[SOLVED] How to disable numpad backlight?

Framework Laptop 16
1

Heya, I unboxed my Framework 16 earlier today. At some point, I pressed some key combination by accident, and now only the numpad has its backlight on.

Fn + Space can be used to adjust the keyboard backlight, but it doesn’t affect the numpad. So, is there a key combination to adjust the numpad?

For the time being, I’ve turned on the keyboard backlight, but I’d rather have it off in the long run.

I know its probably simpler to use Via or Vial to configure things, but A) I’m a Firefox person B) even when I use Chromium, it’s in a Flatpak, which fucks up permissions, and C) I can’t get the Via or Vial AppImages to detect the keyboard or numpad. Maybe I need to mess with some udev rule or something, but I figure someone has to know this keyboard combination, so I should ask before wasting time with udev.

3 Likes
2

Try this. I don’t have a 16 but pretty sure it’ll work.

  1. Turn off numlock
  2. Press the enter key on the numpad

Source: Default Keymap for the Numpad

14 Likes
3

Thank you! Worked perfectly.

1 Like
4

Welcome to the forum.

Note that only Via is supported with the stock firmware. I’m sure someone will port it to Vial at some point, though.

5

Thank you so much. That did the trick.

(FW 16 running Linux Mint 21.3 with an Edge kernel)

Without having FW 16 how did you know that that would work? Is that something that can be done on other numpads?

6

You’re very welcome!

Haha good question! Honestly, I just got lucky.

I was flipping through knowledgebase articles and happened to read about it. Then a day or two later I saw this question on the forums, so I shared what I knew.

1 Like
7

Thanks for this help. Its NumLock Off + Enter to toggle backlight levels!

8

Perfect… Thank you. Cheers

9

Finally using the numpad and had the exact same question, so this helped.

However, I don’t like this. Sometimes I turn off the numlcok so I can use it as an arrow key and page up/down, and I still use the numpad’s enter key as an Enter key with numlock off.

I wished Framework has the ability to use the Fn + numlock Enter key to change the backlight. Or if it MUST be all on the numpad (self-contained), then numlock+Enter. Basically set it to a combo that doesn’t really get used in a normal situation.

10

You can use Via (keyboard.frame.work) to change any key you wish.

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I might be missing something, but I have no idea how to change the keys. It makes cool musical notes though.

I do notice I have a exclamation icon. Clicking on it shows errors.

23:54:23.146

  • Error: Failed to open the device.

  • Device: Framework Laptop 16 Numpad Module

  • Vid: 0x32AC

  • Pid: 0x0014

and

23:54:23.150

  • Error: Failed to open the device.

  • Device: Framework Laptop 16 Keyboard Module - ANSI

  • Vid: 0x32AC

  • Pid: 0x0012

Since Firefox doesn’t work, I installed Chromium instead (Fedora 40, Gnome, flatpak).

12

It does require a browser with WebHID enabled, which Firefox has chosen not to enable. Here is a WebHID checker webapicheck.com/apis/webhid-api.
If the page says WebHID is supported but you’re still seeing errors than you may need the qmk udev rules.

Click to show

From docs.qmk.fm/#/faq_build?id=linux-udev-rules.
Place this file into /etc/udev/rules.d/.

Or do it by commadline

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/qmk/qmk_firmware/master/util/udev/50-qmk.rules
sudo cp 50-qmk.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/

Once added, run the following to reload your rules):

sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
sudo udevadm trigger

Then reopen your browser

14

Thanks! Worked perfectly.