Thinkpad Keyboard Backlight Controller

This repository provides a controller for managing the backlight of ThinkPad keyboards with integrated Systemd support. The controller offers extensive features including event-based backlight control, automatic brightness adjustments, and scheduling. This tool is especially useful for users who want to fine-tune their keyboard backlight settings based on input events, time, or system state.

Features

• Read events from keyboard
• Read events from mouse
• Set keyboard backlight on/off
• Set keyboard brightness
• Set timeout for backlight
• Timeout configuration
• Systemd integration for automatic service management
• Auto on/off based on time of day
• On/Off based on battery level

How to test

It is not needed to install the controller to test it's behavior. To run the program directly from the directory:

make thinkpad-keybacklight
sudo ./thinkpad-keybacklight

The program must be executed with sudo privileges as it interacts with /sys/class pseudo-filesystem.

How to install

To install the ThinkPad Keyboard Backlight Controller, use the following command:

sudo make install

This will compile the necessary files and install the binary to your system, integrating with Systemd for automatic startup and management.

To uninstall the controller, use:

sudo make uninstall

Configuration

The configuration file can be found in the include/config.h directory. This file contains several #define directives that allow you to customize the behavior of the backlight controller. This means to apply configuration the program should be recompiled, uninstalled and installed again.

You can customize the default settings by editing the configuration file before building the project. Each setting has a specific purpose:

• CONFIG_DEFAULT_KEYBOARD_INPUT_EVENT: Specifies the default input event for the keyboard.
• CONFIG_DEFAULT_MOUSE_INPUT_EVENT: Specifies the default input event for the mouse.
• CONFIG_DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_MS: Sets the default timeout (in milliseconds) before the backlight turns off after inactivity.
• CONFIG_DEFAULT_SCHEDULE_ON_HOUR: Sets the hour when the backlight should automatically turn on.
• CONFIG_DEFAULT_SCHEDULE_ON_MINUTE: Sets the minute when the backlight should automatically turn on.
• CONFIG_DEFAULT_SCHEDULE_OFF_HOUR: Sets the hour when the backlight should automatically turn off.
• CONFIG_DEFAULT_SCHEDULE_OFF_MINUTE: Sets the minute when the backlight should automatically turn off.
• CONFIG_POWER_THRESHOLD: Sets the threshold below which the backlight is not enabled.
• CONFIG_ENABLE_MOUSE_EVENT: Enables the mouse event listener for backlight control.
• CONFIG_ENABLE_KEYBOARD_EVENT: Enables the keyboard event listener for backlight control.
• CONFIG_ENABLE_MOUSE_LOWER_BRIGHTNESS: Reduces brightness when only the mouse is active.
• CONFIG_ENABLE_SCHEDULE: Enables scheduling for automatic backlight control.
• CONFIG_ENABLE_POWER_SAVING: Enables power saving mode, disables keyboard backlight after reaching the given threshold.
• CONFIG_DISABLE_VERBOSE: Disables verbose logging to reduce console output.