Exposé and PowerBook keyboard lighting - broken?

[Tailwind]

Panther is up and running well on my aluminum 15" PowerBook, except that my F8, F9 and F10 keys - the ones that control keyboard lighting - don't work now.

That is, when I press Fn + F9, 10 or 11 they work as expected with Exposé, but pressing F8/9/10 by themselves brings up the transparent kbd lighting image on the screen with a white O-with-a-slash-through-it beneath, telling me it's not working.

And it doesn't. No more keyboard lighting.

I've tried resetting Exposé to different keys and tried turning it off - no activation keys or corners.

Is anyone else's keyboard lighting broken? Or is this my own personal Panther gremlin?

Please reply to lenn-at-mac-you know what I mean.

Thanks for any insights you all have.


MIDNIGHT UPDATE - D'oh! - I just took the PB into a dark room to see if the lighting would do anything, and it works just fine.

It turns out that the lighting level keys only operate when the PB is in a low-light situation.

Please delete this thread. Thanks.

[peternj]

I had the same problem, well still do.

My 17 inch 1.33 GHZ will not activate keyboard lighting unless I set it to be on and then log out and then log back in. I use the quick switch for this.

It's a drag.

Though to be frank I don't use the option much only when I'm in a dark room.

Peter

[Powerbook G5]

Yeah, that's completely normal...it only works when the PowerBook is in a low light environment.

[RichP]

Originally posted by Powerbook G5
Yeah, that's completely normal...it only works when the PowerBook is in a low light environment.

VERY low light; I think apple should have documented how it works a bit better for new users. Personally, i find on the powerbook, using hot corners with expose is easier than the fn+f9 setup.

[peternj]

VERY low light; I think apple should have documented how it works a bit better for new users. Personally, i find on the powerbook, using hot corners with expose is easier than the fn+f9 setup

That's what I should have said. Really it's only good when there is no light at all and the screen set up to not be on full brightness.

Really I find it the least useful process but if I have to control a rig in a dark sound-box then it will be useful but mostly I work with enough ambient light for the keyboard to work better with this option switched off.

But i've found with my install of Panther that it only works after I log out and then back in.

Peter

[Powerbook G5]

It doesn't have to be that low for it to go on. Sometimes it turns on whenever my roommate goes by when just the lights in the room are one since our dorm room is pretty dimly lit. I can also turn it on just by hovering my hands over the speaker grills since that's where the sensors are located.

[dynamicfigure]

Yea, my new 15 inch with the fancy backlit keyboard no longer worked after I upgraded to Panther either. The keyboard diming controls (F8, F9, and F11) did not do anything but show a "do not cross" type of circle with a slash through it under their non functioning displays.

Then I realized that the fix was to simply change the default hotkeys that activate expose. You see, in it's factory setting the F9 key controls expose's "all windows" feature and the F10 key controls "application windows" switching my expose preferences in the System Preferences window to make F12 "all windows" and F7 "application windows" brought my backlit keyboard back as quick as you can say "I shoulda thought of this earlier..." much to my relief!

[crenz]

dynamicfigure, thanks for posting your fix!