Keyboard backlight on Samsung Series 9 (900X4C-A04SE)

[karlingen]

Hi guys.

I've been struggeling with this problem for days now.
I have upgraded my BIOS to the latest. Re-installed ubuntu (13.04) a couple of times but I can't seem to get it to work.

I added the keymaps as per community docs - Samsung Series 9 (section Function Keys). But regardless of pressing Fn+F9 or F10 (backlight decrease/increase), I get:

* No lights in keyboard
* Toggler in top right corner always pops-up as maxed out (i.e., "full light")

How can you fix the keyboard backlight? The Fan button (Fn+F11) and Wifi (Fn+F12) doesn't work either, if you also know about these it would be great.

[karlingen]

No one?

[faloi]

Same problem here! Also tried with Ubuntu 12 but didn't work. My notebook model is 900X4C-A07US

[Vins]

Same issues on a Samsung Series 7 (NP740U3E).

Have you installed Ubuntu in UEFI mode? If yes, that's the reason why you don't get keyboard backlight and fan control. The module samsung-laptop will not load under UEFI boot.

[faloi]

Mmmm I don't remember... any way to find out? I've just checked under "About this computer" but it doesn't say anything about it.

[karlingen]

Have you installed Ubuntu in UEFI mode? If yes, that's the reason why you don't get keyboard backlight and fan control. The module samsung-laptop will not load under UEFI boot.

Are you 100% sure about this? Because if this is the case, I will immediately re-install Ubuntu in correct mode.

[seabird]

You can check very easy. Take a livecd/usb and boot in UEFI mode.

Now browse to /sys/devices/platform/
no folder samsung there

Reboot into the Livecd/usb in legacy mode:
/sys/devices/platform/samsung is there!!!

[faloi]

@seabird is right, and sadly @Vins is also right...

A quick workaround for me was to disable UEFI mode from the BIOS and boot again. Obviously, the samsung folder is still missing but at least the backlight is working now!

Anyway, I'm planning to reinstall Ubuntu 13.04 to have all the features. Any advice to do it without having to manually configure everything again? Thanks!