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POLL: How should the G15 Backlight key Work?

Sat, 01/26/2008 - 00:55 — mlampard

I rarely use the backlight key, other than to turn off the backlight when I leave the office for the night.

For some time, G15Daemon has allowed clients to alter their own backlight state, however maintaining this internal state is not as simple as it seems and is fraught with danger, Will Robinson.

So here is a poll so I can gain some insight into exactly how much time I should spend on fixing it, or changing it's behaviour to suit the majority of users.

[edit] Just to make it clear, this poll will determine the way future versions of g15tools react to backlight commands and keypresses. Your input is needed. If you'd like to see the backlight respond in a particular way, you should vote one way or other.

G15Stats 1.0 available for download [with screen captures] ›
Fri, 10/23/2009 - 22:36 — Jonas.EH

Re: POLL: How should the G15 Backlight key Work?

As for alert purposes: If you need to get some attention to the LCD, isn't it better to invert the screen a couple times to make it seem flashing instead of changing the backlight?

Sat, 09/19/2009 - 08:35 — refujee

Re: POLL: How should the G15 Backlight key Work?

I know enough C to get things compiled and comment things out... but not enough to save my life :?

Fri, 09/18/2009 - 09:36 — SteelSide

Re: POLL: How should the G15 Backlight key Work?

Yeah i know, you'd have to modify it a bit to also kill the backlight :P
Do you know C to some minor extent? If so it should not be too hard to implement, else i could put it on my long todo-list.. ehum..

Tue, 09/15/2009 - 22:20 — refujee

Re: POLL: How should the G15 Backlight key Work?

SteelSide wrote:
There's a plugin that does this, called g15dpms-monitor, it's in the SVN repository for g15daemon, you could use that (it blanks the lcd also so no information is displayed). It doesn't drop backlight, but could be modified with ease i suppose.

I tried playing around with this program over the weekend and could not get it to work at all. It builds fine, but after running it doesn't seem to do what it's supposed to do. The backlight never shuts off when the monitor turns off via DPMS and there are no error messages. I'd love to get this working.

Thu, 05/07/2009 - 10:46 — SteelSide

Re: POLL: How should the G15 Backlight key Work?

There's a plugin that does this, called g15dpms-monitor, it's in the SVN repository for g15daemon, you could use that (it blanks the lcd also so no information is displayed). It doesn't drop backlight, but could be modified with ease i suppose.

Thu, 05/07/2009 - 01:05 — Fragger

Re: POLL: How should the G15 Backlight key Work?

digimatic wrote:
Not sure if this should belong in G15Daemon or be a client in itself, but how about the possibility of tracking when xscreensaver starts and/or the screen goes into powersave and dropping the backlight to 0 then.

Just thinking that as with others the only time I use the backlight key is when I leave the machine at night...my monitor goes to sleep automatically and it would be nice if the keyboard backlight followed.

I would absolutely love to see that. I would suspect that screen-saver detection is not too hard either, would be be pretty cool making G15Daemon "smart" like that.

Sun, 11/09/2008 - 18:42 — digimatic

Re: POLL: How should the G15 Backlight key Work?

Not sure if this should belong in G15Daemon or be a client in itself, but how about the possibility of tracking when xscreensaver starts and/or the screen goes into powersave and dropping the backlight to 0 then.

Just thinking that as with others the only time I use the backlight key is when I leave the machine at night...my monitor goes to sleep automatically and it would be nice if the keyboard backlight followed.

Thu, 01/31/2008 - 00:11 — mlampard

Re: POLL: How should the G15 Backlight key Work?

Thanks all who voted/responded, your feedback was very helpful.

The next version of G15Daemon will set the backlight globally via the button only by default. I'll add a new commandline option to allow G15Daemon clients the ability to set the backlight for screens they control, and to have levels set on a per-screen basis via the button for those who want it.

Mike

Sat, 01/26/2008 - 22:09 — Frozen-Solid

Re: POLL: How should the G15 Backlight key Work?

Honestly... I'd like to see the 2nd option, because if you're going to allow scripts to control the backlight at all it'd be nice to see it as independant per app. That's only because it's a more "complete" implementation of what the function SHOULD do. Personally I'd be irritated if a script modified more than just it's own screen.

That being said, however, I really wouldn't mind scripts not being able to change the backlight at all. Just doing it manually with the backlight button to control the entire overall keyboard is more than enough for me, and in that case it should be the same for every app.

Sat, 01/26/2008 - 08:48 — mlampard

Re: POLL: How should the G15 Backlight key Work?

heh, nice to see another SA (or even AU) user onboard :) I thank you again for your assistance in debugging the G15v2 support.

The original intent of allowing clients to control backlight state was for alert purposes. However, apart from lcdproc, I'm unaware of any client actually using the feature, and as it is a pain in my rear keeping it around, I want to be certain that users really care. I probably ought to just make it a cmd-line option, but this poll will hopefully make it clear which way I ought to go.

The majority of client accessible options are not so invasive, but the backlight is very much a personal preference.

Mike

Sat, 01/26/2008 - 04:29 — Madmodia

Re: POLL: How should the G15 Backlight key Work?

I'd be interested to see of any real use case where having client-dependent backlight is useful at all. If nothing really interesting comes up, I'd definitely say just have there be one light level then be done with it.