MSI Delta 15 and Fedora 36

[incedis]

I am running Fedora 36 on my new rig. Delta 15 Full AMD. Its running smooth as butter. I have one issue. Hesitated to post as I think I have I have gone back and forth trying to find a solution but to no avail.
Keyboard backlighting is stuck at full blast. Fn key just for the keyboard backlight is not working. On this laptop, its Fn+F8. Shortcuts for the display backlight and sound work.
When I had the laptop running Win11, I had to install MSI Center to make the Fn+F8 keyboard backlit shortcut work. Even then, it did not work very well. It was hit and miss. Before switching to Linux, I turned it off in the MSI Center entirely. It stuck for about a week and came back to life.
I tried the usual acpi in GRUB but to no avail. Checked the logs for any hints, nothing. Updated BIOS and looked for a solution within the BIOS to turn off the keyboard backlit but nothing.
Do you know of anything that could simply turn off once in for all the keyboard backlit ?
I am to the point, if no software solution is available, I might just take it apart and unplug something to turn it off. Taking it apart is not a pb for me, but finding the right cable might be

 

[Brickwizard]

Am I right in assuming it's a new Lappy? , I don't know if this will work for keyboard lights, but it can often fix other minor problems.
Switch on, then hold the power key down for 60 seconds, this will force a BIOS re-boot

 

[incedis]

Thanks for your reply.
Yes u r correct. Broke mine. Actually my cat did. It would have cost as much to fix it than buying a new one. So deciced to go for the MSI Delta 15 mainly due to Full AMD. Tired of Intel BS.
Sorry to not have mentionned that but I have done so many steps that I kind of forgot. I did a BIOS reboot and even an EC reboot.
Yesterday discovered that my BIOS has a hidden menue but nothing that relates to the keyboard backlit (at least did not find any). Positive is, with this hidden menu, I can now control the fan directly from the BIOS (I guess silver linning)..
What I would like to understand, when running win11, I turned off the keyboard backlit through MSI Center. I could never get the Fn+F8 to work even when it was running windows. I had to install MSI Center and then access a module called "Mystic Light". Is it fair to say that MSI Center adds drivers to control the backlit ? Is it accessing something hidden somewhere in the laptop on the PCB ? I turned it off, installed Fedora and only after a couple of days (including reboot, BIOS reboot, EC) the keyboard backlit came back to life. It makes me think its probably in the BIOS somewhere ?

 

[Brickwizard]

Try looking under Battery in the Bios

 

[Brickwizard]

Positive is, with this hidden menu, I can now control the fan directly from the BIOS (I guess silver linning)..
What I would like to understand, when running win11, I turned off the keyboard backlit through MSI Center. I could never get the Fn+F8 to work even when it was running windows.

I know little of windows, and I have never had an MSI product across my bench [probably not popular in the UK] but whilst searching for a fix, I did notice a lot of people have had similar problems with windows, and the MSI controls.

 

[incedis]

Yes.. Saw it as well.. I guess would be fair to say a probable bug

 

[incedis]

Nothing under battery. The hidden BIOS is extremely complicated with a lot of options. Went through it a couple of times but could not find any option pertaining to the keyboard backlit. I am not really good at this and all those options are above my paygrade so probably missed it. I am pretty sure the keyboard backlit is controlled in the BIOS for this specific MSI Model.

 

[incedis]

I have found some data about the MLB in the Delta 15 using RGB keyboard backlit.

[New Device] MSI Mystic Light MS-1563 (#2289) · Issues · Adam Honse / OpenRGB · GitLab

Name of device: Laptop: MSI Alpha B5EEK USB Keyboard Backlit: MSI MysticLight MS-1563 [1462:1563]

gitlab.com

Just to confirm, is he saying the keyboard backlit is attached via usb ?
There are a lot of options in the BIIOS regarding USB. If that is the case I will check them one by one and see if I can switch off the backlit there ?

