Controlling Dell Laptop Keyboard Backlight from Command Line
I didn’t take me long to start wondering if there was a way to control keyboard backlight on my Dell XPS 3890 laptop, and of course there is a simple enough solution.
Check Current Keyboard Backlight Level
IMPORTANT: This is Dell laptops (if not Dell XPS model) specific.
Go to the /sys/devices/platform/dell-laptop/leds/dell::kbd_backlight directory and cat the file called brightess:
root@xps:/sys/devices/platform/dell-laptop/leds/dell::kbd_backlight # cat brightness
1
You can confirm the max value for brightness in a similar way:
root@xps:/sys/devices/platform/dell-laptop/leds/dell::kbd_backlight # cat max_brightness 2
Set Keyboard Backlight Brightness
If you just echo the numeric value you want, it will immediately apply it to your laptop’s keyboard.
IMPORANT: you need to do it as root user.
Turning backlight off:
root@xps:/sys/devices/platform/dell-laptop/leds/dell::kbd_backlight # echo 0 > brightness
Setting it to max brightness:
root@xps:/sys/devices/platform/dell-laptop/leds/dell::kbd_backlight # echo 2 > brightness
I’m really excited! Must make this into a cronjob,
See Also