
Show HN: A browser extension that notifies you about new messages using LEDs - wallunit
https://github.com/snoack/chrome-blinklight
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rcshubhadeep
This is a fun project. Will try to check

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SpartanMindset
This looks great! Good job.

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wallunit
Thanks, man. It's almost frustrating how few attention my projects that are
targeted to Linux users get nowadays on HN. That said, I appreciate your
appreciation, very much.

If you try it out, let me know how well it works. So far I only had a chance
to test it on a ThinkPad X230 and X250, and I would be interested to know how
well it works on other models, potentially even with other vendors. Though, I
haven't seen any non-ThinkPad laptop yet that has LEDs that can be controlled
through the Linux kernel.

Also in case you are using Firefox on Debian/Ubuntu, note that blinklight
requires at least Firefox 50, which is not yet in Debian stable/testing, but
Firefox 52 can be installed from experimental.

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Johnnynator
I will check if I can it get running on my old Acer, at leat I have a ton of
unused LED on it.

And can't one use the background light of a keyboard as a notification light?

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wallunit
Awesome, I'm looking forward to see whether it is working on your Acer laptop.

You can use anything that is exposed by the Linux kernel under
/sys/class/leds/*. This includes the keyboard backlight of ThinkPads. As for
other vendors, it depends on whether the keyboard backlight (or any other LED)
can be controlled in software, and if so whether it is supported by any kernel
driver.

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Johnnynator
:( literally every light can't be toggled, except the usual stuff like numlock
or capslock.

