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Tasklist

FS#26523 - [linux] LCD backlight cannot be set since 3.0.6

Attached to Project: Arch Linux
Opened by Csaba Henk (csheemea) - Wednesday, 19 October 2011, 13:11 GMT
Last edited by Evangelos Foutras (foutrelis) - Thursday, 20 October 2011, 22:34 GMT
Task Type Bug Report
Category Packages: Core
Status Closed
Assigned To Tobias Powalowski (tpowa)
Thomas Bächler (brain0)
Architecture All
Severity Medium
Priority Normal
Reported Version
Due in Version Undecided
Due Date Undecided
Percent Complete 100%
Votes 0
Private No

Details

Description:

I cannot modify LCD backlight of my laptop by any means (neither by the keys which have these functions mapped to, nor by
echoing to /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness [cf. https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=113476]).

It's just so bright all the time that it hurts my eyes.

Additional info:
* package version(s): linux 3.0.6-2 (used to work with 3.0.4; I have not booted to 3.0.6-1 so I can't tell for sure; however, the changes in beetwen 1 and 2 does not seem to contain anything related).

# cat /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/device/uevent
DRIVER=i915
PCI_CLASS=30000
PCI_ID=8086:0046
PCI_SUBSYS_ID=1025:040E
PCI_SLOT_NAME=0000:00:02.0
MODALIAS=pci:v00008086d00000046sv00001025sd0000040Ebc03sc00i00


Steps to reproduce:

Buy an Acer Aspire Timeline-X 1830T and install Arch onto it.
This task depends upon

Closed by  Evangelos Foutras (foutrelis)
Thursday, 20 October 2011, 22:34 GMT
Reason for closing:  Fixed
Additional comments about closing:  Reportedly fixed in linux 3.0.7-1.
Comment by Kyle Keen (keenerd) - Wednesday, 19 October 2011, 13:41 GMT
Does "xbacklight -set [value]" work? (It is in package xorg-xbacklight.)

I have the /sys/ file, but it is not user writable, so xbacklight might work through a different means. Hopefully one that is available for you.

Comment by Csaba Henk (csheemea) - Wednesday, 19 October 2011, 14:39 GMT
Thanks for the hint, but, alas, it does not work.

xbacklight works by means of communicating with the X server, which is in turn capable of modifying the sysfs entries (and indeed, that is what it does, as a quick strace revealed). So it still seems to boil down to the sysfs thingies. (The ACPI interface of procfs was weeded out just recently, which is a possible alternative interface -- now gone. I thought of compiling a kernel with ACPI procfs re-added, but it sounds illogical to see behavioral differences in a kernel service due to a different configuration at the interface level.)
Comment by Csaba Henk (csheemea) - Wednesday, 19 October 2011, 22:57 GMT
Some refinements, further observations:

- the procfs changes I mention do not have relevance to this -- what have been taken out in Arch's config is the power subsystem related entries in /proc/acpi (CONFIG_ACPI_PROCFS_POWER); /proc/acpi/video is nonexistent both on 3.0.4 and 3.0.6 (the aforementioned Archlinux forum thread is what makes mention of /proc/acpi/video, that led me think it is relevant but as I say, there is no change in this respect).
- /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness is half-broken on 3.0.4 too: I am able to echo any value into it but that does not have any effect (consequently, xbacklight is broken in 3.0.4 too). However, the special keys do work on 3.0.4, and the value of /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness is updated accordingly when using them.
Comment by Csaba Henk (csheemea) - Thursday, 20 October 2011, 09:17 GMT
3.0.7 fixed this. Please close the bug.

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