<![CDATA[Help needed: ThinkPad T480 Fn keys not working properly on FreeBSD 15 (XFCE)]]>Hello There ,
I’m running FreeBSD 15.0 on a ThinkPad T480 with XFCE and LightDM. Most things are working fine (i915kms, WiFi, etc.), but I’m having issues with Fn keys.

  • Brightness keys are detected but don’t change brightness (only works via xrandr)
  • Volume keys are detected but require manual mixer commands
  • Keyboard backlight key is detected but no action occurs

What is the recommended approach for full Fn key support on ThinkPad systems under FreeBSD with XFCE? Is native backlight control supported, or is xrandr the practical fallback? Should this be implemented via XFCE bindings, devd, or custom scripts?

Thank you
cardozQ

]]>https://billboard.bsd.cafe/topic/37/help-needed-thinkpad-t480-fn-keys-not-working-properly-on-freebsd-15-xfceRSS for NodeSat, 04 Apr 2026 13:13:10 GMTThu, 02 Apr 2026 20:43:38 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to Help needed: ThinkPad T480 Fn keys not working properly on FreeBSD 15 (XFCE) on Fri, 03 Apr 2026 08:51:21 GMT]]>@cardozQ
Iirc acpi_ibm loaded in rc.conf or loader.conf is needed for those "special" keys to work

anybody feel free to correct me. I am on my OpenBSD box, I can't check myself here, atm. 🙂

/e: as follow-up: @evgandr@mastodon.bsd.cafe recently made this blogpost on Thinkpad specific keys too.

hope it helps and as always ymmv

#freebsd #thinkpad #keyboard #indicators

]]>https://billboard.bsd.cafe/post/76https://billboard.bsd.cafe/post/76Fri, 03 Apr 2026 08:51:21 GMT