Hi, Sambiase.
1) Do you try another distros? Because maybe there Fn-keys will work "out of the box",,
2) I'm using ArchLinux - not very user-friendly distributive..In my SR after install volume and other keys work fine but Fn+F5 and Fn+F6 for brightness. But I solve this problem:
First of all you need to define code of keys. For it write in console:
acpi_listen
Then push keys what you need. Usually it shows two code. First - when press in, and second - press out.
So now you should know your code. For me it was
SNC 00000001 00000010
I think your code will be similar...
Now you need root-access rights. Try command "su" (for Ubuntu try "sudo -s") and then write your root password. Then go to directory "/etc/acpi". There you need two folders: "action" and "events"
In "events" create file "sonybright-up":(just use your own code for keys..)
event=/sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 00000010
action=/etc/acpi/actions/sonybright.sh up
event - means code of key, and action - script, which will be executed after you press this key.
analogically create "sonybright-down":
event=/sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 00000011
action=/etc/acpi/actions/sonybright.sh down
The last part - you need to create script "sonybright.sh", which will change brightness of your display. So I wrote it in bash, but you can write your own in another language(perl or maybe python):
#!/bin/bash
if [ "x$1" = "xdown" ]; then
expr `cat /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness` \- 1 > /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness
elif [ "x$1" = "xup" ]; then
expr `cat /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness` \+ 1 > /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness
else
echo "Error">/home/cyrus/bright_script.log
fi
Thats all. This method using acpi-module so you need package acpi. But I think in OpenSUSE it is already installed.
3) Don't know about the backlit keyboard, cause it's new feature of S-series. But I think you can try to find it in google .. something about linux on MacBooks.
