I am struggling to understand how the keyboard backlight works. I got the numpad to the right brightness, but my keyboard has now started pulsing. How do I set this. I’m using Win 11.
1 Like
- https://keyboard.frame.work – You need to use Chromium, Chrome, Edge or another Chromium based browser. Firefox will not work.
-
Click Authorize device
-
Click on the keyboard device in the pop up modal and then Connect (I do not have the 10 key, so my popup only lists the keyboard)
- Click on the Light Bulb icon at the bottom of the leftmost vertical menu. The vertical menu with icons is SEPARATE vertical menu from the vertical menu with text next to it.
- Choose your lighting options, they will take effect immediately without a reboot.
3 Likes
Thank you that worked great.
Is there any tool that will work, that doesn’t require Chromium? I use Firefox. I don’t want to use a Chromium browser. I don’t want to install one.
So…speaking as a anxiously awaiting future user (Batch 12), is there a way to easily enough control things without needing Chromium?
Yes, kind of. But also, not really! 
There is an electron wrapper app you could use. The “not really” part is because electron apps use the Chromium engine to render content. Electron (software framework) - Wikipedia
Using the Via electron wrapper app
Download the app here github.com/the-via/releases/releases.
On linux, when you first run the app it will say that it needs to install udev rules, you must allow this or else it won’t have permission to communicate with the keyboard.
Next you need to load the Framework draft definition. The draft definitions are found here github.com/FrameworkComputer/qmk_firmware/tree/v0.2.9/keyboards/framework/kle
Download the file(s) that correspond to your module layout.
via_ansi_design.json
via_iso_design.json
via_jis_design.json
via_macropad_design.json
via_numpad_design.json
Which keyboard layout do you need? ANSI, ISO or JIS
ANSI (American) layout. Note the shape of the enter key.
ISO layout. British is shown, but this layout is valid for many languages.
JIS (Japanese) layout.
In the Via electron wrapper app, go to the Design tab (paintbrush icon), click the Load button, then select your draft definition design file. If you don’t have a Design tab, go to Settings (gear icon) to enable it.
If you have multiple modules and multiple design files loaded, as I do in the screenshot, use the Shown Keyboard Definition dropdown to select which is active.
Do note that the Via electron wrapper app is like a self-contained web browser. And it won’t load without internet access.
I’d like to mention that the reason it doesn’t work in Firefox is that they believe websites should not have low level access to hardware, that it’s a security risk, so they have made an active choice not to enable WebHID.
mozilla.github.io/standards-positions/#webusb
mozilla.github.io/standards-positions/#webhid
Mozilla’s / Firefox’s Position
Because many USB devices are not designed to handle potentially-malicious interactions over the USB protocols and because those devices can have significant effects on the computer they’re connected to, we believe that the security risks of exposing USB devices to the Web are too broad to risk exposing users to them or to explain properly to end users to obtain meaningful informed consent. It also poses risks that sites could use USB device identity or data stored on USB devices as tracking identifiers.
1 Like
You could use the VIA desktop app using these instructions. The desktop app is an Electron app though.
Otherwise you can use the QMK keys defined on the second layer to cycle through the various lighting options: Hotkeys on the Framework Laptop 16 Keyboard.
1 Like
Ugh, Electron apps. But I suppose I can use that.
And they’re right, it can be a massive security hole. Although I haven’t read their full reasoning, so can’t comment on specifics. Can be, doesn’t always equate to an implementation actually having the potential security hole.
And I was more talking about an entire actual browser. Please tell me that their electron app is available as a Flatpak, so I can keep it isolated without pulling in a bajillion dependencies?
There is an AppImage. That’s what I used, for testing it out. github.com/the-via/releases/releases.
Are you getting a keypad or macropad? If so, it looks like you have to select the active keyboard definition with the dropdown when you want to switch which device you wish to configure. Works ok, but not as smooth as in a regular browser.
That’ll work I suppose. Would be nice to have it in Flathub so easy to keep it up to date…
Just the regular keyboard, no secondary key input at this time. At least for now. Probably not ever, but who knows.
That’s neat.
But also still Chromium. It’s not purely about Google, it’s also about a separate browser rendering engine. Although for just using it for this, perhaps it’s OK.
1 Like
I also have it just in case a page doesn’t work with my other, firefox-based browsers, due to being too chromium-optimized. And if you use the portable version like me, you don’t have to install it at all.
I dislike AppImage in general, but I suppose I can hold my nose and use it, if I must, for the occasional one-off usage.
When I choose “Authorize device +”, I get this message:
21:47:29.190
Error: Failed to open the device.
Device: Framework Laptop 16 Keyboard Module - ANSI
Vid: 0x32AC
Pid: 0x0012
21:47:29.203
Received invalid protocol version from device
Device: Framework Laptop 16 Keyboard Module - ANSI
Vid: 0x32AC
Pid: 0x0012
I am using a Framework 16 with Fedora, and I tried both Brave Browser and Chromium. Same results.
What version of Fedora?
This link reports that WebHID is available, correct? webapicheck.com/apis/webhid-api
You may need to add udev rules.
Click to show instructions
docs.qmk.fm/#/faq_build?id=linux-udev-rules
place this file into /etc/udev/rules.d/.
Once added, run the following:
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
sudo udevadm trigger
This has been needed on Fedora 39 KDE and Silverblue.
If anyone needs to do this on a different distro please post your distro.
3 Likes
Bingo! Now it works on keyboard.frame.work and with the standalone app.
I get these same errors, I have installed the udev rules, webhid is available, I am using Ubuntu 24.04, both Chromium and Chrome do the same thing.
EDIT: Also none of the hotkeys listed for controlling the lighting do anything except Fn + Space which cycles through effects
Are they snap packages?
Ubuntu will install snap instead of normal .deb packages. But snaps can have permission issues. Ubuntu also has the nasty habit of hijacking some apt installs and just redirecting them to snap.
Is Fn + Space just cycling through brightness levels? If you don’t have an RGB keyboard then I don’t think any other effect keys apply to your keyboard.