getting backlit keyboard to work
 

I bought this "gamer" keyboard/mouse combo from Cooler Master the other day. I'm not a gamer, but I wanted the blue backlit keyboard because more often than not, I'm using my computer in the dark and I can never see the keys. I was hoping it would just work out of the box on the hardware level and that I wouldn't have to worry about it, but unfortunately that is not the case. The backlight is toggled on and off using the Screen Lock key.

On the console, hitting the screen lock key does turn the backlight on, but it also does what that key is supposed to do and locks the keyboard. I'm sure it wouldn't be a big deal disabling the Screen Lock function on the console, but I mainly use X, so I'm not too concerned with that.

In X, hitting the Screen Lock key does nothing at all. No backlight, no screen lock.

Google'ing the keyboard model (Cooler Master MB24) and linux yields absolutely nothing. The kernel sees the keyboard as a "SINO WEALTH USB keyboard." Google found this. I am assuming this keyboard uses that controller.

I wish I could open the keyboard up and just bypass the toggle so that it would be in an always-on state, but unfortunately I wouldn't even know where to begin with that hack.

Since it works on the console (kind of), it seems it wouldn't have anything to do with the kernel or a driver, but more of enabling the screen lock key in X without actually locking the keyboard.

Any ideas on getting this working?

Never mind. It was as simple as

xset led named "Scroll Lock"

To disable, use -led instead.

Thanks for the update and solution.

I didn't know the answer.