ThinkLight

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Revision as of 16:08, 16 February 2005 by 128.59.39.89 (Talk)
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ThinkLight

The ThinkLight is a little LED light integrated into the top edge of the display frame in the A, R, T and X ThinkPad models. It illuminates the ThinkPad's keyboard so that one can type in the dark without using an external light source. The ThinkLight can be controlled via the Fn-PageUp key combination or via ACPI on some of the newer models. Note that the ThinkLight is not available on the G series ThinkPads.




Linux Support

Controlling the ThinkLight with the keyboard works on all systems since it relies on the BIOS exclusively. Just press Fn-PageUp to toggle its state between on and off.

Support for controlling the light with ACPI is provided by ibm-acpi. After installing it, a simple

echo on > /proc/acpi/ibm/light

switches it on and a

echo off > /proc/acpi/ibm/light

switches it off again.

This allows one to control the light in scripts. Unfortunately, no known ThinkPad comes with a light sensor (yet). ;)