10.5 on New Unibody MacBook Pro: Keyboard Backlight

[noah_swanson]

We just received a new Unibody MacBook Pro and successfully loaded OSX 10.5.8 on the machine with Casper Imaging. However the only "bug" I've found involves the keyboard Backlight. The keyboard backlight is only supposed to "turn on" when in low light (Sensor by the iSight). However, in this case it is on all the time and when the light sensor is activated it does not change. The preferences are set the way they should (System Prefs> Displays> Dislpay> Checkmark next to "Automatically adjust brightness as ambient light changes" & System Prefs> Keyboard> "Illuminate keyboard in low light conditions").

I'm assuming this is due to loading Leopard on a machine built for Snow Leopard. Is there a fix for this? I've tried replacing a few extensions (all with no luck). Anything else to try, or is this something we'll just have to "deal with" until we upgrade our Macs to 10.6?

Thanks you all!
Noah Swanson
Imaging Specialist
Enterprise Desktop Services
Phone: 309-765-3153
SwansonNoah at johndeere.com

[stevewood]

How was your 10.5.8 image created? What was it created on/from?

There has been no change to hardware on the Unibody machines since 10.6 came
out, so technically a 10.5 image should work fine. Usually a machine
doesn't become a "built for 10.6" machine until there has been a hardware
change, necessitating new boot loaders.

That said, you do want to make sure you are using a 10.5 DVD that came out
after the Unibody machines came out. I believe that would be 10.5.6 or
higher, but someone else may want to confirm that.

Steve Wood
Director of IT
swood at integer.com

The Integer Group | 1999 Bryan St. | Ste. 1700 | Dallas, TX 75201
T 214.758.6813 | F 214.758.6901 | C 940.312.2475

[talkingmoose]

Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:18:21 -0600

I had the same experience when I loaded Mac OS X 10.3 on a PowerBook that
came with 10.4. Most things may work, but the older OS does not have the
correct drivers for everything.

--

bill

William M. Smith, Technical Analyst
MCS IT
Merrill Communications, LLC
(651) 632-1492

[noah_swanson]

We built the image on a late 2008 iMac using 10.5.6 then applying the 10.5.8 Combo Update. This was the recommended way that Nick from Jamf had us do. The Backlight functionality works correctly on 2 other MacBook Pros (Early 2008 - non-unibody) that we have, as well as an old PowerBook.

Thanks,
Noah

[stevewood]

Just to be certain, I took a Unibody I just received this week and loaded my
10.5.7 image on it and the keyboard back light works as expected: on in low
light, off in regular light.

My 10.5.7 image was built off of a DIB (drop in box) disc that was shipped
with a 17" Unibody MBP earlier this year, in July I believe.

So, just make sure you are using a disc from another Unibody and you should
be fine.

Steve Wood
Director of IT
swood at integer.com

The Integer Group | 1999 Bryan St. | Ste. 1700 | Dallas, TX 75201
T 214.758.6813 | F 214.758.6901 | C 940.312.2475

[donmontalvo]

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2186
Noah Swanson <SwansonNoah at JohnDeere.com> wrote:

Don

[Kedgar]

Don't the combo updates usually include the new kenel extensions and drivers required? I've usually had good experience with using the latest combo updates. However if you get a machine with 10.6 and install 10.5 on it you may run across issues... I have not had problems yet.

[John_Wetter]

Ken,

Yes, the combos usually do include this. Apple did NOT include the drivers
from the first aluminum iMacs in the last build of Tiger though. That
wasn't the case though in Leopard from what I've heard. I don't think the
kb that Don posted actually applies here from a technical perspective in
this specific case. All bets are always off once they rev the hardware,
such as they did with the iMacs last month. I personally just got a new MBP
early this week and it has the same EFI rev as earlier this summer with
Leopard, so you should be able to get the backlight working properly. My
guess is that the combination of installing it on an iMac and then running
the combo just didn't place the drivers for the backlight correctly.
Whenever possible, we always use a macbook pro to make our OS images as they
have the most extra features that need to be supported such as the
backlight, and until recently when all touchpads became capable, support for
the extra gestures on the touchpad.

John

-- John Wetter
Technical Services Manager
Educational Technology, Media & Information Services
Hopkins Public Schools
952-988-5373

[donmontalvo]

FYI...updated (new?) article covering shipped OS build info:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1159

Don