How to light up back-lit keyboard?

Question

I recently got a backlit keyboard, and I LOVE to write late at night.

But I cannot for the life of me figure out how to light it up...It lights up when first plugged in, but nothing happens after that....

It is an 'XtremeIT' keyboard. There is a video of someone on Ubuntu who managed to activate it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFECpDrBn8Q

Answer 1

Did you try the script the youtube poster suggested in his own comments? Basically use xset to toggle the state of the led backlight.

#!/bin/bash
if [ -f /tmp/keyboard_light ]; then
xset -led 3 && rm /tmp/keyboard_light
else
xset led 3 && touch /tmp/keyboard_light
fi

(I would have made this a comment on your original question, but I don't have enough rep yet.)

Answer 2

open terminal then type:

xset led on 

to turn on backlight, and type:

xset led off

to turn it off.

Answer 3

for those who land here because they also want the keyboard to light up BEFORE the login screen:

Finally Found an answer, at least for Ubuntu 14.04

as for how to get the keyboard to light up before the login screen:

edit :

/usr/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/50-unity-greeter.conf

sudo gedit /usr/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/50-unity-greeter.conf

add the line:

greeter-setup-script= xset led 3 

Answer 4

Found the answer after a long night up with lots of half baked solutions.

# backup your symbols file
sudo cp /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/us{,.distribution} 

Add the following line in the xkb_symbols "basic" { section. do not worry if that second line is not there, it is only there for some languages and was not there for us on my system.

...
    modifier_map Mod3   { Scroll_Lock }; <==<< Add this line

    include "level3(ralt_switch)" <==<< before this line
};

You may have to do the same in your other layouts if you switch between languages

Also, there is a cache where xkb layouts live. You should clear it before restarting your X server to check the new keyboard symbol file(s).

sudo rm -f /var/lib/xkb/*

Answer 5

Just try to type in terminal : Turn on :

xset led 3 

Turn off :

xset -led 3

it works for Cool Master Keyboard