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I recently bought a Dell G5 laptop which came pre-installed with Windows OS. However, I removed Windows OS and install Ubuntu 20.04.02 LTS on it. Now, I'm unable to get the keyboard backlight to work and I'm unable to find a solution to this problem.

alpinesummit
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4 Answers4

22

Generally you can set the keyboard brightness in the Power Settings:

Settings - Power - Keyboard Brightness

If you do not see this option, then you may be able to set it via the Terminal, so long as the keyboard makes the backlight settings available. Here's how to check:

  1. Open Terminal (if it's not already open)
  2. Install brightnessctl (if it is not already installed): 
    sudo apt update
sudo apt install brightnessctl
  3. Check whether the keyboard brightness settings are accessible: 
    brightnessctl --device='tpacpi::kbd_backlight' info
    If everything is good, you will see something similar to this: 
    Device 'tpacpi::kbd_backlight' of class 'leds':
    Current brightness: 0 (0%)
    Max brightness: 2
  4. Now you can try to change the brightness: 
    sudo brightnessctl --device='tpacpi::kbd_backlight' set 1
    If this works, then adjust the brightness to any integer value between 0 and the maximum step supported by your keyboard. If this doesn't work, then you will likely see a message similar to: 
    Can't modify brightness: Permission denied

Note: Some G5 models come with RGB LEDs under the keyboard but, to the best of my knowledge, there is no means to set the display colours without the Windows-based application.

matigo
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For my Lenovo Thinkpad using Ubuntu 20.04 and Ubuntu 22.04 , there are no kbd_backlight in brightnessctl -l command. But I can turn on by use Fn+Space to toggle keyboard backlight.

reference: https://support.lenovo.com/be/th/solutions/ht104451-how-to-turn-onoff-the-keyboard-light-backlit-on-your-laptop-thinkpad

Muhammad Dyas Yaskur
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0

I don't have brightnessctl installed (Asus Zenbook) on 20.04 LTS but I am able to use Fn+F7 to toggle on or off the keyboard backlight. The question is already a year old but it may help some people facing the same issue.

Farzan
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For anyone searching like me; If you were searching for Backlit keyboard instead of keyboard backlight; then it can only be enabled (on those keyboards; that have that functionality in the first place), from the keyboard function key (in my case it was F9).

Adeel Raza Azeemi
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