HOW TO GET YOUR KEYBOARD TO LIGHT UP IN LINUX MINT
Okay, so Linux Mint uses the “Scroll Lock Key” for a lot of stuff. However, most keyboards that can light up for easier typing in the dark use the Scroll Lock Key to also turn the LED illumination on and off. Sometimes it will say “EL on/off” under the words “Scroll Lk”.
Obviously that sucks. Especially if you have an awesome keyboard like my Logisys one that glows blue. So you have to do some typing in the Terminal window in Linux to get your scroll lock key back. Although Linux has thrown me some curveballs in the past two days (Cinnamon constantly crashing until I downloaded MATE desktop and setting it as my default workspace, etc.) At least I don't have to see things like this every few days:
Okay, Terminal is that black square button with “>-“ on it. It opens up a black screen that is a lot like the old DOS programming window.
Whenever I write “Type:” you type whatever is written after that and then click your Enter key.
1. Click on the Terminal button to open Terminal
Here’s where it gets weird. I somehow didn’t have permissions for any of my home files. Yep, I did NOT own my own files somehow. You may or may not have this problem. This second step gives you permission to read and write to your own files. I didn’t realize this because I’ve only had Linux Mint on my computer for 2 days (yet, figuring this out I feel is quite impressive). If you do already have permissions throughout your home directory you can skip to step 5.
2. Type: Sudo
3. Enter your password
4. Type: Sudo chown –R mike : mike /home/mike
Make sure to change ‘mike’ to your user name and pay attention to where there are spaces!
This will run a bunch of files, giving you permission to read and write to them. It’ll only take a minute to go through. So, back to fixing the keyboard.
5. Type: xmodmap –pm
This will list a few things with numbered mod lines. Usually 3 has nothing next to it, it’s just a blank space next to the 3. So, we’ll use 3 as our Scroll Lock light button place. If you have a different number blank then use that number. Somewhere I think I read you can go up to 32 or 35. I dunno. Just make sure 3 is blank and then go to the next step.
6. Type: cd ~
That’s cd followed by a space and then the ~ tilde symbol that’s at the upper left corner of your keyboard.
7. Type: Echo >.Xmodmap “add mod3 = Scroll_Lock”
Yes, there is a space after echo, but not after the >, and yes it’s a capital X and there is an underscore between Scroll and Lock.
You may notice your keyboard is lit up now!
8. Type: exit
This will exit you from Sudo (an elevated super user admin thing)
9. Type: exit
Yes, you exit again to exit from the Terminal program itself.
Now, restart your computer and see if your keyboard illumination light turns on right after booting up.
On my keyboard, this doesn’t actually make the Scroll Lock button work as the on/off—but it does light up my keyboard and keeps it lighted.
Alternately you can go into terminal and type: xset led 3 which will turn your keyboard light on. You can shut off your keyboard light by typing: xset –led 3
The xset codes get erased on rebooting. But it’s a nice option.
Another option (which just wouldn't take at the root level for me at least) was Xmodmap -e 'add mod3 = Scroll_Lock' which possibly will let you toggle your keyboard lights off and on. You'd have to add it (using "echo") to the ROOT folder of Xmodmap (I think) so the code would look a bit different in front of the .Xmodmap part. At one point it worked for me, but then stopped working. I don't mind my keyboard lights on all the time, so I just went with the simpler version without the "-e" portion, as I described in the numbered steps above.
For my next trick I’ll cut the wires from the LED backlights and solder them to a toggle switch and a point somewhere on the keyboard’s circuit board with the proper voltage. Maybe at the USB cable? That would be too high voltage? I dunno. I’ll dig around in there at some point. I don’t mind the LED light on all the time, so I’m not too amped up about it.
That was so boring. Computer "Science" is boring. Meow!
ANOTHER GREAT LINUX MINT TIP
Minimizing / hiding Chromium or even Word files with the upper right ‘_’ minimize button makes them disappear forever. Clicking on the show desktop button only brings them back if you hide them that way…sometimes.
Click on ALT + TAB key and you’ll get a choice of all the hidden / minimized internet browsers and other things you’ve hidden and lost or forgot about. Nice!
By the way, for all of the above I’m using the MATE desktop of Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon!
Big deal. I can hide / unhide myself anytime I want to in this mini Coleman camping tent! Meow! ...Actually I'm not too great at zipping and unzipping it up by myself.
