Arch Linux

Caspian

Member

Registered: 2007-05-22

Posts: 263

Keyboard backlight control not working

I just freshly installed Arch on new Asus Zephyrus M16. Everything works flawlessly except the keyboard backlight control (under Gnome).
The keyboard shortcuts for controlling the backlight work (OSD in Gnome shows when pressing the shortcuts; there's no brightness level slider, only OSD with an icon).
I have asusctl installed and have also tried their linux-g14 kernel.

All of the asus specific modules have been loaded:

hid_asus               36864  0
usbhid                 73728  2 hid_asus,hid_logitech_dj
asus_nb_wmi            32768  0
asus_wmi               73728  2 asus_nb_wmi,hid_asus
sparse_keymap          16384  1 asus_wmi
platform_profile       16384  1 asus_wmi
ledtrig_audio          16384  2 snd_hda_codec_generic,asus_wmi
rfkill                 32768  10 iwlmvm,asus_wmi,bluetooth,cfg80211
wmi                    45056  2 asus_wmi,wmi_bmof
i8042                  49152  1 asus_nb_wmi
video                  61440  2 asus_wmi,i915

This is the error in journal after pressing the brightness control shortcuts:

gsd-power[2471]: gsd_power_backlight_abs_to_percentage: assertion 'max > min' failed

Also, third party helper scripts such as 'asus-kbd-backlight' can successfully modify the keyboard brightness.

Any suggestions would be more than welcome.

stoppos

Member

Registered: 2022-11-12

Posts: 7

Re: Keyboard backlight control not working

Hello,

Did you try with rogauracore?

https://github.com/wroberts/rogauracore

It is the aur.
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/rogauracore-git

Last edited by stoppos (2022-11-12 14:59:41)

Caspian

Member

Registered: 2007-05-22

Posts: 263

Re: Keyboard backlight control not working

Hi @stoppos, thanks for the suggestion. As I stated in my initial post third party helpers (such as asus-kbd-backlight and rogauracore) do work. That's why it's strange to me that it doesn't work out of the box, since the hardware is obviously functional and the correct modules are loaded.
To me everything points to some kind of a bug (maybe in Gnome settings daemon, since gsd_power_backlight_abs_to_percentage throws and error in journal).
That's why I wanted to check if anyone had some prior experiences with this.

stoppos

Member

Registered: 2022-11-12

Posts: 7

Re: Keyboard backlight control not working

Sorry, it seems I  didn't read your post properly. Anyhow, for me just by installing asusctl, the keyboard lighting never worked on ASUS ROG STRIX G732LXS. Only when I additionally installed rogauracore.

Also someone on the wiki mentions for Zephyrus M, that they cannot control the backlit and most function keys don't work.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Laptop/ASUS

Sorry, I cannot be any more help, I hope someone will be able to.

The asusctl devs have a discord server, maybe you can ask them there.
https://discord.gg/4ZKGd7Un5t

Caspian

Member

Registered: 2007-05-22

Posts: 263

Re: Keyboard backlight control not working

No worries @stoppos and thanks once again.
I might dry asking asusctl devs directly on Discord, although I suspect that this is not asusctl specific issue.