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How to disable Macbook keyboard backlight

rated 0 times [ 5] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 8872 / 1 Year ago, tue, may 23, 2023, 9:01:49

How do I disable the keyboard backlight, by turning it completely off, on a Macbook in 12.04?

Whenever I reboot, Ubuntu sets the backlight to 100% brightness, and frustratingly the new function keys no longer support being held down, so I have to press the dim key about 50 times to turn off the backlight.

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poefor

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2 Years ago

answered 1 Year ago aclavadoug · Accepted Answer

Make the keyboard backlight device writable by everyone:

sudo chmod 777 /sys/class/leds/smc::kbd_backlight/brightness

Then, in your ~/.bash_aliases, add:

echo 0 | tee -a /sys/class/leds/smc::kbd_backlight/brightness

Alternatively, if you want the backlight to be disabled for all users, then add that line instead to /etc/profile.d/custom.sh.

The only caveat I've noticed is that unlocking your screen occassionally appears to reset the backlight to full brightness. Unfortunately, I don't know what's causing this.