How to turn off keyboard backlight on MSI GF65 Thin

[classl3ss]

Hello all!

Thanks in advance for your help. I have tried a variety of ways to turn off the keyboard backlight on my new MSI GF65 thin laptop. The typical fn + +, or fn space doesn't work, and the msi-keyboard app gives me a 'cannot open usb device' output.

I also tried going into the /sys/class/leds/*/brightness files, and found that there was no folder for the keyboard (just a folder for numlock, capslock, etc. leds).

Are there any other recommendations for how to solve this issue?



Operating System: Kubuntu 20.04
KDE Plasma Version: 5.18.8
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.68.0
Qt Version: 5.12.8
Kernel Version: 5.13.0-35-generic
OS Type: 64-bit


Best,
Classl3ss

[Snowhog]

Have you gone through https://www.msi.com/support/technical_details/NB_KB_LED ?

[classl3ss]

Have you gone through https://www.msi.com/support/technical_details/NB_KB_LED ?

Thank you for the recommendation!

I have, but the key combinations they recommend don't work on my laptop since I installed kubuntu, and the MSI centers don't have linux versions available as far as I can tell.

[claydoh]

There are a very large number of different model variations for this model, so it is hard to guess which specific user manual to look at, without a more specific model number. They seem to have different keyboards. Some seem to have fn+pg up and pg dn for this, some keyboards don't have any markings to indicate any shortcuts.

4. If backlight keyboard is supported, please press the backlight hotkey button to toggle on/off the backlight (some models do not come with hotkey button but can be activated via SteelSeries Engine / or MSI Center software. May vary by Model).

It is entirely possible that MSI use custom software instead of hardware based controls that most laptops use.
If so, there may be another utility,besides the "msi-keyboard app" you used. This particular software is old - it has been the same exact version since 2016 in ubuntu's repos, and its github page is gone., It may simply not support your model. I spy a metric buttload of MSI keyboard utilities on github, most of them being ancient, so this may be a bit of a research task.

You might check the bios to see if there are any key/controls options there.

[classl3ss]

There are a very large number of different model variations for this model, so it is hard to guess which specific user manual to look at, without a more specific model number. They seem to have different keyboards. Some seem to have fn+pg up and pg dn for this, some keyboards don't have any markings to indicate any shortcuts.



It is entirely possible that MSI use custom software instead of hardware based controls that most laptops use.
If so, there may be another utility,besides the "msi-keyboard app" you used. This particular software is old - it has been the same exact version since 2016 in ubuntu's repos, and its github page is gone., It may simply not support your model. I spy a metric buttload of MSI keyboard utilities on github, most of them being ancient, so this may be a bit of a research task.

You might check the bios to see if there are any key/controls options there.

Thanks, I do plan to fiddle with it more and try to do some more research. I also already checked to bios to no avail.

If anyone can offer any additional pointers, this is the laptop: MSI GF65 Thin 9SEXR-250 (i7-9750H, 16GB RAM, 512GB NVMe SSD, RTX 2060 6GB, 15.6" Full HD, Windows 10) Gaming Laptop

[claydoh]

With msi-keyboard, how did you run it? I am guessing the command would be msi-keyboard -c off , and I imagine it might be necessary to use the command with sudo, perhaps.

[classl3ss]

With msi-keyboard, how did you run it? I am guessing the command would be msi-keyboard -c off , and I imagine it might be necessary to use the command with sudo, perhaps.

Unfortunately, that doesn't work either. msi-keyboard requires that you specify a mode, then a region,color,intensity. When input this: "sudo msi-keyboard -m normal -c left,red,off -c middle,red,off -c right,red,off" I get the output: "cannot open usb device"

And this is what I get when I use your recommended command:
"sudo msi-keyboard -c off
invalid color selection
Please set a mode as well as at least one color region to change."