No Keyboard Backlight on Macbook pro-2011 ?

Grami_fr

Hello, I just installed Solus 4.5 on my old Macbook Pro 15 from 2011. Everything works fine except the keyboard backlight. The backlight works from the live USB key.... But after installation on the SSD and update. It no longer works. If I press the keys to turn the lighting up, the icon is displayed, but it remains at 0. Do you have an idea of what to do to make it work again? Thank's

Grami_fr

To test, I installed the LTS kernel and booted from it, but the same...still no backlight on the keyboard. I reinstalled Solus 4.5, and without updating, the same, no backlight. What is the difference between the Live version of the USB key where the backlight works and once installed?

pomon

If no one answers, I'll give you this. Because as I understand it the backlight keys on the Live work?

Grami_fr

Yes, the backlight works well in Live mode from the USB key. I did another test in "live mode": I booted again from the USB key. If I select in the boot menu: Solus 4.5 (Budgie), the backlight works. If I select Solus 4.5 (Budgie) (nomodeset) (NVIDIA compatibility Mode), the Backlight does not work. Probably a problem with the driver of the Nvidia GT330 card of the macbook pro 2011?

Facundo-c-c

Grami_fr are u using gnome? im not sure if its was release yet but they want to put a keyboard light "support" on quick setting

Grami_fr

I use budgie. I don't unterstand why in live mode the backlight is ok, but not when Solus is installed. The installer must do something with the driver. But what?

Grami_fr

OK, I found how to turn on the keyboard backlight by following this :

-First su in as root:
sudo su
-Then cd to backlight directory:
cd /sys/class/leds/smc::kbd_backlight/
-Turn the backlight on:
cat max_brightness > brightness
-Set to zero to turn off the backlight
echo 0 > brightness

The F5 and F6 keys still don't work, but at least I have my keyboard which is lit.

Grami_fr

I did another test: I installed solus Budgie 4.4 instead of Solus Bugie 4.5, and everything works fine under 4.4. If I update to 4.5: the keyboard backlight no longer works. And I have some video bugs in Freecad. Hum...strange...

pomon

Report the bug on the site, describing everything in detail. Including that on Solus-4.4 backlighting works.
In my case, FreeCAD from the repository works. Solus Budgie 6.6.20-279.current FreeCAD-0.21.2, release: 14.

Grami_fr

Thank's for you reply Ok, i will report this bug on the macbook Pro. For Freecad , yes, it work from repository. But sometimes, I need to use the Freecad's Fork, made by RealThunder. He generally does one Appimage per month. And this Fork/version allows you to bypass the well-known topological naming problem under freecad, which can be practical on certain 3d Objects.

UncleSlacky

I just discovered the same issue on my Macbook Pro mid-2012 (Macbook Pro 9,1), Budgie 4.4 worked fine, under 4.5 the f5 & f6 keys have no effect but they still show the top half of the brightness slider low on the screen.

Grami_fr

Hello, yes, it's exactly the same problem as on my Macboo Pro 6.2. I reported the bug, but so far no news.

UncleSlacky

Grami_fr I've added a comment on the bug report to include my model of MBP.

UncleSlacky

Grami_fr Today's update seems to have fixed the issue, at least on the mid-2012 MBP.

Grami_fr

Hello, after the updates still not working... The keyboard backlighting still bugs (MBP 6.2 mid 2010).

UncleSlacky

Yes, I may have spoken too soon! It worked after the first reboot following the update, but not since (the backlighting is on, but probably at the level I left it after the update had seemed to fix it) but now the popup slider is not budging from the zero position and the backlighting is stuck on.

tonyk

I'm not sure what is different in my configuration - latest updated Solus Budgie - but keyboard backlight is working on my Macbook Pro 2012 (9,2) and Macbook Pro 2008? (4,1). One of the comments in the bug report has backlight issues with the same Macbook Pro 9,2, but mine is working.
It didn't work after the first restart after the new kernel, but after shutting down and turning on, the f5 and f6 work correctly to decrease/increase the keyboard backlight.
I'll copy this to the bug report as well.

UncleSlacky

It seems to be something of a heisenbug, it's not working again after working during the last boot session. I think I may look into adapting this instead.

tonyk

Yes, strange. After upgrading the kernel yesterday, the f5/f6 keys didn't work to adjust keyboard backlight on my 2008 MacbookPro (4,1), but worked fine on the 2012 MacbookPro (9,2). Tried rebooting, turning off, reset PRAM and SMC and no change. Saw your message this morning on github and tried again, and f5/f6 keys work properly for keyboard backlight adjustment on the 2008 MBP as well. Argh.
I use a desktop program to adjust the keyboard backlight if the keys don't work - add an icon on your desktop with the following:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Keyboard Backlight
Comment=Adjust Keyboard Backlight - below is for 2008 Macbook Pro.
Exec=gedit admin:///sys/class/leds/smc::kbd_backlight/brightness
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Icon=keyboard
Categories=Utility;

Click the icon, enter your password, and enter the backlight setting in gedit. The Macbook keyboard brightness ranges from 0-255.
Hope that helps.