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#1 2013-03-25 15:38:01

Mox
Member
Registered: 2012-02-07
Posts: 32

[solved] Thinklight on newer Thinkpad laptops (x230, t430)

Hi,

Is there any known way to control the Thinklights of the newer Thinkpads from software?

regards,
mox

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

As mentioned here older thread,

echo 255 > /sys/class/leds/tpacpi\:\:thinklight/brightness

does not work anymore. My theory is, that with the new chiclet style keyboards (which can have a backlight), this approach broke.

What already works:
- Toggling the Thinklight with Fn+Spacebar (my laptop does not have a backlit keyboard)
- turning of the Thinklight if it was turned on before

echo 0 > /sys/class/leds/tpacpi\:\:thinklight/brightness

To be more specific: I cannot write anything to /sys/class/leds/tpacpi::thinklight/brightness, except 0, which will turn the Thinklight of. Any other attempt to echo something there will exit with status 0, but without effect.
- Everything on older Thinkpads (yup, T420 works)

Last edited by Mox (2013-03-27 03:25:34)

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#2 2013-03-26 05:44:23

WonderWoofy
Member
From: Los Gatos, CA
Registered: 2012-05-19
Posts: 8,414

Re: [solved] Thinklight on newer Thinkpad laptops (x230, t430)

Just to check, you have installed and loaded tpacpi, right?

Maybe there is something in /proc/acpi/ibm that might do what you want.  I found some random abilities in there.  Though presumably this directory will eventually be deprecated like most things in /proc.

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#3 2013-03-26 06:29:47

David Batson
Member
Registered: 2011-10-13
Posts: 640

Re: [solved] Thinklight on newer Thinkpad laptops (x230, t430)

Works here on my X220 from terminal (as root only).  Don't know about the X230.

[root@myhost ~]# echo 0 > /sys/class/leds/tpacpi\:\:thinklight/brightness
[root@myhost ~]# echo 255 > /sys/class/leds/tpacpi\:\:thinklight/brightness

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#4 2013-03-26 17:03:51

Mox
Member
Registered: 2012-02-07
Posts: 32

Re: [solved] Thinklight on newer Thinkpad laptops (x230, t430)

@WonderWoofy: I don't know about tpacpi, I got thinkpad_acpi and tpacpi_bat. I will have a look at /proc/acpi/ibm
@David Batson: As I said, there is no problem with older Thinkpads, this question is specific to the newes generation of Thinkpads.

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#5 2013-03-26 17:23:03

Mox
Member
Registered: 2012-02-07
Posts: 32

Re: [solved] Thinklight on newer Thinkpad laptops (x230, t430)

There is /proc/acpi/ibm/led. Cat /proc/acpi/ibm/led says, it should accept commands in the form <0-15><on|off>.
echo "0 on" > led and echo "0 off" > led will turn the light in the power switch on and off.
7 is the sleep indicator led.
12 is something, that I was not able to find.
All other numbers in [0-15] return bash: echo: write error: Operation not permitted
echo "16 on" > led returns bash: echo: write error: Invalid argument

So, while it is not possible to control the Thinklight with this, I can at lead control the power light. I guess that is at least a start.

Edit: As I found here You can also use echo "0 blink" > led, to  blink the power light.

Edit2:

echo "on" > light

will not work,

echo "off" > light

will turn the Thinklight off, if it was turned on before.

Last edited by Mox (2013-03-26 17:39:35)

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#6 2013-03-26 21:02:42

WonderWoofy
Member
From: Los Gatos, CA
Registered: 2012-05-19
Posts: 8,414

Re: [solved] Thinklight on newer Thinkpad laptops (x230, t430)

Mox wrote:

@WonderWoofy: I don't know about tpacpi, I got thinkpad_acpi and tpacpi_bat. I will have a look at /proc/acpi/ibm

Yes, this is what I meant.  The tpacpi is just the corresponding directory in /sys I think. 

I find it very interesting that /proc/acpi/ibm/light has the ability to turn the light off, but not on.  That seems very strange.  I don't actually have a Thinklight on my E430, so I cannot test any of this.  But I have definitely heard that the new Thinkpad hardware is not as compatible as the old with these modules and their features.

Have you thought about contacting the developers/maintainers of the thinkpad_acpi module? I believe their project is hosted on sourceforge.

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#7 2013-03-27 03:25:17

Mox
Member
Registered: 2012-02-07
Posts: 32

Re: [solved] Thinklight on newer Thinkpad laptops (x230, t430)

Well I did some research there and guess what? Its a known bug, pertaining to all xx30 Laptops.
So thank You for Your replies, and the hint where to look. At least now I know smile

This thread is closed.

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#8 2014-02-19 03:06:14

XenGi
Member
From: berlin, germany, europe, earth
Registered: 2013-02-23
Posts: 35
Website

Re: [solved] Thinklight on newer Thinkpad laptops (x230, t430)

Any new info on this? Because it still doesnt work.


# got root?█

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#9 2014-02-19 14:08:43

Mox
Member
Registered: 2012-02-07
Posts: 32

Re: [solved] Thinklight on newer Thinkpad laptops (x230, t430)

XenGi wrote:

Any new info on this? Because it still doesnt work.

I did not search anymore since then. If You find any news, it'd be great if You shared it.

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#10 2016-07-31 11:17:01

FuLgOrE
Member
Registered: 2016-07-31
Posts: 1

Re: [solved] Thinklight on newer Thinkpad laptops (x230, t430)

I have the same problem and the problem is still present.
But recently I noticed, that my keyboard backlight switches on automatically, if you first block it (SUPER + L) and then unblock it. The backlight also seems to switch off after a while not using the laptop and switches back on automatically.

I searched a bit on google and found this page:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Keyboard_backlight

This script works fine.

Is somebody able to create a script based on this information which could switch on the thinklight? It would be very nice to have it accessible via shell script.
The mentioned script cannot switch on the thinklight, just the keyboard backlight. But if the thinklight is switched on, it can switch it off via reducing the keyboard backlight brightness.

I hope these information can help solve the problems for newer thinkpad laptops regarding the thinklight.

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#11 2016-07-31 12:42:46

WorMzy
Forum Moderator
From: Scotland
Registered: 2010-06-16
Posts: 11,783
Website

Re: [solved] Thinklight on newer Thinkpad laptops (x230, t430)

Please create a new thread for your request, this thread is old and marked as solved and should be left in peace.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Co … bumping.22

Closing.


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