Arch Linux

minimal

Member

From: Quito, Ecuador

Registered: 2009-10-29

Posts: 56

keyboard backlight not working on Asus N56VJ

I have tried a variety of things and this never comes on.  Any advice as to what could be failing and whether someone has got this successfully working on this laptop would be much appreciated.

peter ~ $ sudo systemctl status asus-kbd-backlight.service
● asus-kbd-backlight.service - Allow user access to keyboard backlight
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/asus-kbd-backlight.service; enabled)
   Active: active (exited) since Fri 2014-07-04 11:20:40 ECT; 59s ago
  Process: 322 ExecStart=/usr/bin/asus-kbd-backlight allowusers (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 322 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   CGroup: /system.slice/asus-kbd-backlight.service

Jul 04 11:20:40 firebrand sudo[343]: root : TTY=unknown ; PWD=/ ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/sbin/chgrp users /sys/class/leds/asus::kbd_backlight/brightness
Jul 04 11:20:40 firebrand sudo[343]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root by (uid=0)
Jul 04 11:20:40 firebrand sudo[343]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
Jul 04 11:20:40 firebrand sudo[388]: root : TTY=unknown ; PWD=/ ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/sbin/chmod g+w /sys/class/leds/asus::kbd_backlight/brightness
Jul 04 11:20:40 firebrand sudo[388]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root by (uid=0)
Jul 04 11:20:40 firebrand sudo[388]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
Jul 04 11:20:40 firebrand systemd[1]: Started Allow user access to keyboard backlight.
peter ~ $ sudo dmesg | grep -i backl
[    2.503538] asus_wmi: Backlight controlled by ACPI video driver
peter ~ $ ls -l /sys/class/backlight/
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Jul  4 11:20 acpi_video0 -> ../../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.0/backlight/acpi_video0/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Jul  4 11:20 acpi_video1 -> ../../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/backlight/acpi_video1/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Jul  4 11:20 intel_backlight -> ../../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/drm/card0/card0-LVDS-1/intel_backlight/
peter ~ $ ^C
peter ~ $ uname -a
Linux firebrand 3.15.3-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Jul 1 07:32:45 CEST 2014 x86_64 GNU/Linux
peter ~ $ cat /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness 
10
peter ~ $ ^C
peter ~ $ sudo cat /proc/cmdline
initrd=\initramfs-linux.img root=/dev/sda3 rw
peter ~ $ ^C
peter ~ $ cat /usr/bin/asus-kbd-backlight
#!/bin/bash

path="/sys/class/leds/asus::kbd_backlight"
if [ ! -e "$path" ]; then
  path="/sys/devices/platform/asus-nb-wmi/leds/asus::kbd_backlight"
fi
..

Many thanks,

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Never judge a man until you have walked 1000 miles in his shoes.
..that way you'll be 1000 miles away and you'll have his shoes.

olivarch

Member

Registered: 2013-01-26

Posts: 47

Re: keyboard backlight not working on Asus N56VJ

Did you have a look at :
/sys/class/leds/asus\:\:kbd_backlight

( /sys/class/backlight is for the screen backlight)

minimal

Member

From: Quito, Ecuador

Registered: 2009-10-29

Posts: 56

Re: keyboard backlight not working on Asus N56VJ

Hi olivarch,
Thanks for your pointer. I note that I have the following in this directory:

peter ~ $ ls -la /sys/class/leds/asus\:\:kbd_backlight
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Jul 16 08:28 /sys/class/leds/asus::kbd_backlight -> ../../devices/platform/asus-nb-wmi/leds/asus::kbd_backlight/

Is this right to get the keyboard backlight working?  Running out of ideas here.

thanks a lot

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Never judge a man until you have walked 1000 miles in his shoes.
..that way you'll be 1000 miles away and you'll have his shoes.

xero

Member

From: ~/

Registered: 2014-04-02

Posts: 86

Website

Re: keyboard backlight not working on Asus N56VJ

i have a different laptop than you, but when i used grub, i had to edit the config to initialize the backlight:

file: /etc/default/grub

update line: 9 (in my config)

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_backlight=vendor backlight_level=10"

i switched to gummiboot & a new kernel and no longer have the issue. but maybe this might help.
MAKE SURE YOU BACKUP YOUR CONFIGS WHEN TESTING!

Last edited by xero (2014-07-16 19:12:12)

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minimal

Member

From: Quito, Ecuador

Registered: 2009-10-29

Posts: 56

Re: keyboard backlight not working on Asus N56VJ

Hi xero,
I realise you posted quite a while back.  Just wondering which kernel you are using???  I have finally migrated to gummiboot and uninstalled syslinux (and I have a verified Clonezilla backup )

I would like to try your kernel with Gummiboot to see if I can get this working on my machine.

thanks a lot,

Peter

Last edited by minimal (2014-10-14 22:27:50)

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_________________________________________________________________________________________
Never judge a man until you have walked 1000 miles in his shoes.
..that way you'll be 1000 miles away and you'll have his shoes.