Hack to control the keyboard backlight level on a Thinkpad Lenovo X1 Carbon Touch

tmp.c

/* gcc -o tmp `pkg-config --libs --cflags glib-2.0` tmp.c
 *
 * # modprobe ec_sys
 *
 * # watch -n 0.1 hexdump -C /sys/kernel/debug/ec/ec0/io
 *
 * 00000000  a7 05 a0 e2 00 86 05 00  00 00 47 00 00 03 00 10  |..........G.....|
 * 00000000  a7 05 a0 e2 00 86 05 00  00 00 47 00 00 43 00 10  |..........G..C..|
 * 00000000  a7 05 a0 e2 00 86 05 00  00 00 47 00 00 83 00 10  |..........G.....|
 *
 * # ./tmp 0
 * # ./tmp 1
 * # ./tmp 2
 *
 */

#include <glib.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <errno.h>

char levels[] = {
	0x03,
	0x43,
	0x83
};

static void
usage (char **argv)
{
	g_print ("%s [level]\n", argv[0]);
	g_print ("Where level is between 1 and 3\n");
}

int main (int argc, char **argv)
{
	int fd;
	int level;

	if (argc < 2) {
		usage (argv);
		return 1;
	}
	level = atoi(argv[1]);
	if (level < 0 || level > 3) {
		usage (argv);
		return 1;
	}

	fd = open ("/sys/kernel/debug/ec/ec0/io", O_RDWR);
	if (fd < 0) {
		g_print ("open: %s\n", g_strerror (errno));
		return 1;
	}
	if (lseek (fd, 0xd, SEEK_CUR) < 0) {
		g_print ("seek: %s\n", g_strerror (errno));
		return 1;
	}
	if (write (fd, &levels[level], 1) < 0) {
		g_print ("write: %s\n", g_strerror (errno));
		return 1;
	}

	return 0;
}

On Fedora at least, compiled versions need chown root:root <filename>; chmod +s <filename> to gain root permissions.

The ec_sys kernel module is not loaded automatically on my system (X230 Tablet) so needs # echo ec_sys > /etc/modules_load.d to load, and #echo options ec_sys write-support=1 > /etc/modprobe.d/ec_sys.conf to be able to write to the relevant device persistently after reboot.

Once that's done, works like a charm!

Can someone tell me how to set this up on X1 Ubuntu 20 so that backlight is persistent? Not sure what steps to take so if someone can write step by step guide.