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Bug 688706 - Save and restore keyboard backlight state between reboots
Save and restore keyboard backlight state between reboots
Status: RESOLVED NOTGNOME
Product: gnome-settings-daemon
Classification: Core
Component: power
unspecified
Other Linux
: Normal major
: ---
Assigned To: Richard Hughes
gnome-settings-daemon-maint
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
 
Reported: 2012-11-20 08:12 UTC by Wolfram
Modified: 2016-03-16 16:43 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: ---
GNOME version: 3.5/3.6



Description Wolfram 2012-11-20 08:12:31 UTC
1) Logon into gnome on macbook or asus ux31a
2) Turn off keyboard backlight using hardware keys or echoing 0 to appropriate /sys/class file
3) Reboot and logon again
4) Keyboard backlight will be reset to max value.
Comment 1 Filippo Argiolas 2012-12-20 14:45:20 UTC
Same here, gnome 3.6, fedora 18 on a macbook pro 7,1
After each login the keyboard backlight gets back to its maximum value.
Note that a similar issue seems to happen with the screen brightness too but it's not being reset to maximum but to the one set in System Settings->Brightness and Lock, which apparently doesn't reflect the one set with hardware keys.
Comment 2 Bastien Nocera 2013-01-17 20:58:00 UTC
Thanks for the bug report. This particular bug has already been reported into our bug tracking system, but please feel free to report any further bugs you find.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 649423 ***
Comment 3 Wolfram 2013-01-18 01:19:16 UTC
Are keyboard led brightness and display brightness are the same?
Are these bugs same?
Comment 4 Bastien Nocera 2013-01-24 07:40:52 UTC
I'll reopen as the functionality is currently separately implemented (UPower for keyboard brightness, X.org xbacklight/PK helper for screen brightness)

But both should be implemented at the system level rather than the user level.
Comment 5 Bastien Nocera 2013-10-11 07:57:34 UTC
This might be fixed by this patch to systemd:
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=70367

As systemd already saves and restores display backlight, that's where keyboard backlight should be handled as well.
Comment 6 Michael 2016-03-16 05:08:36 UTC
I fail to see how this is a duplicate of 649423, as it's only been talked about screen backlight and not keyboard backlight there. 

I also doubt, that it's fixed through any systemd changes. I already had set up a script in rc.local to dim down the kb backlight, but as soon as gnome starts up, it insists on lighting up the keyboard and eating up precious battery life again.

So this is in no way solved, and to me it really seems like being a gnome problem. If the gnome power manager would just keep it's fingers away from the kb backlight completely, even that would be big progress already.
Comment 7 Bastien Nocera 2016-03-16 11:29:53 UTC
(In reply to Michael from comment #6)
> I fail to see how this is a duplicate of 649423, as it's only been talked
> about screen backlight and not keyboard backlight there. 

Both offer the same kernel API, so both should be saved.

> I also doubt, that it's fixed through any systemd changes. I already had set
> up a script in rc.local to dim down the kb backlight, but as soon as gnome
> starts up, it insists on lighting up the keyboard and eating up precious
> battery life again.

Then please file file a new bug, stating the versions of gnome-settings-daemon, of systemd, and the output of "udevadm info --export-db".

> So this is in no way solved, and to me it really seems like being a gnome
> problem. If the gnome power manager would just keep it's fingers away from
> the kb backlight completely, even that would be big progress already.

Right, and what do you think handles the keyboard buttons for that backlight?
Comment 8 Michael 2016-03-16 16:43:25 UTC
Sorry, I didn't want to offend anyone. I realize I had posted this after several only half way successful attempts to work around it, and the tone of the post may reflect this :(

> Right, and what do you think handles the keyboard buttons for that backlight?

Surely gnome does. Still, I'd prefer anytime a completely disabled KB backlight, including disfunctional buttons, than something that switches them on constantly. For me the backlight is a completely useless battery eater, and this may be true for a large amount of touch typists. So if it's hard to save any state, or resetting it properly, just being able to completely disable it would be perfectly fine.