I have read on other forums that the back light for the ASUS laptops can be a pain to get to working. So far no distro that I have tried has it actually worked. Its not a huge deal breaker for me, it something that is nice when it works. Anyone have an ASUS model similiar to mine that has gotten the keyboard backlight to work?

    10 months later

    swagglepuff

    Did you ever find a solution?

    I have an Asus ROG Zephyrus GA502D and I am forced to type blind almost.

    I installed the suggested AlienFX but it throws an error saying no supported controller found.

    • laky replied to this.

        swagglepuff Anyone have an ASUS model similiar to mine that has gotten the keyboard backlight to work?

        Not an ASUS, but a DELL. All I need to do to light up the keyboard is press any key. Shift by itself works just fine. Isn't yours activated that way?

            Jumpy there is an xsetcommand about turning certain [led {on|off}], have you tried it? More info with man xset in command line.

              WetGeek The keyboard backlight for this laptop was a pain to get working even in Windows 10 (after a clean Windows installation without the bloatware). I had to install a certain proprietary Asus software from Windows marketplace to get the lights working; The funny thing I found out was that none of the drivers and software from official asus website was not enough but one from Windows marketplace.

              ASUS Keyboard Hotkeys by ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC
              https://www.microsoft.com/store/productId/9PK20DG5FB6B

              MyASUS by ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC
              https://www.microsoft.com/store/productId/9N7R5S6B0ZZH

              I think it takes some one with "asus republic of gamers" hardware to answer this question.

              There is one way to get the lights working in linux. First I start the laptop to Windows, lights turn on, then reboot to Solus and the lights stay on. This could be used to debug the problem I guess, but do not have the expertise to do so.

                WetGeek I have got it working but it either involves patching the kernel which the solus teams frowns upon. There is github that you install and you have to manually turn on the keyboard by running a script in the terminal. The asus keyboard backlights are controlled by their proprietary auracore software that is not available outside of windows. A user was able to reverse engineer the process and put in on the git.

                Like the other user mentioned, even on windows you have to download the proprietary driver and software on a fresh windows install or the keyboard light doesn't work.

                Dell has really great support for linux and Asus doesn't at all.

                    swagglepuff I had to modprobe the kernel to get wifi, so I am willing to do it again with the keyboard lights, and also again and again after every kernel update.

                    Could you please share the github link here and a full list of commands I need to type in the terminal?

                      Finally I have keyboard backlight in linux!

                      1) Go to: https://github.com/wroberts/rogauracore

                      2) Download: rogauracore-master.zip

                      3) Extract: rogauracore-master.zip to /rogauracore/

                      4) Use eopkg to install the prequisities: libusb, libusb-devel

                      5) Finally type following in the terminal:

                      $ cd rogauracore/
                      $ autoconf configure.ac
                      $ autoreconf -i
                      $ ./configure
                      $ make
                      $ sudo make install
                      $ sudo ./rogauracore initialize_keyboard
                      $ sudo ./rogauracore brightness 1

                      PS: Could some one please mark this thread solved?

                      2 months later

                      As I was looking into others using Solus and this laptop I saw this thread. Wanted to update with a better tool to get keyboard backlighting working (with 5.6 and newer kernels) it also enables fan speed controls display brightness controls and keyboard backlight controls.

                      https://github.com/flukejones/rog-core

                        a year later

                        Thanks, I have an ASUS ROG GL702VM, I'll give this a try.
                        Oh, and swagglepuff, the keyboard lighting does work in PoP!_Os, right out of the box. It's a slider under power settings, (yea you can even set how dim/bright it is, don't think even ASUS windrivers do that) Anyway, there's a good place to look for a simpler, already working solution, FYI. (hint hint, Drake)

                        Scott

                        EDIT: I asked the guys at System76 (Pop!_Os) and they said it was just a GNOME extension, (system76-power) Perhaps this could be added in here? Hope it helps.