Toshiba A665 Laptop -- Illuminated Backlit Keyboard

[JoeGoalie]

is there a linux distro that supports the kb backlight.... if there is maybe we can start from there...(no clue if there is or not)

I don't know, I gave up on it. The issues with the optimus drivers, the keyboard, and for whatever reason the cooling fan would spin up to max randomly for seemingly no reason. I'm back on Win 7 for this machine. Next laptop I'm going to have to do a bit more research next time.

[twopointfour]

is there a linux distro that supports the kb backlight.... if there is maybe we can start from there...(no clue if there is or not)

It looks like this is a Linux kernel issue that Ubuntu has offloaded onto the Linux project: https://bugs.launchpad.net/linux/+bug/683133

Here's the bug on kernel.org: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=32742

Which means that currently there are no Linux distros that support it, and there won't be until this bug is fixed. And in both bug trackers this bug is marked as low priority. Which I guess it is. I don't need my fancy backlit keyboard, but it sure would be cool. So I wouldn't hold your breath on getting it fixed unless you find a kernel hacker (or are a kernel hacker) to hire to fix it for you.

[pierreyy]

I agree that its not a high priority issue but does anyone know of a kernel hacker on the forum... its highly unlikely tha there isnt... anw im gunna keep lookin around.... Btw given that the kb backlite works on windows perfectly... can we copy smthn off the windows kernel? the mac related post a few pages ago didnt do anything for me... anyone has a clue what to do now?? thanks for ur support guys!

[pierreyy]

You know what, im done with this! i dont want the backlite anymore(well yh i do but u know)im just gunna get a candle and put that next to the goddamn keyboard!(im always open for new ideas)

[hydrox24]

It's fair enough that some have decided to give this thread and issue up (that's their choice) but I also have a Toshiba satellite a660 and would really like a solution to this problem. The apple threads solution did nothing for me and I couldn't find anything other than screen brightness settings in the folders in the general area around the one specified in the apple thread. I think that a few things should be established at this point:

1. acpi is what is causing the problem
2. there is nothing to do with keyboard brightness in the /sys/class/leds/ area
3. keyboard backlighting works up until ubuntu/linux is loaded (AKA it works in BIOS and grub)

I am not a kernel hacker, far from it but I will look into some of the solutions posted for other laptop makes and see if we can do some sort of port.
Any help is appreciated, including keyboard make for toshibas, good pages of info on ACPI and any links to other helpful clues/sources.

Keep up the good work guys, I think we can really get somewhere with this thread.

[pierreyy]

It's fair enough that some have decided to give this thread and issue up (that's their choice) but I also have a Toshiba satellite a660 and would really like a solution to this problem. The apple threads solution did nothing for me and I couldn't find anything other than screen brightness settings in the folders in the general area around the one specified in the apple thread. I think that a few things should be established at this point:

1. acpi is what is causing the problem
2. there is nothing to do with keyboard brightness in the /sys/class/leds/ area
3. keyboard backlighting works up until ubuntu/linux is loaded (AKA it works in BIOS and grub)

I am not a kernel hacker, far from it but I will look into some of the solutions posted for other laptop makes and see if we can do some sort of port.
Any help is appreciated, including keyboard make for toshibas, good pages of info on ACPI and any links to other helpful clues/sources.

Keep up the good work guys, I think we can really get somewhere with this thread.

i was looking around and found this post on an archlinux forum... in the quote he says that his backlite is working with ubuntu... did i misinterpret it or is it supported fot sony?

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=121566

its good to see the thread is still goin.

[pierreyy]

Im looking around thwe web abd turns out that on certain asus laptops the backlight works
https://launchpad.net/asus-keyboard-backlight
on the bottom odf this page theres the code for the kbd light maybe itll give us some insight.
Also this could give us something to look into.( it doesnt work on toshiba http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=63815 )


so far ive tested
ubuntu 11.04
knoppix 6.2
puppy 5.2
backtrack 5
none of them read the kbd.

[pierreyy]

thread dead.....again

[clytle374]

Good news and bad news. I just rebooted this machine from windows and suddenly noticed that the keyboard back light was working. I couldn't do the FN-Zto toggle it on/off, but it came on with a keypress and stayed on for about 10 seconds. Having heard of such things, I shutdown and restarted, and it still works That is the good news.

