# Nifty trick to turn your keyboard lights into network indicator lights

**URL:** <https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/nifty-trick-to-turn-your-keyboard-lights-into-network-indicator-lights/12767>\
**Category:** Lounge\
**Created:** [March 16, 2021, 4:50am UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/nifty-trick-to-turn-your-keyboard-lights-into-network-indicator-lights/12767 "2021-03-16T04:50:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![anon31549144](https://forum.endeavouros.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@anon31549144](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/anon31549144)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 4:50am UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/nifty-trick-to-turn-your-keyboard-lights-into-network-indicator-lights/12767/1 "2021-03-16T04:50:31Z")

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So I randomly stumbled upon this on reddit:

[https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/m2kkna/turn\_your\_keyboard\_leds\_into\_network\_indicators/gqjqmx0?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/m2kkna/turn_your_keyboard_leds_into_network_indicators/gqjqmx0?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)

I have no connection to the topic and have no contribution to the whole idea, but the tinkerer in me delighted, so maybe someone else might enjoy it too.

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**Author:** ![jruschme](https://forum.endeavouros.com/user_avatar/forum.endeavouros.com/jruschme/32/25093_2.png) [@jruschme](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/jruschme)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 1:50pm UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/nifty-trick-to-turn-your-keyboard-lights-into-network-indicator-lights/12767/2 "2021-03-16T13:50:01Z")

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I assume that the result is an LED blinking on network activity, no?  
I have to be honest and say that I’m one of those people who tries to minimize blinking lights. The first thing I do after installing Linux on a system with an Intel wireless card is to set up a config in /etc/modprobe.d to turn off the iwl default behavior of blinking.

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**Author:** ![anon31549144](https://forum.endeavouros.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@anon31549144](https://forum.endeavouros.com/u/anon31549144)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 5:12pm UTC](https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/nifty-trick-to-turn-your-keyboard-lights-into-network-indicator-lights/12767/3 "2021-03-16T17:12:07Z")

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I agree, however hacking the keyboard this way is cool. I guess if you can control the lights you could set them up to work as notifiers for unread messages, like old phones used to have before they’ve been dumbed down by progress.