[gentoo-user] Backlight problems

[gentoo-user] Backlight problems

[Grant]

On my just-released Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook, I can control the backlight
with 'xbacklight -set 0' and 'xbacklight -set 100'.  Any other values
cause the screen to blink and flash.  The keyboard backlight shortcuts
don't work unless I map them to xbacklight 0 and 100.  Also xbacklight
doesn't work at all if I'm unplugged from AC.  I've tried
acpi_osi=Linux and acpi_backlight=vendor in grub.conf.  acpi_osi
doesn't seem to make any difference and xbacklight doesn't work at all
without acpi_backlight.  Do I just need to wait for a newer kernel?

- Grant

[gentoo-user] Re: Backlight problems

[walt]

On 03/04/2012 01:16 PM, Grant wrote:
> On my just-released Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook, I can control the backlight
> with 'xbacklight -set 0' and 'xbacklight -set 100'.  Any other values
> cause the screen to blink and flash.  The keyboard backlight shortcuts
> don't work unless I map them to xbacklight 0 and 100.  Also xbacklight
> doesn't work at all if I'm unplugged from AC.  I've tried
> acpi_osi=Linux and acpi_backlight=vendor in grub.conf.  acpi_osi
> doesn't seem to make any difference and xbacklight doesn't work at all
> without acpi_backlight.  Do I just need to wait for a newer kernel?

Does the gentoo install CD or a rescue CD give you any way to test the
same backlight functions?  If the backlight works correctly when running
such a CD then listing the loaded kernel modules might give you a clue.

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Backlight problems

[Grant]

>> On my just-released Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook, I can control the backlight
>> with 'xbacklight -set 0' and 'xbacklight -set 100'.  Any other values
>> cause the screen to blink and flash.  The keyboard backlight shortcuts
>> don't work unless I map them to xbacklight 0 and 100.  Also xbacklight
>> doesn't work at all if I'm unplugged from AC.  I've tried
>> acpi_osi=Linux and acpi_backlight=vendor in grub.conf.  acpi_osi
>> doesn't seem to make any difference and xbacklight doesn't work at all
>> without acpi_backlight.  Do I just need to wait for a newer kernel?
>
> Does the gentoo install CD or a rescue CD give you any way to test the
> same backlight functions?  If the backlight works correctly when running
> such a CD then listing the loaded kernel modules might give you a clue.

That's a fine idea.  The latest Gentoo minimal CD wouldn't boot this
laptop so I used Kubuntu to install and I should do something like
that for testing the backlight.

Is there a consensus on which LiveCD is kept really up-to-date and
works well across a lot of different hardware?

- Grant

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Backlight problems

[Grant]

>> On my just-released Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook, I can control the backlight
>> with 'xbacklight -set 0' and 'xbacklight -set 100'.  Any other values
>> cause the screen to blink and flash.  The keyboard backlight shortcuts
>> don't work unless I map them to xbacklight 0 and 100.  Also xbacklight
>> doesn't work at all if I'm unplugged from AC.  I've tried
>> acpi_osi=Linux and acpi_backlight=vendor in grub.conf.  acpi_osi
>> doesn't seem to make any difference and xbacklight doesn't work at all
>> without acpi_backlight.  Do I just need to wait for a newer kernel?
>
> Does the gentoo install CD or a rescue CD give you any way to test the
> same backlight functions?  If the backlight works correctly when running
> such a CD then listing the loaded kernel modules might give you a clue.

I tried the latest Kubuntu and Ubuntu LiveCDs via unetbootin but the
backlight behavior is the same as with Gentoo.  Please let me know if
anyone has any ideas on this.

- Grant

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Backlight problems

[Mark Knecht]

On Fri, Mar 16, 2012 at 10:58 AM, Grant <emailgrant@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> On my just-released Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook, I can control the backlight
>>> with 'xbacklight -set 0' and 'xbacklight -set 100'.  Any other values
>>> cause the screen to blink and flash.  The keyboard backlight shortcuts
>>> don't work unless I map them to xbacklight 0 and 100.  Also xbacklight
>>> doesn't work at all if I'm unplugged from AC.  I've tried
>>> acpi_osi=Linux and acpi_backlight=vendor in grub.conf.  acpi_osi
>>> doesn't seem to make any difference and xbacklight doesn't work at all
>>> without acpi_backlight.  Do I just need to wait for a newer kernel?
>>
>> Does the gentoo install CD or a rescue CD give you any way to test the
>> same backlight functions?  If the backlight works correctly when running
>> such a CD then listing the loaded kernel modules might give you a clue.
>
> I tried the latest Kubuntu and Ubuntu LiveCDs via unetbootin but the
> backlight behavior is the same as with Gentoo.  Please let me know if
> anyone has any ideas on this.
>
> - Grant
>