Bad news is I gave up on Ubuntu this spring after having other acpi issues combined with all the package managing mess with kernel builds and went back to Gentoo. Not sure what package fixed it, but here is the upgrade log if any of you Ubuntu folks wish to chase it.

uname -a
Linux Cassandra-Laptop 2.6.38-gentoo-r4 #3 SMP Wed Jul 20 20:56:23 EDT 2011 x86_64 AMD Phenom(tm) II P920 Quad-Core Processor AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux

1311209132: Started emerge on: Jul 20, 2011 20:45:32
1311209132:  *** emerge  sys-fs/udisks
1311209137:  >>> emerge (1 of 1) sys-fs/udisks-1.0.3-r1 to /
1311209137:  === (1 of 1) Cleaning (sys-fs/udisks-1.0.3-r1::/mnt/nfs_portage/sys-fs/udisks/udisks-1.0.3-r1.ebuild)
1311209139:  === (1 of 1) Compiling/Merging (sys-fs/udisks-1.0.3-r1::/mnt/nfs_portage/sys-fs/udisks/udisks-1.0.3-r1.ebuild)
1311209171:  === (1 of 1) Merging (sys-fs/udisks-1.0.3-r1::/mnt/nfs_portage/sys-fs/udisks/udisks-1.0.3-r1.ebuild)
1311209172:  >>> AUTOCLEAN: sys-fs/udisks:0
1311209172:  === Unmerging... (sys-fs/udisks-1.0.3-r1)
1311209174:  >>> unmerge success: sys-fs/udisks-1.0.3-r1
1311209175:  === (1 of 1) Post-Build Cleaning (sys-fs/udisks-1.0.3-r1::/mnt/nfs_portage/sys-fs/udisks/udisks-1.0.3-r1.ebuild)
1311209175:  ::: completed emerge (1 of 1) sys-fs/udisks-1.0.3-r1 to /
1311209175:  *** Finished. Cleaning up...
1311209176:  *** exiting successfully.
1311209176:  *** terminating.
1311209913: Started emerge on: Jul 20, 2011 20:58:33
1311209913:  *** emerge  xf86-input-keyboard xf86-input-mouse xf86-input-evdev
1311209918:  >>> emerge (1 of 3) x11-drivers/xf86-input-keyboard-1.6.0 to /
1311209918:  === (1 of 3) Cleaning (x11-drivers/xf86-input-keyboard-1.6.0::/mnt/nfs_portage/x11-drivers/xf86-input-keyboard/xf86-input-keyboard-1.6.0.ebuild)
1311209940:  === (1 of 3) Compiling/Merging (x11-drivers/xf86-input-keyboard-1.6.0::/mnt/nfs_portage/x11-drivers/xf86-input-keyboard/xf86-input-keyboard-1.6.0.ebuild)
1311209957:  === (1 of 3) Merging (x11-drivers/xf86-input-keyboard-1.6.0::/mnt/nfs_portage/x11-drivers/xf86-input-keyboard/xf86-input-keyboard-1.6.0.ebuild)
1311209958:  >>> AUTOCLEAN: x11-drivers/xf86-input-keyboard:0
1311209960:  === (1 of 3) Updating world file (x11-drivers/xf86-input-keyboard-1.6.0)
1311209960:  === (1 of 3) Post-Build Cleaning (x11-drivers/xf86-input-keyboard-1.6.0::/mnt/nfs_portage/x11-drivers/xf86-input-keyboard/xf86-input-keyboard-1.6.0.ebuild)
1311209960:  ::: completed emerge (1 of 3) x11-drivers/xf86-input-keyboard-1.6.0 to /
1311209960:  >>> emerge (2 of 3) x11-drivers/xf86-input-mouse-1.7.0 to /
1311209960:  === (2 of 3) Cleaning (x11-drivers/xf86-input-mouse-1.7.0::/mnt/nfs_portage/x11-drivers/xf86-input-mouse/xf86-input-mouse-1.7.0.ebuild)
1311209960:  === (2 of 3) Compiling/Merging (x11-drivers/xf86-input-mouse-1.7.0::/mnt/nfs_portage/x11-drivers/xf86-input-mouse/xf86-input-mouse-1.7.0.ebuild)
1311209978:  === (2 of 3) Merging (x11-drivers/xf86-input-mouse-1.7.0::/mnt/nfs_portage/x11-drivers/xf86-input-mouse/xf86-input-mouse-1.7.0.ebuild)
1311209979:  >>> AUTOCLEAN: x11-drivers/xf86-input-mouse:0
1311209980:  === (2 of 3) Updating world file (x11-drivers/xf86-input-mouse-1.7.0)
1311209980:  === (2 of 3) Post-Build Cleaning (x11-drivers/xf86-input-mouse-1.7.0::/mnt/nfs_portage/x11-drivers/xf86-input-mouse/xf86-input-mouse-1.7.0.ebuild)
1311209980:  ::: completed emerge (2 of 3) x11-drivers/xf86-input-mouse-1.7.0 to /
1311209980:  >>> emerge (3 of 3) x11-drivers/xf86-input-evdev-2.6.0 to /
