PipeWire virtual-sink manager and headset ChatMix control for Linux gamers.

Route per-app audio between virtual sinks and drive your headset's ChatMix wheel from one place — a Linux-native take on what SteelSeries Sonar does on Windows.

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What it does

• Virtual sinks — creates game_sink + chat_sink on first launch; create / delete more on the fly.
• Per-app routing — drag-and-drop applications between sinks, or pick from a dropdown. Drag back to the source lane to send an app to the default sink.
• Per-stream volume + mute — real pactl set-sink-input-volume / set-sink-input-mute, debounced sliders.
• ChatMix wheel integration — turn the headset wheel and watch the game/chat split flip live (HID polling), or drive it manually from the dashboard slider.
• Port linking — power-user panel to wire any source output port to any target input port (pw-link).
• Friendlier stream names — resolves application.name → application.process.binary → /proc/<pid>/cmdline → a media.role-based hybrid label. Rename anything inline.
• System tray — closes to tray and keeps monitoring ChatMix in the background. Show / Hide / Quit from the tray menu.
• Start at login — optional autostart toggle in the Maintenance page.
• Guided setup — the Maintenance page checks libhidapi, installs the udev rule (via pkexec), and toggles autostart.

How it compares to SteelSeries Sonar

Sonar core feature	Penguin Wave
Game / Chat / Media split	✅ virtual sinks + drag-drop routing
Independent volume / mute	✅ per-stream, debounced
ChatMix blend	✅ HID wheel + manual slider
Game EQ presets	⏳ planned (filter-chain dormant)
Streamer submix	⏳ achievable via custom sinks, no guided UX

Supported headsets (v0.1)

• SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7

Adding more: implement DeviceTrait in PenguinWave/src-tauri/src/headsets/ and register it in AppStateManager::initialize_supported_devices.

Requirements

• PipeWire userland on PATH: pactl, pw-cli, pw-link
  • Arch: pipewire pipewire-pulse wireplumber
  • Debian/Ubuntu: pipewire pipewire-pulse pipewire-bin
• Linux only — uses /proc and HID via hidapi (libhidapi).
• HID permission for the headset — install the bundled udev rule (the in-app Maintenance page does this for you).
• A system-tray host if your compositor lacks one (e.g. niri needs waybar/ironbar with a tray module).

Install

Arch Linux (AUR)

# packaging assets live in PenguinWave/packaging/ (PKGBUILD WIP)
# once published:
# yay -S penguinwave

From source

git clone <repo> penguin-wave
cd penguin-wave/PenguinWave
npm install
npm run tauri:build
# .deb / AppImage / rpm in src-tauri/target/release/bundle/

Run in dev

cd PenguinWave
npm run tauri:debug   # full app, RUST_BACKTRACE=full RUST_LOG=debug
npm run dev           # frontend only on http://localhost:1420 (no Tauri commands)

Wayland note: the app sets WEBKIT_DISABLE_DMABUF_RENDERER=1 on Linux so the window reliably reappears from the tray (webkitgtk hide/show bug on Wayland compositors such as niri).

Architecture

React (Vite)  ──invoke──▶  Tauri 2 commands  ──shell out──▶  pactl / pw-cli / pw-link
     ▲                            │                                    │
     │                            ▼                                    ▼
   listen()  ◀──emit─────  chatmix poll thread (100ms)  ◀──HID──  hidapi

• Frontend: React 18, TanStack Query 5, wouter, Radix + shadcn/ui ("new-york"), Tailwind 3, @dnd-kit.
• Backend: Rust edition 2021, Tauri 2, hidapi, anyhow / thiserror.

Project layout

.
├── assets/             # brand logos (svg / png / with-text)
├── PenguinWave/        # the application
│   ├── src/            # React frontend (pages, components, hooks, queries, types)
│   ├── src-tauri/      # Rust crate (controllers, system/pipewire, event/chatmix_listener, headsets, utils)
│   └── packaging/      # .desktop entry, udev rule, hicolor icons
└── README.md

Roadmap to 1.0

• PKGBUILD + AUR publish (-bin from GitHub Releases + source build)
• CI release pipeline (tagged binaries + checksums)
• More headsets (Arctis Nova Pro, other ChatMix devices)
• Game EQ presets (wire up the dormant filter-chain)
• Streamer submix UX

License

Licensed under the Apache License 2.0

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