Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 19

Thread: Keyboard backlight for G51Jx

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Beans
    2

    Smile Keyboard backlight for G51Jx

    Greeting all,
    Everyone who wants to get keyboard back-light functioning under Ubuntu 9.10 listen up. Attached you will find an archive with a patched asus-laptop module which supports keyboard backlight. You will need to:

    1. Uncompress the tarball
    2. Run build.sh to build the module
    3. Remove the old asus_laptop module (sudo rmmod asus_laptop)
    4. Insert the newly build module (sudo insmod asus_laptop.ko)


    As root run:
    echo NUMBER > /sys/class/leds/asus\:\:kbd_backlight/brightness, where number is between 0 and 3 depending in the desired brightness. This tar-ball also includes kdbd.c which simplifies the process. Simply build it using gcc -o kdbl kdbd.c and the run as root:
    Code:
    ./kdbl up
    or
    Code:
    ./kdbl down
    depending on if you are turning the brightness up or down. I tested this code on ubuntu x64 9.10, but with 10.04 around the corner I hope this will work out of the box. I will provide limited support for this code, welcome to open source
    Peace, Tusk.
    Attached Files Attached Files

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Buffalo, NY
    Beans
    37
    Distro
    Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail

    Re: Keyboard backlight for G51Jx

    thanks buddy..

    excellent fix.. works on my asus laptop like a charm...

    g51jx-a1 to be precise and i'm running ubuntu 9.10 64 bit...

  3. #3

    Re: Keyboard backlight for G51Jx

    Is there a way I can add this to a init.d script? Also will this be added to the official asus-laptop kernel module up stream?

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Beans
    1

    Re: Keyboard backlight for G51Jx

    worked great on G73JH running 10.4 x64. thanks!

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Beans
    3

    Arrow Re: Keyboard backlight for G51Jx

    Hello everyone,

    I own an Asus G51J Laptop and I had the exactly same problem as you. I solved it since a few hours and I wanted to share the solution.

    I have managed to reassociate the original keys to higher/lower the keyboard brightness (Fn+F3 to lower it & Fn+F4 to higher it).

    1. Download the joined archive and uncompress it
    2. Move both the "acpi/events/keyboard_brightness*" files into the /etc/acpi/events/ directory.
      Code:
      sudo mv acpi/events/keyboard_brightnessup /etc/acpi/events/
      Code:
      sudo  mv acpi/events/keyboard_brightnessdown /etc/acpi/events/
    3. Move both the "acpi/key_brightness*.sh" files into the /etc/acpi/ directory.
      Code:
      sudo mv acpi/key_brightnessup.sh  /etc/acpi/
      Code:
      sudo mv acpi/key_brightnessdown.sh  /etc/acpi/
    4. Apply chmod 755 to both the /etc/acpi/key_brightness*.sh
      Code:
      sudo chmod 755 /etc/acpi/key_brightnessup.sh
      Code:
      sudo chmod 755 /etc/acpi/key_brightnessdown.sh
    5. Reload the acpid module
      Code:
      sudo reload acpid

    Job done!
    You have now recovered the usual behavior of the Fn+F3 & Fn+F4 buttons!

    If you wish to understand acpi interruptions, I followed the LaptopSpecialKeys from the Ubuntu Documentation.

    If you wish to go even further and manage keyboard backlighting depending on the power state, I recommend you to read that article, made for power savings with Ubuntu on a Mac Pro (pay attention to the 99-savings script).
    Some customization is mandatory, but you'll be able to automatically activate/deactivate keyboard illumination when on battery or not, from the even start of Ubuntu.

    Have fun!
    Attached Files Attached Files
    Last edited by Berbe; October 5th, 2010 at 11:27 PM.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Location
    Budapest, Hungary
    Beans
    27
    Distro
    Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

    Re: Keyboard backlight for G51Jx

    Great job Berbe! I can confirm that his works on G73JH running 10.10 x64, however there aren't as many states as in Windows 7 - brightness up has two states (lighter and stronger) while brightness down always disables the backlight - does not step back to the previous level. If I recall correctly then the Windows version has 3 steps of lighting levels and pressing Fn+F3 and Fn+F4 always goes up and down only one level.

