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I have a new Samsung laptop specifically the Samsung Notebook 7 running Debian 10.2 and everything was pretty much fine. But the keyboard lighting just stopped working for no reason after about 4 days of using. I can't seem to figure out how do I turn the light back on.
There's a F9 key with light indicator which you should switch the keyboard light on/off (this is confirmed by Samsung support). But when I do Fn + F9 nothing happens.
Tried searching for a solution but each of them had cons so I'm asking here. Thanks to anyone for any suggestions!
Here are the solutions I've tried :
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=182668
To note this is a Linux Mint forum but they guy has the same issue basically. They commented the issue with this command :
echo 0 | sudo tee /sys/class/leds/toshiba::illumination/brightness
The problem is I cannot execute this command the same way because there's no Toshiba directory in that folder (makes sense I don't have toshiba notebook). There's no Samsung folder instead of the Toshiba one so I've tried executing it with Samsung anyway and it didn't work (directory doesn't exist). All of the other threads I've found suggested the same solution but there was always a folder named after the manufacturer ex: Asus, Toshiba... I don't have that folder.
Jameson Greek
Posted 2020-01-01T22:05:14.043
Reputation: 1
Did Fn+F9 ever work? What about sole F9 without Fn? (just in case because some laptops "reverse" the meaning). Is the backlight registered somewhere inside
– Kamil Maciorowski – 2020-01-01T22:14:51.407/sys/class/leds/? (compare this).Tried searching for a solution but each of them had cons so…– Please [edit] and state solutions you have rejected, so we don't waste everybody's time by repeating them. Have you considered the backlight may be faulty on a hardware level?I haven't tried Fn+F9 before the thing happened so I can't really tell. But as I said it is confirmed as a proper way to switch the keyboard lighting on/off by Samsung support and I've also read a comment on a forum from a guy responding with this shortcut and it works that way for him also. I don't know how do I tell if something is registered but when I use "ls" in /sys/class/leds/ I get these folders : "input0::capslock input0::numlock input0::scrolllock mmc0:: phy0-led" I haven't considered faulty backlight cause by hardware because it worked couple of days ago. – Jameson Greek – 2020-01-01T23:45:21.710
I haven't considered faulty backlight cause by hardware because it worked couple of days ago.– Every malfunction is like "working, working, not working"; so the fact it worked couple of days ago means nothing. – Kamil Maciorowski – 2020-01-02T01:08:00.160In my Dell (running Kubuntu) there is
/sys/class/leds/dell::kbd_backlight/, but the keyboard backlight reacts to the proper keystroke before GRUB starts, before Linux starts. This means the keystroke takes effect internally, without any driver in the OS. If your Samsung works in a similar way then the keystroke should work, unless the key is faulty or the backlight is faulty, or some electrical connection is faulty. For now some kind of hardware malfunction seems plausible. – Kamil Maciorowski – 2020-01-02T01:23:12.143I've used this command:
find /sys/devices -iname 'keyboard' -or -iname 'kbd' -or -iname 'backlight'
to search for files that may be used to set the brightness found on the Mint forum. And found a directory:
/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/drm/card0/card0-eDP-1/intel_backlight
There I've located a file called "actual_brightness" which hold value of "1" in it. I've read on the forum that 1 stands for off and 3 for on. Now I only need to change from 1 to 3 but I'm getting error : Couldn't write to the file, permission denied even when running "sudo nano actual_brightness". – Jameson Greek – 2020-01-02T01:33:19.100
Right now I'm trying to give myself somehow permissions to edit the file so I can fix the issue. – Jameson Greek – 2020-01-02T01:37:35.830
I think
card0-eDP-1is your display (screen). – Kamil Maciorowski – 2020-01-02T01:39:02.207Hmm maybe it's a hardware issue but the laptop is new and nothing else broke? Also I have it from Decemeber 24th got it from my wife for christmas I don't want to believe it would break so fast. Also the srangest thing now is there's no folder of manufacturer. Others have Asus/Toshiba/Dell? I don't have anything like that weird. – Jameson Greek – 2020-01-02T01:46:04.220
I'm probably going to take it to the local hardware store though... Thanks anyway man. The laptop was shipped from US to EU so there's no way I'm sending it back over sea. – Jameson Greek – 2020-01-02T01:48:04.910