[SOLVED]How to Change Keyboard Backlight Timeout Value

[UOOP]

I have been digging around, trying to figure out how to change my keyboard's backlight timeout value and I have gotten as far as dumping a csv of all tokens from the smbios-utils. I was able to locate the associated keyboard information, but the associated token id doesn't look like a token; it's simply a number of 451.

1. How would I be able to verify this is actually a token?

2. How would I be able to read/set the value for the associated token?

I am running ArchMerge 6.3.1 on a Sony Vaio VPCF115FM laptop

[erikdubois]

Thanks for writing the post here... now we need the time to investigate.

[nickpetrov]

If you would like to see the available tokens on your system make sure you have libsmbios installed then, use this command:

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sudo smbios-token-ctl -d

if you would like to see the list of available token options to change the backlight, would be this command:

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sudo smbios-token-ctl | grep Keyboard

so for example on my system, the available options are:

Token: 0x01e1 - Keyboard Illumination (Off)
Token: 0x01e2 - Keyboard Illumination (On)
Token: 0x01e3 - Keyboard Illumination (Auto)

so lets say I wanted to set the backlight permanently on, would be like this:

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sudo smbios-token-ctl -i 0x01e2 --set-string true

If you can't set your backlight value like this, because not all laptop manufacturers support this you could try reading this:

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

[UOOP]

Thanks for the reply. I will try this as soon as I can

[UOOP]

If you would like to see the available tokens on your system make sure you have libsmbios installed then, use this command:

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sudo smbios-token-ctl -d

if you would like to see the list of available token options to change the backlight, would be this command:

Code: Select all

sudo smbios-token-ctl | grep Keyboard

so for example on my system, the available options are:

Token: 0x01e1 - Keyboard Illumination (Off)
Token: 0x01e2 - Keyboard Illumination (On)
Token: 0x01e3 - Keyboard Illumination (Auto)

so lets say I wanted to set the backlight permanently on, would be like this:

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sudo smbios-token-ctl -i 0x01e2 --set-string true

If you can't set your backlight value like this, because not all laptop manufacturers support this you could try reading this:

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

OK I followed the steps listed above, found the token list and identified the 3 tokens controlling illumination which were the same as listed above. I used the command smbios-toke-ctl -i 0x01e2 --set-string true and got a return of "token 0x01e2 not found". Anyone run into this issue? Why does the illumination carry the token in the list, but yet it cannot be found?

[nickpetrov]

Did you run the last command as sudo?

you might want to try with the linux-lts kernel, as kernel 4.15 changed the way it makes calls to the bios. could have broken it.

This is hard to figure out, since it's hardware specific, and I don't have the same hardware.

[UOOP]

Did you run the last command as sudo?

you might want to try with the linux-lts kernel, as kernel 4.15 changed the way it makes calls to the bios. could have broken it.

This is hard to figure out, since it's hardware specific, and I don't have the same hardware.

Yes, I ran the command as sudo.

I will have to try the lts kernel and see if that works for me. I will report back once i get it switched and let you know what I find. Thanks for your help

[UOOP]

Hours were spent trying to figure this out and today I stumbled across the solution; simplest little fixes are the best

1.

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cd /etc/modprobe.d/

2.

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nano sony-laptop.conf

3. inside sony-laptop.conf

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options sony laptop kbd_backlight=2

4. No timeout

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echo 3 > /sys/devices/platform/sony-laptop/kbd_backlight_timeout

You could change the value from 0 - 3

You can also turn your backlight off/auto/on as well (0/1/2):

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echo # > /sys/devices/platform/sony-laptop/kbd_backlight

commands will need to be ran each time after startup because they won't stick.

[erikdubois]

Congrats and thanks for sharing.

[Mic]

Super !!