Re: [Bug] Acer AN515-58: Fn+F10 affects display brightness unexpectedly

[Hans de Goede <hansg@kernel.org>]

Hi,

On 16-Nov-25 23:14, Bugaddr wrote:
> Hi everyone,
> 
> I've debugged and fixed the annoying Fn+F10 bug on Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58.
> 
> ROOT CAUSE:
> Firmware sends wrong scancode (0xef) which Linux maps to KEY_BRIGHTNESSDOWN instead of keyboard backlight control.
> 
> SOLUTION:
> Install this udev hwdb rule:
> 
> sudo tee /etc/udev/hwdb.d/90-acer-nitro5-an515-58.hwdb > /dev/null << 'EOF'
> # Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58 - Fix Fn+F10 scancode 0xef
> evdev:atkbd:dmi:bvn*:bvr*:bd*:svnAcer*:pnNitro*AN515-58*
>  KEYBOARD_KEY_ef=reserved
> EOF
> 
> sudo systemd-hwdb update && sudo udevadm trigger --sysname-match="event*"
> 
> TESTED ON:
> - Kernel: 6.17.8-arch1-1
> - Distribution: Arch Linux
> - Desktop: KDE Plasma (Wayland)
> 
> I have blogged my full analysis here: https://bugaddr.tech/posts/2025-11-16-debugging-the-acer-nitro-5-an515-58-fn-f10-keyboard-backlight-bug-on-linux/

Good work on debugging this and nice blogpost.

Question do the brightness up/down hotkeys still work after the hwdb fix ?

As Armin mentioned you really should submit a pull-request to systemd to get
this added to distros so the next Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58 will not be hit by
this issue. See e.g.:

https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/39392/commits

which makes some slightly different changes to hwdb.d/60-keyboard.hwdb

Regards,

Hans