Controlling Dell Laptop Keyboard Backlight from Command Line

Keyboard Trigger for Keyboard Backlight

I didn’t take me long to start wondering if there was a way to control keyboard backlight on my Dell XPS 3890 laptop, and of course there is a simple enough solution.

Check Current Keyboard Backlight Level

IMPORTANT: This is Dell laptops (if not Dell XPS model) specific.

Go to the /sys/devices/platform/dell-laptop/leds/dell::kbd_backlight directory and cat the file called brightess:

root@xps:/sys/devices/platform/dell-laptop/leds/dell::kbd_backlight # cat brightness
1

You can confirm the max value for brightness in a similar way:

root@xps:/sys/devices/platform/dell-laptop/leds/dell::kbd_backlight # cat max_brightness
2

Set Keyboard Backlight Brightness

If you just echo the numeric value you want, it will immediately apply it to your laptop’s keyboard.

IMPORANT: you need to do it as root user.

Turning backlight off:

root@xps:/sys/devices/platform/dell-laptop/leds/dell::kbd_backlight # echo 0 > brightness

Setting it to max brightness:

root@xps:/sys/devices/platform/dell-laptop/leds/dell::kbd_backlight # echo 2 > brightness

I’m really excited! Must make this into a cronjob,

See Also

• Ubuntu 19.04 on Dell XPS
• Check For Available Updates with apt
• Use htop for monitoring CPU and memory