Problem with keyboard backlighing on Asus N56VZ

[Citan]

Hi everyone, hope you're preparing well for Christmas and New Eve!
I come to you for a small problem.
I recently bought an Asus N56VZ. I knew from the Ubuntu thread (http://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/asus_n56vm) what the potential problems were. One of them was the keyboard backlighting, which was apparently functional with kernel 3.5.x. Surprisingly, when I tried a live Kubuntu (12.10, 64bits) it didn't work.
To be sure, I launched a Ubuntu 12.10 64bits live cd, it worked!

So, I wondered if I could circumvent the problem by installing Ubuntu and "above it" Kubuntu (I know it's ugly, was just for test ^^). Turns out it didn't change anything. Functions key just won't work with KDE, work fine with Unity.

My best guess, as I'm not savvy with the background of these environments, is that KDE fails to grasp a driver, or a configuration file?
How could I resolve this plz? It's my only annoyance with my dear desktop...

Thanks in advance for your help!

PS : Additionnaly, my touchpad isn't available for configuration in "Input Devices" menu. But since basic functions (left/right click) work, it's not so important... Just for information to those tempted by this computer.

[Spadge]

They just recommend that you update your install if you want to fix the backlight problem.

I don't know about the special function keys, but you might find that with a 3.7 kernel things are different.

Give installing 12.10 a go. Update it. See what works and what doesn't.

Any keys that don't work on their own (wtf "launch webcam app") you can assign to stuff manually yourself in KDE.

Personally though, I wouldn't install ubuntu and then shoehorn kubuntu-desktop on top. That way madness lies.

[Citan]

Hi, thanks for your reply.
It's actually what I did in the first place, doing a fresh install of Kubuntu 12.10 and updating the whole system. It didn't help a bit.
Also, only the backlighing fn keys for keyboard and screen don't work, everything else seems recognized and working properly.
And for the screen fn buttons, they don't work "anywhere" yet. ?

Besides, I really doubt it's a kernel related problem, since when I tried switching between Unity and KDE, it was obviously on the same installation so, unless I'm mistaken, the bootstrapping of a specific kernel version is independant of the desktop manager you launch... Isn't it?

It's really a Kubuntu specific problem, since I also tried a live-CD of Zorin OS with KDE and keyboard started lighted.
As for the "Kubuntu on Ubuntu", I clearly stated that I did that only as a way of testing, because I know it's pretty ugly and a hive for problems.

Anyway, I wonder if anyone would know some commands to run to diagnosize the problem. Nice evening to all!

EDIT : I also tried manually installing a newer kernel, aka 3.6.x, since it's not available in updates, but one of the related packages ("extras") didn't succeed to install properly, ultimately causing regressions. So I switched back on "Kubuntu official" latest kernel.

EDIT 2 To double check I retried tzo live-cd, Zorin OS the latest has zorking keyboardm although it has kernel 3.2. But it is in fact Gnome-based. Fedora 17 KDE flavour zith kernel 3,3 has no keyboard backlight and even worse no wifi. Id like to continue investigating but dont know how to proceed from here.

[NoWorries]

I have an ASUS R501VM N56VM and only recently was I able to get the keyboard backlighting to work by using these backlight scripts. I was not able to get the function key control of the backlighting to work but I found the script light_up.sh turned the lights on to maximum intensity.

To get the lights on during the boot process I adapted the procedure found here. This is still early days for me and I hope to find a better solution. For the moment this gets me by.

I also found it interesting to see that a bug report has been posted here

[Spadge]

Besides, I really doubt it's a kernel related problem, since when I tried switching between Unity and KDE, it was obviously on the same installation so, unless I'm mistaken, the bootstrapping of a specific kernel version is independant of the desktop manager you launch... Isn't it?

Drivers pretty much live in kernel space.

http://askubuntu.com/questions/15670...12-04-notebook

[Citan]

Hi guys,
Spadge, thanks for your confirmation about kernel and drivers relationships.
NoWorries, thank you very much for your indications. It should probably work with my laptop since it's so similar.
I'll try as soon as possible (today if I can) and keep you poted. Have a nice day!

[NoWorries]

Drivers pretty much live in kernel space.

http://askubuntu.com/questions/15670...12-04-notebook

I tried installing the deb file asus-wmi-dkms_0.2_all.deb but that did not work on my system. So I reverted back to the approach I originally described. I did find a useful site that got my Ethernet and Sub-woofer working, it is Multimedia, Subwoofer, Ethernet. So I now have it all working to my satisfaction.

Citan, I hope you have success with your system.