Lenovo ThinkPad W510 keyboard backlight help

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wyght

Lenovo ThinkPad W510 keyboard backlight help

Post by wyght »

Lenovo ThinkPad W510
Linux Mint 19 Cinnamon, 4.15.0-46-generic
Intel© Core™ i7 CPU Q 820 @ 1.73GHz × 4

$ find /sys/devices -iname '*keyboard*' -or -iname '*kbd*' -or -iname '*backlight*'
/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:03.0/0000:01:00.0/backlight
/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:03.0/0000:01:00.0/drm/card0/card0-LVDS-1/nv_backlight

I searched the keyboard backlight questions which is how I found the 'find' query above. I have no idea what that query is telling me.

echo 2 | sudo tee /sys/class/leds/asus::kbd_backlight/brightness
[sudo] password for W501:
tee: '/sys/class/leds/asus::kbd_backlight/brightness': No such file or directory

I believe rather than asus I would need to put something in for my ThinkPad W501 but no idea what

I have not found a way to turn on my keyboard's backlight. This ThnkPad has the Fn+spacebar for a hotkey to turn it on / off but this does not work with Mint 19.

Does anyone know how to turn on the backlight?
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
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germanix
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Re: Lenovo ThinkPad W510 keyboard backlight help

Post by germanix »

Hi Wyght,
are you sure that you need to press the crtl + spacebar. I have 3 Thinkpads, all using Mint 19 and the keyboard backlight works on all of them, but I need to click the Fn button + Spacebar ! to start the keyboard lights. Try that. Hope it helps
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wyght

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad W510 keyboard backlight help

Post by wyght »

germanix wrote: Sat Mar 23, 2019 4:08 pm Hi Wyght,
are you sure that you need to press the crtl + spacebar. I have 3 Thinkpads, all using Mint 19 and the keyboard backlight works on all of them, but I need to click the Fn button + Spacebar ! to start the keyboard lights. Try that. Hope it helps
Rats, I am terribly sorry. I 'meant' fn not ctrl if I press the fn+spacebar it will not do a thing. sorry for the confusion
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AndyMH
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Re: Lenovo ThinkPad W510 keyboard backlight help

Post by AndyMH »

Have you got a backlit keyboard? Read a post somewhere else recently that said if the light symbol on the space bar is shining down you have the light above the screen, if the light is shining up then you have a backlit keyboard. On my T430's it's shining down so pressing Fn+spacebar switches the LED above the screen on/off.
Thinkcentre M720Q - LM21.3 cinnamon, 4 x T430 - LM21.3 cinnamon, Homebrew desktop i5-8400+GTX1080 Cinnamon 19.0
rickNS
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Re: Lenovo ThinkPad W510 keyboard backlight help

Post by rickNS »

AndyMH wrote: Sat Mar 23, 2019 7:56 pm Have you got a backlit keyboard?
Good question, hard to turn on something that's not there.
W510 specs. from lenovo website says;
"ThinkLight keyboard light illuminates the keyboard to improve visibility in low-light conditions "
so, you have a "thinklight".

Try FN + PgUp. (upper right)
That was the key combination up to the *20 series, then switched to FN + SPACE at *30 series, which I believe is when backlit keyboards were first introduced.

To double check, if there is no light rays on your space bar or Esc key, you do not have backlit keyboard.
Pictures here. https://support.lenovo.com/ca/en/solutions/ht104656
Mint 20.0, and 21.0 MATE on Thinkpads, 3 X T420, T450, T470, and X200
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