Grant,
   Sorry I missed this thread earlier. I've got an Asus 17" laptop
that I've been trying unsuccessfully to get the keyboard backlighting
to work correctly for weeks (maybe months - I no longer remember how
long) On my machine I get keyboard backlighting when I boot the
machine, but if I turn off the lights with the switch on the machine I
cannot so far turn them back on by any means.

   On this machine xbacklight -get responds that nothing has backlight
properties so I've clearly got some configuration issues.

   As for the kernel I'm using vanilla-sources-3.2.10 so I don't think
there's a lot that is newer than that.

   I don't care much about screen backlighting but keyboard
backlighting is important to me.

- Mark

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Backlight problems

[Grant]

>>>> On my just-released Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook, I can control the backlight
>>>> with 'xbacklight -set 0' and 'xbacklight -set 100'.  Any other values
>>>> cause the screen to blink and flash.  The keyboard backlight shortcuts
>>>> don't work unless I map them to xbacklight 0 and 100.  Also xbacklight
>>>> doesn't work at all if I'm unplugged from AC.  I've tried
>>>> acpi_osi=Linux and acpi_backlight=vendor in grub.conf.  acpi_osi
>>>> doesn't seem to make any difference and xbacklight doesn't work at all
>>>> without acpi_backlight.  Do I just need to wait for a newer kernel?
>>>
>>> Does the gentoo install CD or a rescue CD give you any way to test the
>>> same backlight functions?  If the backlight works correctly when running
>>> such a CD then listing the loaded kernel modules might give you a clue.
>>
>> I tried the latest Kubuntu and Ubuntu LiveCDs via unetbootin but the
>> backlight behavior is the same as with Gentoo.  Please let me know if
>> anyone has any ideas on this.
>>
>> - Grant
>>
>
> Grant,
>   Sorry I missed this thread earlier. I've got an Asus 17" laptop
> that I've been trying unsuccessfully to get the keyboard backlighting
> to work correctly for weeks (maybe months - I no longer remember how
> long) On my machine I get keyboard backlighting when I boot the
> machine, but if I turn off the lights with the switch on the machine I
> cannot so far turn them back on by any means.
>
>   On this machine xbacklight -get responds that nothing has backlight
> properties so I've clearly got some configuration issues.
>
>   As for the kernel I'm using vanilla-sources-3.2.10 so I don't think
> there's a lot that is newer than that.
>
>   I don't care much about screen backlighting but keyboard
> backlighting is important to me.
>
> - Mark

Hey Mark, I'm happy to say I just fixed the screen backlighting on my
system, but I'm sorry to say I don't think it will help you with
keyboard backlighting.  To fix it, I removed 'acpi_backlight=vendor'
from grub and added 'echo 0 >
/sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness' to
/etc/local.d/backlight.start and made that file executable.  Now
backlight control works perfectly via the keyboard shortcuts with no
other configuration and no xbacklight.  I'm on
hardened-sources-3.2.2-r1.

BTW, I noticed baselayout1.start and baselayout1.stop are no longer
created in /etc/local.d.

- Grant

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Backlight problems

[Mark Knecht]

On Fri, Mar 16, 2012 at 11:55 AM, Grant <emailgrant@gmail.com> wrote:
<SNIP>
>> Grant,
>>   Sorry I missed this thread earlier. I've got an Asus 17" laptop
>> that I've been trying unsuccessfully to get the keyboard backlighting
>> to work correctly for weeks (maybe months - I no longer remember how
>> long) On my machine I get keyboard backlighting when I boot the
>> machine, but if I turn off the lights with the switch on the machine I
>> cannot so far turn them back on by any means.
>>
>>   On this machine xbacklight -get responds that nothing has backlight
>> properties so I've clearly got some configuration issues.
>>
>>   As for the kernel I'm using vanilla-sources-3.2.10 so I don't think
>> there's a lot that is newer than that.
>>
>>   I don't care much about screen backlighting but keyboard
>> backlighting is important to me.
>>
>> - Mark
>
> Hey Mark, I'm happy to say I just fixed the screen backlighting on my
> system, but I'm sorry to say I don't think it will help you with
> keyboard backlighting.  To fix it, I removed 'acpi_backlight=vendor'
> from grub and added 'echo 0 >
> /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness' to
> /etc/local.d/backlight.start and made that file executable.  Now
> backlight control works perfectly via the keyboard shortcuts with no
> other configuration and no xbacklight.  I'm on
> hardened-sources-3.2.2-r1.
>
> BTW, I noticed baselayout1.start and baselayout1.stop are no longer
> created in /etc/local.d.
>
> - Grant
>

