HP Omen keyboard control on Linux

[Martinsos]

Hi all,

I recently bought HP Omen and I must say I like it a lot!

I am software engineer and use Linux as my main OS, so I installed Arch Linux next to Win8 that was already on the machine. Except for problems (which I solved successfully at the end) with wifi being blocked initially and non-standard UEFI implementation (loads windows directly), everything works really fine and I am very satisfied.

One thing I do not have a good idea how to make work is keyboard: both lighting control and special gaming buttons. I was hoping somebody could give me directions on how to make this work (I have no problem with implementing part of solution myself if needed), are there any drivers for Linux, or is there any specification about how keyboard works and what signals can I use to control lighting, maybe source of Windows drivers (although I am guessing that is not public)?

Thanks,

Martin

[Martinsos]

Bump! Is there anyone on this forum that could give me some insight on how is keyboard lighting controlled on omen, and if not, where should I ask? Thanks!

[VictorLustig]

BUMP as well. I would also like to know the answer to this question.

[george-p]

Hi @Martinsos ,

I have brought your issue to the attention of an appropriate team within HP. They will likely request information from you in order to look up your case details or product serial number. Please look for a private message from an identified HP contact. Additionally, keep in mind not to publically post ( serial numbers and case details).

If you are unfamiliar with how the Forum's private message capability works, you can learn about that here.

Regards,
George

[marauder23]

Hve you tried turning it on and off?

[Martinsos]

I can turn it on or off using fn + f5, however there is no way to control color of keyboard right now, and I have no idea how to use special gaming buttons (linux recognizes them as escape, tab, tilda and so on - so same like the button to the right of the gaming button)

[shawarov]

Hi, I have the same laptop , but I'm still stuck with the WiFi issue hopefully u can advise me how to solve it , it is not working , I thought the device have a problem
😞

[Martinsos]

Hi @shawarov!

I had following problem with WIFI: very often it was hard locked, and I was not able to unlock it. You can check that it is hardlocked using `rfkill list`, it will say "Hard blocked: yes" for your wifi interface, and  you want to get that thing to be "no". I tried pressing fn + f12 but it did not help. Interesting thing: sometimes wifi was working after boot, but if I pressed fn + f12 it would hard lock and I could not unlock it.

I tried different solutions found on web, and one that worked for me was to blacklist wmi module!

You will note be able to toggle wifi using fn + f12 (which was not a problem for me since I never turn it off), but your wifi will not be blocked anymore.

You can find more information about blacklisting kernel modules here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/kernel_modules

I described this and some other of my experiences with HP Omen here http://martinsos.github.io/linux/2015/03/01/arch-linux-on-hp-omen.html .

[JJLuvzU]

There is no linux version of HP OMEN Control.  This software developed exclusively for HP OMEN, which is meant for gaming community (Windows based).

[Martinsos]

Thank you, that is what I was expecting! That is why I was hoping guys from HP could give me some insight in how this control could be implemented on Linux.