    Anyway this is still much better than not being able to control the backlight at all!

    Many thanks for your contribution!

    Cheers,
    Peter

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Beans
    3

    Re: Keyboard backlight for G51Jx

    As far as I remember, there have always been 3 states of backlighting on my Laptop... I didn't really noticed under Windows, but I think everythink worked well on the 9.x version of Ubuntu.

    There must be a problem if Fn+F3 always shut down your keyboard backlights.
    Have a look to the .sh files, you'll see that the script reads the value from /sys/class/leds/asus::kbd_backlight/brightness which represents the current state of your keyboard illumination.

    Write all the different values you may encounter (and try to write down all of them). Modify the script to switch from one to another (it simply rewrites the new value to the same interface to change the state).

    These value seems to be hardware-specific, so it doesn't surprise me if they are different for each type of laptop.

    Keep me posted!

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Beans
    145

    Re: Keyboard backlight for G51Jx

    Quote Originally Posted by Berbe View Post
    Hello everyone,

    I own an Asus G51J Laptop and I had the exactly same problem as you. I solved it since a few hours and I wanted to share the solution.

    I have managed to reassociate the original keys to higher/lower the keyboard brightness (Fn+F3 to lower it & Fn+F4 to higher it).

    1. Download the joined archive and uncompress it
    2. Move both the "acpi/events/keyboard_brightness*" files into the /etc/acpi/events/ directory.
      Code:
      sudo mv acpi/events/keyboard_brightnessup /etc/acpi/events/
      Code:
      sudo  mv acpi/events/keyboard_brightnessdown /etc/acpi/events/
    3. Move both the "acpi/key_brightness*.sh" files into the /etc/acpi/ directory.
      Code:
      sudo mv acpi/key_brightnessup.sh  /etc/acpi/
      Code:
      sudo mv acpi/key_brightnessdown.sh  /etc/acpi/
    4. Apply chmod 755 to both the /etc/acpi/key_brightness*.sh
      Code:
      sudo chmod 755 /etc/acpi/key_brightnessup.sh
      Code:
      sudo chmod 755 /etc/acpi/key_brightnessdown.sh
    5. Reload the acpid module
      Code:
      sudo reload acpid

    Job done!
    You have now recovered the usual behavior of the Fn+F3 & Fn+F4 buttons!

    If you wish to understand acpi interruptions, I followed the LaptopSpecialKeys from the Ubuntu Documentation.

    If you wish to go even further and manage keyboard backlighting depending on the power state, I recommend you to read that article, made for power savings with Ubuntu on a Mac Pro (pay attention to the 99-savings script).
    Some customization is mandatory, but you'll be able to automatically activate/deactivate keyboard illumination when on battery or not, from the even start of Ubuntu.

    Have fun!

    I just wanted to say thank you very much simple as moving over these terminal commands. Awesome G51J is a great laptop I am using one as well.

    Peace Had to say thanks!

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Beans
    15

    Re: Keyboard backlight for G51Jx

    Hi!
    I have an Asus G73JWA1, yesterday I installed Ubuntu 10.10 and the I follow the guide above to make fn key keyboard working. The keys worked immediately, but when I reboot the system give me this error: Kernel panic- not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block (0,0) .
    Now I have installed again and I don't know if make that thing again.
    What do you suggest to me? Do you think it's possible the reason of kernel panic is this?
    Thank you very much!

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Beans
    11

    Re: Keyboard backlight for G51Jx

    Hi all,

    What about the new asus models? I'm planning to buy the G53JW-A1, but it depends a bit on this issue. This model should be similar than the G73JWA1. @delca, did you find a workaround for your it? Please post on this.

    Cheers

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast

Tags for this Thread

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •