This a Linux kernel driver for the ITE 8291 (rev 0.03) RGB keyboard backlight controller. It is based on the ite8291r3-ctl userspace program. It provides more seamless integration with the rest of the system because it exposes the controller as a LED device. That means that in many desktop environments, you will be able to directly control the brightness on a graphical user interface.
This software is in early stages of developement. Futhermore, to quote GPL: everything is provided as is. There is no warranty for the program, to the extent permitted by applicable law.
This software is licensed under the GNU General Public License v2.0
The following devices have been reported to work:
| idVendor | idProduct | bcdDevice | vendor | product |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 048d | 6004 | 0.03 | Integrated Technology Express, Inc. | ITE Device(8291) |
| 048d | 6006 | 0.03 | Integrated Technology Express, Inc. | ITE Device(8291) |
| 048d | ce00 | 0.03 | Integrated Technology Express, Inc. | ITE Device(8291) |
You can use lsusb to determine if a compatible device is found on your system. If you believe your device should be supported, but it is not, please open an issue.
- Your kernel has been compiled with
CONFIG_HIDandCONFIG_LEDS_CLASS(it probably was) - Linux headers for you current kernel
If you have git installed:
git clone https://github.com/pobrn/hid-ite8291r3
If you don't, then you can download it here.
On Debian and its many derivatives (Ubuntu, Pop OS, Linux Mint, ...) , run
sudo apt install linux-headers-$(uname -r)
to install the necessary header files.
On Arch Linux and its derivatives (Manjaro, ...), run
sudo pacman -Syu linux-headers
(or something similar)
DKMS should be in your distributions repositories. sudo apt install dkms, sudo pacman -Syu dkms should work depending on your distribution.
Run
sudo make dkmsinstall
to install the module with DKMS. Or run
sudo make dkmsuninstall
to uninstall the module.
The module should automatically load at boot after this. If you want to load it immediately, run sudo modprobe hid-ite8291r3.
After the module is loaded, and new entry should appear in /sys/class/leds/ with :kbd_backlight suffix. After installation with DKMS, it is recommended to reboot so that every system daemon (e.g. upower) can discover the new LED device.
As of yet, you cannot set effects with this module, only the color may be changed. The LED device has a color attribute, which you can write to in order to change the color:
# echo aabbcc > /sys/class/leds/<name>:kbd_backlight/color
This sets the red component to 0xaa (170), the green to 0xbb (187), and the blue to 0xcc (204).
Assuming you have a single keyboard backlight LED device, you can use the following udev rule to set the color (to white - in the example) upon boot (when the device is created):
ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="leds", DEVPATH=="*:kbd_backlight", TEST=="color", ATTR{color}="ffffff"
Create /etc/udev/rules.d/99-ite8291.rules (if it does not exist yet) and simply add the previous line.
Furthermore, the systemd-backlight service should take care of restoring the brightness to the last set value.