1311209980:  === (3 of 3) Cleaning (x11-drivers/xf86-input-evdev-2.6.0::/mnt/nfs_portage/x11-drivers/xf86-input-evdev/xf86-input-evdev-2.6.0.ebuild)
1311209981:  === (3 of 3) Compiling/Merging (x11-drivers/xf86-input-evdev-2.6.0::/mnt/nfs_portage/x11-drivers/xf86-input-evdev/xf86-input-evdev-2.6.0.ebuild)
1311210000:  === (3 of 3) Merging (x11-drivers/xf86-input-evdev-2.6.0::/mnt/nfs_portage/x11-drivers/xf86-input-evdev/xf86-input-evdev-2.6.0.ebuild)
1311210001:  >>> AUTOCLEAN: x11-drivers/xf86-input-evdev:0
1311210001:  === Unmerging... (x11-drivers/xf86-input-evdev-2.6.0)
1311210002:  >>> unmerge success: x11-drivers/xf86-input-evdev-2.6.0
1311210003:  === (3 of 3) Updating world file (x11-drivers/xf86-input-evdev-2.6.0)
1311210003:  === (3 of 3) Post-Build Cleaning (x11-drivers/xf86-input-evdev-2.6.0::/mnt/nfs_portage/x11-drivers/xf86-input-evdev/xf86-input-evdev-2.6.0.ebuild)
1311210003:  ::: completed emerge (3 of 3) x11-drivers/xf86-input-evdev-2.6.0 to /
1311210003:  *** Finished. Cleaning up...
1311210004:  *** exiting successfully.
1311210005:  *** terminating.
1311210387: Started emerge on: Jul 20, 2011 21:06:27
1311210387:  *** emerge --oneshot --nodeps =net-wireless/rtl8192se-2.6.0019.1207.2010 =x11-drivers/ati-drivers-11.6
1311210398:  >>> emerge (1 of 2) net-wireless/rtl8192se-2.6.0019.1207.2010 to /
1311210399:  === (1 of 2) Cleaning (net-wireless/rtl8192se-2.6.0019.1207.2010::/mnt/nfs_portage/net-wireless/rtl8192se/rtl8192se-2.6.0019.1207.2010.ebuild)
1311210408:  === (1 of 2) Compiling/Merging (net-wireless/rtl8192se-2.6.0019.1207.2010::/mnt/nfs_portage/net-wireless/rtl8192se/rtl8192se-2.6.0019.1207.2010.ebuild)
1311210460:  === (1 of 2) Merging (net-wireless/rtl8192se-2.6.0019.1207.2010::/mnt/nfs_portage/net-wireless/rtl8192se/rtl8192se-2.6.0019.1207.2010.ebuild)
1311210461:  >>> AUTOCLEAN: net-wireless/rtl8192se:0
1311210461:  === Unmerging... (net-wireless/rtl8192se-2.6.0019.1207.2010)
1311210465:  >>> unmerge success: net-wireless/rtl8192se-2.6.0019.1207.2010
1311210466:  === (1 of 2) Post-Build Cleaning (net-wireless/rtl8192se-2.6.0019.1207.2010::/mnt/nfs_portage/net-wireless/rtl8192se/rtl8192se-2.6.0019.1207.2010.ebuild)
1311210466:  ::: completed emerge (1 of 2) net-wireless/rtl8192se-2.6.0019.1207.2010 to /
1311210466:  >>> emerge (2 of 2) x11-drivers/ati-drivers-11.6 to /
1311210466:  === (2 of 2) Cleaning (x11-drivers/ati-drivers-11.6::/mnt/nfs_portage/x11-drivers/ati-drivers/ati-drivers-11.6.ebuild)
1311210474:  === (2 of 2) Compiling/Merging (x11-drivers/ati-drivers-11.6::/mnt/nfs_portage/x11-drivers/ati-drivers/ati-drivers-11.6.ebuild)
1311210502:  === (2 of 2) Merging (x11-drivers/ati-drivers-11.6::/mnt/nfs_portage/x11-drivers/ati-drivers/ati-drivers-11.6.ebuild)
1311210504:  >>> AUTOCLEAN: x11-drivers/ati-drivers:1
1311210504:  === Unmerging... (x11-drivers/ati-drivers-11.6)
1311210510:  >>> unmerge success: x11-drivers/ati-drivers-11.6
1311210513:  === (2 of 2) Post-Build Cleaning (x11-drivers/ati-drivers-11.6::/mnt/nfs_portage/x11-drivers/ati-drivers/ati-drivers-11.6.ebuild)
1311210513:  ::: completed emerge (2 of 2) x11-drivers/ati-drivers-11.6 to /
1311210513:  *** Finished. Cleaning up...
1311210514:  *** exiting successfully.
1311210514:  *** terminating.

But it is possible
Cory

[clytle374]

Well it worked until last night. I didn't run any updates or change any configs either.

I tried going into windows and it works there, but nothings after the kernel starts to load in linux.

No idea what happened, but at least I have 2 witnesses so I don't have to question my sanity.

Cory