Enabling E480 Backlit Keyboard on a ThinkPad E485

[Lost_N_BIOS]

Thanks for the grub images, and sorry for my mistake!
That is correct grub now, but I see I forgot to tell you to type setup_var with the variables

So type this >> setup_var 0x32 0x2

[AaronRepublic]

Alright, finally have some time to work on this again I'll have the grub image posted below...

[Lost_N_BIOS]

Doesn't look correct? What do you get at first if you type only setup_var 0x32?

[AaronRepublic]

Also, when I ran setup_var 0x32 0x2, there was no effect to the backlight or the keyboard.

[Lost_N_BIOS]

Try config_var instead? Just a guess, that may not work at all but that is the name of "Setup" in this BIOS file, so maybe that needs to be used instead. I also think it's not getting correct place, since you did not get output of current value by entering Setup_var 0x32 << That should have returned current value like 0x2

Does variable 0x1 or 0x0 do anything different to the LED's? how about if you enter 0xFF? Just tossing things out to try, to see if anything changes, disabled the current LED's you can see, so you can tell if you're getting the right thing or not.

[Lost_N_BIOS]

See this, maybe one of these will help! Modified grub file with setup_var2 and setup_var3 (Release tab has the download, also follow that setup_var2 patch link to second version with on Russian site)
https://github.com/datasone/grub-mod-setup_var

[Dorkage]

Hey guys, I just joined after stubbling on this thread from a Reddit discussion.

I've noticed the E485 is available with a backlit keyboard (and fingerprint reader) in Hong Kong. Perhaps that bios version is different and would allow the keyboard to light up?

[Lost_N_BIOS]

Maybe? Can you link the BIOS, thanks! Probably some hardware differences though, but we can check it out.

[Dorkage]

Well it seems the option has now been removed from the HK site... Maybe it was in error and my asking why it wasn't available in Canada caught it? Or maybe I was a complete dummy and was looking at the A485...

Either way I checked the checksums on both BIOSs and they were the same. So there goes that theory.

[AaronRepublic]

I tried a few commands in the grub efi from https://github.com/datasone/grub-mod-setup_var:



Still apparently out of range, strange. I feel like it'd be much more likely that there's a lock in the E485 bios for this backlit keyboard than there is a physical board lock since both keyboards take the exact same connections. I just think it's bazaar that Lenovo would lock out the use of any backlit keyboard whether it fits or not with the same connectors to a product that doesn't offer a backlit keyboard. Makes me wonder if there was some sort of financial deal involved with the Intel variant of the ThinkPad E48x series where the Intel equipped versions (also with the same graphics off the AMD Ryzen APU by the way but on two seperate chips on the mobo) gets the backlit keyboard while the AMD model doesn't get the option to try to make the Intel model look more appealing while locking the ability to swap a backlit one into the AMD based E485 machines. Just theories though...