legion Fn+Q to 4-step platform_profile cycle
After=multi-user.target

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/local/sbin/legion-fnq-override.sh

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Then reload and enable:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now legion-fnq-override.service

Check status with:

systemctl status legion-fnq-override.service

The service should stay active (running) with no write errors.

If the service is already installed and the repo script changed, reinstall it. A running systemd service will keep using the old copy until /usr/local/sbin/legion-fnq-override.sh is replaced and the unit is restarted.

Recommended setup

Avoid running other tools that constantly write to platform_profile, because they will race the override logic.

Common examples:

sudo systemctl disable --now auto-cpufreq.service
sudo systemctl disable --now tlp.service
sudo systemctl disable --now dynamic_power.service

How to verify it

Watch the current profile:

watch -n0.2 cat /sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile

Then press Fn+Q repeatedly.

Expected sequence on newer kernels:

low-power
balanced
performance
max-power
low-power

Expected sequence on older kernels:

low-power
balanced
balanced-performance
performance
low-power