Keyboard brightness stopped working on Polaris with 5.10

[ruffson]

Hey there,

I don't know if it was the new kernel version or something else but the keyboard backlighting stopped working on my Polaris 15. I updated the tuxedo-keyboard to version 3.0.2 but still nothing. Everything else about the keyboard seems to work except presing FN + SPACE to turn it on. I tried with a config file as well and set it to 255 but that did not do anything else.

My system:
Fedora 33, Gnome 3.38.3, X11, kernel 5.10.10-200

I also tried uninstalling the dkms module with dkmsremove but even then no luck (when I initially installed Fedora, the keyboard worked fine including backlight and backlight control, just the color was random and disabling the trackpad did not work, so I went ahead and installed it)

Also when I reboot the computer, the trackpad does not always work and requires a second reboot after which it does. That behaviour is also new. The backlight still works in general, because when booting up it lights up and goes through a color cycle.

Do you guys have any idea what the problem could be here?

[lldb3]

Hi, I have the same system and similar specs so maybe we can debug sth out, only difference is I am using Wayland, but everything I am mentioning also applies to X11.

• Fedora 33
• GNOME 3.38.3
• Kernel 5.10.11-200.fc33.x86_64 This one is different, maybe try it. I have other problems but can at least cycle brightness..

For me the backlight works with Fn+Space and cycles through levels of brightness. But any other feature is not present (parameters inside sublevels of `/sys/devices/platform/tuxedo_keyboard' are limited to brightness and color_string).

Modprobe params are: options tuxedo-keyboard mode=0 brightness=25 color_left=0x0000FF color_center=0x00FF00 color_right=0xFF0000, yet this has no effect, I only get white color with no brightness (works in bootloader though). Will try again with different params tonight.

Also when I reboot the computer, the trackpad does not always work and requires a second reboot after which it does. That behaviour is also new. The backlight still works in general, because when booting up it lights up and goes through a color cycle.

This is one I experience as well. The machine is new so I'm glad to see this is not a manufacturing defect haha. When I have time I will investigate a bit further..

[ruffson]

Gladly! I have to add that originally the Polaris I received worked fine out of the box with Fedora and 5.9. I received a replacement model and just used my SSDs I previously had in the old model. I think initially the lighting worked but eventually just stopped. And I think that correlated with 5.10. I don't know any other major system change.

In any case it would be good if we had a way of diagnosing the problem.

[tuxedoxt]

Hello, which Polaris models do you have here?

cat /sys/class/dmi/id/board_name

should provide our model ID.

At least one Polaris model has been known to work with the ubuntu oem-20.04-edge (5.10) kernel.

Here is another issue (#63) related to backlight since I believe there is still no explicit documentation on writing the parameters yourself. (They are slightly different than classical tuxedo-keyboard.)

[ruffson]

Hello, which Polaris models do you have here?

cat /sys/class/dmi/id/board_name

should provide our model ID.

For me it just says:

> cat /sys/class/dmi/id/board_name
Standard

I have the Polaris Gen1 with AMD Ryzen 4800H, RTX 2060.

[lldb3]

Hello, which Polaris models do you have here?

cat /sys/class/dmi/id/board_name

$ cat /sys/class/dmi/id/board_name  
POLARIS1701A2060

I have a Polaris 17 inch Gen1 with AMD Ryzen 4800H, RTX 2060.

[tuxedoxt]

For me it just says:

> cat /sys/class/dmi/id/board_name
Standard

I have the Polaris Gen1 with AMD Ryzen 4800H, RTX 2060.

Ok this is not correct. It will need a firmware update for correct identification. Please download the firmware for your device from the download area in your account and update according to the instructions on
https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/Infos/Help-Support/Instructions/Updating-EFI-BIOS-EC.tuxedo.

[lldb3]

Here is another issue (#63) related to backlight since I believe there is still no explicit documentation on writing the parameters yourself. (They are slightly different than classical tuxedo-keyboard.)

This worked indeed, thanks !

[ruffson]

For me it just says:

cat /sys/class/dmi/id/board_name

Standard

I have the Polaris Gen1 with AMD Ryzen 4800H, RTX 2060.

Ok this is not correct. It will need a firmware update for correct identification. Please download the firmware for your device from the download area in your account and update according to the instructions on

https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/Infos/Help-Support/Instructions/Updating-EFI-BIOS-EC.tuxedo.

Ah that makes sense. It came to me with the default AMI BIOS and I only updated that and not the EC because the version seemed up-to-date. Will then try to update the EC as well later. Thank you!

[tuxedoxt]

For me it just says:

cat /sys/class/dmi/id/board_name

Standard

I have the Polaris Gen1 with AMD Ryzen 4800H, RTX 2060.

Ok this is not correct. It will need a firmware update for correct identification. Please download the firmware for your device from the download area in your account and update according to the instructions on
https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/Infos/Help-Support/Instructions/Updating-EFI-BIOS-EC.tuxedo.

Ah that makes sense. It came to me with the default AMI BIOS and I only updated that and not the EC because the version seemed up-to-date. Will then try to update the EC as well later. Thank you!

That should do it, let me know how it works.

[ruffson]

That fixed it, thank you!