 

[Brickwizard]

The components in computers come in two basic types, those which connect to the motherboard by the USB bus [microphone, speakers, camera, and so on] and those connected by the PCI [hi speed bus] [graphics, ram, some high speed SSD's etc]
so you will not be looking for a physical USB connection, but a USB controller for the lights

 

[incedis]

No dice there. Went back into the BIOS and searched for a USB controller but nothing. There are a lot of other options regarding but none I can comprehend. A bit scared of changing anything and not having my rig boot after.
I have never seen so much options to customize the MLB in a BIOS..

 

[internet-rando]

I just want to say to people searching and landing here like I did; The MSI Delta 15 laptop now have more than full support of the keyboard RGB under the beta version of OpenRGB. By more than full support I mean you get more functions than under the original MSI windowz app. It even auto-detected my system, all I did was copy the UDEV rules but that is well documented in the readme file. OpenRGB is awsome, if it wheren't for them I would be stuck with an ugly and cold blue/white light on max power. The PC seems to be well supported under Linux, and so far I love it. You can get it with either Ryz9 or Ryz7 processor and RX6700M Radeon gfxs, which performs about the same as the Nvidia rtx3070mobile card. AMD is nicer than Nvidia to Linux.
And if anybody knows where to find some man pages for the hidden BIOS functions, please post.
edit: when I installed Arch-Linux on the same laptop OpenRGB did not work, I have posted instructions on how to make it work on OpenRGB's Reddit;

https://www.reddit.com/r/OpenRGB/comments/yb4bm6

 

[wizardfromoz]

G'day @internet-rando and welcome to linux.org

Thank you for sharing that information, so soon after joining, it may help a number of people.

Enjoy your Linux, and if anybody has input on

And if anybody knows where to find some man pages for the hidden BIOS functions, please post.

they could share it in a thread at our Linux Hardware subforum, I guess.

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz

 

[Earthworm4478]

interesting..
Tested openrgb today and yet getting the same error I used to get. Module i2c-piix4 not loading. I did do a modprobe with success to load the module.

 

[internet-rando]

interesting..
Tested openrgb today and yet getting the same error I used to get. Module i2c-piix4 not loading. I did do a modprobe with success to load the module.

I also have that error msg, even after loading the piix4 thingy, but OpenRgb works perfectly even with the error warning. Using linux AppImage with the MSI MysticLight MS-1563 v0001 (64byte) module automatically loaded. OpenRGB v 0.71.
edit: That's the experimental/pipeline AppImage, I don't think the MS-1563 module is in the stable release.

 

[donnerkebab1730]

Yes u r correct. Broke mine. Actually my cat did.

for a second i thought you were saying your cat broke your laptops keyboard lighting

 

[internet-rando]

I may have exaggerated a little bit when I earlier said that OpenRGB solved all problems, the fn+f8 combo does not work, you have to use the OpenRGB app to change the colors and turn the light on/off from within the app. But there's a kernel module called "ec-sys" that's supposed to give some manual fan-control, and something called "meestic" that I think is meant to address the lightning issues(the orginal win app is called MSI MysticLight). I have not had the time to look in to it yet, but if somebody got any clues it would been nice know.
And also remember that the OpenRGB app might work even if you get the "i2C/SMBus / i2c-piix4" warning when it opens.

 

[Earthworm4478]

I have never been able to make OpenRGB work on my Delta 15. Appimage/dnf install (fedora 36).
meestic works perfectly.
ec-sys is a module that has been taken out of fedora kernel. can't go that route.
msi delta 15 A5EFK does not seem to be compatible with OpenRGB.

 

[internet-rando]

I have never been able to make OpenRGB work on my Delta 15.

I don't think you have to have the EC-module to get the light working. Have you tried with the experimental/pipeline AppImage? I think you have to use that to get the "MSI Mystic Light ms-1563 v0001 module". I also had to be root, the error msg are still there but at least it works. I have updated with new instructions on OpenRGB reddit site.

https://www.reddit.com/r/OpenRGB/comments/yb4bm6

 

[Earthworm4478]

As I said still no go with this model --> A5EFK
AppImage --> same result as stated in previous post.
Look at the compatibility list on OpenRGB. This model A5EFK is not in the list. Inferring a probable compatibility issue due certainly to the motherboard (Issue reported on OpenRGB forum).

 

[KGIII]

FWIW I have a Modern 15 and the brightness is what it is. No amount of button pushing changes it.