Can't run backlight control on POPos

[maierjeff]

Hey I have a tongfang laptop from a brazilian manufacturer, It is similar as the polaris model, and even is called Polaris too, and the model is gk5np50.

I've installed POP Os on it, and I can run tuxedo control center, but when I did it, it freezes my keyboardbacklight, so I downloaded this control, but when I will start the gui, i receive it:

j3ff@pop-os:~$ backlight ui
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/local/bin/backlight", line 36, in
init()
File "/usr/share/tuxedo-backlight-control/ui.py", line 344, in init
App(root)
File "/usr/share/tuxedo-backlight-control/ui.py", line 58, in init
initial_mode = backlight.mode.capitalize()
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'capitalize'

[gidoBOSSftw5731]

Same issue on kali linux, on the pulse 15 laptop.

[webketje]

@gidoBOSSftw5731 @maierjeff This issue is popping up a lot. I'll make sure it doesn't error there in upcoming release 0.8, but I can't guarantee that will make it functional for you. Please have a look at #10 too. I am tempted to believe that this means the tuxedo-keyboard driver wasn't properly installed, as it indicates that /sys/devices/platform/tuxedo_keyboard/mode doesn't contain a valid value

[gidoBOSSftw5731]

I dont know a ton about the tuxedo keyboard driver, but here's a tree of that folder:

Click to open (wall of text)

$ tree /sys/devices/platform/tuxedo_keyboard/
/sys/devices/platform/tuxedo_keyboard/
├── driver -> ../../../bus/platform/drivers/tuxedo_keyboard
├── driver_override
├── input
│   └── input20
│       ├── capabilities
│       │   ├── abs
│       │   ├── ev
│       │   ├── ff
│       │   ├── key
│       │   ├── led
│       │   ├── msc
│       │   ├── rel
│       │   ├── snd
│       │   └── sw
│       ├── device -> ../../../tuxedo_keyboard
│       ├── event13
│       │   ├── dev
│       │   ├── device -> ../../input20
│       │   ├── power
│       │   │   ├── async
│       │   │   ├── autosuspend_delay_ms
│       │   │   ├── control
│       │   │   ├── runtime_active_kids
│       │   │   ├── runtime_active_time
│       │   │   ├── runtime_enabled
│       │   │   ├── runtime_status
│       │   │   ├── runtime_suspended_time
│       │   │   └── runtime_usage
│       │   ├── subsystem -> ../../../../../../class/input
│       │   └── uevent
│       ├── id
│       │   ├── bustype
│       │   ├── product
│       │   ├── vendor
│       │   └── version
│       ├── modalias
│       ├── name
│       ├── phys
│       ├── power
│       │   ├── async
│       │   ├── autosuspend_delay_ms
│       │   ├── control
│       │   ├── runtime_active_kids
│       │   ├── runtime_active_time
│       │   ├── runtime_enabled
│       │   ├── runtime_status
│       │   ├── runtime_suspended_time
│       │   └── runtime_usage
│       ├── properties
│       ├── subsystem -> ../../../../../class/input
│       ├── uevent
│       └── uniq
├── modalias
├── power
│   ├── async
│   ├── autosuspend_delay_ms
│   ├── control
│   ├── runtime_active_kids
│   ├── runtime_active_time
│   ├── runtime_enabled
│   ├── runtime_status
│   ├── runtime_suspended_time
│   └── runtime_usage
├── subsystem -> ../../../bus/platform
└── uevent

14 directories, 51 files

[webketje]

@gidoBOSSftw5731 There seem to be issues with the tuxedo-keyboard driver on the Polaris 15 (& derivative) models, see a.o. tuxedocomputers/tuxedo-keyboard#60. The tree dump you posted confirms my suspicions that even if I fix the capitalize issue, the SysFs implementation won't work for you: you are also missing all the kernel state parameters (mode, state, color_left, etc.) that you can see in my ls dump in #10.

A potentially working fix would be to re-include support for modprobe (see also #12). You can already test whether this works with the old (inferior & uglier but working) v2 of this repo (docs: the https://github.com/webketje/tuxedo-backlight-control/tree/v0.2, release: https://github.com/webketje/tuxedo-backlight-control/releases/tag/v0.2), only available for Debian derivatives [Ubuntu, PopOS, etc.]

[gidoBOSSftw5731]

Checking v0.2, although it does not fail to run, it does not do anything, even turning the backlight "off" does not change the backlight.

[webketje]

@gidoBOSSftw5731 in that case not sure how I can help. Only thing I can think of is trying to re-install the tuxedo-keyboard driver v2.0.5, as that is the last driver I have tested with and there have been a lot of changes recently.
If I can isolate this as the cause of the issue, I will also retest and update

[f-fusco]

I had the same exact issue as OP (on Kubuntu), but it was simply a matter of rebooting after installing tuxedo_keyboard. Maybe it's worth noting.