# [Solved] KDE Laptop Keyboard Backlight

## perdomwx

This notebook (Dell XPS 13) formerly had Arch on it and the latest KDE. What I liked about it is that KDE battery applet had control over the keyboard backlight in the latest version. 

I recently installed  Gentoo on it with the latest KDE (stable version) and the battery applet doesn't control the keyboard backlight. 

Is there a way to enable this? Any ideas would be much appreciated.

Thanks.Last edited by perdomwx on Sun Apr 01, 2018 6:05 pm; edited 2 times in total

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## fedeliallalinea

But the physical key work on keyboard?

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## perdomwx

 *fedeliallalinea wrote:*   

> But the physical key work on keyboard?

 

Yes the keys work.

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## fedeliallalinea

 *perdomwx wrote:*   

>  *fedeliallalinea wrote:*   But the physical key work on keyboard? 
> 
> Yes the keys work.

 

You have configured CONFIG_DELL_SMBIOS and CONFIG_DELL_SMBIOS_WMI in your kernel?

```
$ grep CONFIG_DELL_SMBIOS /usr/src/linux/.config

CONFIG_DELL_SMBIOS=m

CONFIG_DELL_SMBIOS_WMI=m

# CONFIG_DELL_SMBIOS_SMM is not set
```

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## perdomwx

 *fedeliallalinea wrote:*   

>  *perdomwx wrote:*    *fedeliallalinea wrote:*   But the physical key work on keyboard? 
> 
> Yes the keys work. 
> 
> You have configured CONFIG_DELL_SMBIOS and CONFIG_DELL_SMBIOS_WMI in your kernel?
> ...

 

No I haven't. Although, I don't have those options present in the config file. I'm using kernel 4.9.76-gentoo-r1.

EDIT: Nevermind, I found the options after enabling CONFIG_DCDBAS and CONFIG_ACPI_WMI. Enabling them now

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## fedeliallalinea

if not work try to change brightness through applet and see error returned in dmesg

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## perdomwx

The options did not seem to enable the control. How can I change the brightness through the applet if I'm only able to change it via the button?

EDIT: I figured out I had to enable the CONFIG_DELL_LAPTOP option. To enable the control. Now it works thanks

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