I added this line to my rc.local to allow normal user to control thinklight trough sysfs bowo@pcxthinkslack:~$ tail /etc/rc.d/rc.local -n2 # allow normal user to turn thinklight off/on trough shell chmod 666 /sys/class/leds/tpacpi::thinklight/brightness Create shell script to control thinklight from sysfs. When called, it will turn thinklight on/off bowo@pcxthinkslack:~$ cat /usr/local/bin/toogle-thinklight.sh #!/bin/bash echo `cat /sys/class/leds/tpacpi::thinklight/brightness | grep -c 0` > /sys/class/leds/tpacpi::thinklight/brightnes Just for fun, I create also thinklight svg icon using inkscape :) and create thinklight.