Hi Grant,
   OK, that's interesting info. Here's what I'm currently seeing:

slinky ~ # uname -a
Linux slinky 3.2.10 #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Mar 13 09:45:35 PDT 2012 x86_64
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU Q 740 @ 1.73GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux
slinky ~ # ls -al /etc/local.d/
total 20
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4096 Feb 23 21:03 .
drwxr-xr-x 72 root root 4096 Mar 16 11:53 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  387 Feb 23 21:03 README
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root  123 May  3  2011 baselayout1.start
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root  217 May  3  2011 baselayout1.stop
slinky ~ # ls -la /sys/class/backlight/asus_laptop/
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root    0 Mar 16 04:35 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root    0 Mar 16 04:35 ..
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Mar 16 12:09 actual_brightness
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Mar 16 12:09 bl_power
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Mar 16 11:40 brightness
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root    0 Mar 16 12:09 device ->
../../../asus_laptop
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Mar 16 11:40 max_brightness
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root    0 Mar 16 04:35 subsystem ->
../../../../../class/backlight
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Mar 16 12:09 type
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Mar 16 04:35 uevent
slinky ~ # cat /sys/class/backlight/asus_laptop/brightness
15
slinky ~ #

   So, it seems to me that following your example, if I wanted to
experiment with screen backlighting what would I do? I'm in KDE BTW in
case we're doing something different in that regard.

   I see in the Global Keyboard Shortcuts in KDE that there are
Monitor Brightness Down/Up controls defined but I'm not understanding
what keys actually control those. I  Googled around for a minute and
found Fn-ArrowUp/ArrowDn but they didn't work o I'm hoping you can
tell me and save me a few minutes. Maybe it's because I haven't
started something required?

   acpi_listen on n-ArrowUp/Dn does produce a response so maybe I
don't have something properly mapped?

   I do have baselayout1.start/stop stuff so it seems our systems are
fairly different.

Thank in advance,
Mark

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Backlight problems

[Mark Knecht]

On Fri, Mar 16, 2012 at 12:25 PM, Mark Knecht <markknecht@gmail.com> wrote:
<SNIP>
>   acpi_listen on n-ArrowUp/Dn does produce a response so maybe I
> don't have something properly mapped?
<SNIP>

It seems that on this Asus laptop the Fn-Arrow keys are mapped to
audio events of some type. (Reading xev responses) Looking at my
keyboard visually and interpreting the symbols it appears that the
following key are what Asus intended for keyboard and monitor
brightness:

Fn-F3 - Keyboard brightness down
Fn-F4 - Keyboard brightness up
Fn-F5 - Monitor brightness down
Fn-F6 - Monitor brightness up

In acpi_listen all 4 keys produce events

In xev only the keyboard brightness keys do anything. xev remains mute
when trying the monitor keys.

- Mark

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Backlight problems

[Grant]

[snip]
>> Hey Mark, I'm happy to say I just fixed the screen backlighting on my
>> system, but I'm sorry to say I don't think it will help you with
>> keyboard backlighting.  To fix it, I removed 'acpi_backlight=vendor'
>> from grub and added 'echo 0 >
>> /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness' to
>> /etc/local.d/backlight.start and made that file executable.  Now
>> backlight control works perfectly via the keyboard shortcuts with no
>> other configuration and no xbacklight.  I'm on
>> hardened-sources-3.2.2-r1.
>>
>> BTW, I noticed baselayout1.start and baselayout1.stop are no longer
>> created in /etc/local.d.
>>
>> - Grant
>>
>
> Hi Grant,
>   OK, that's interesting info. Here's what I'm currently seeing:
>
> slinky ~ # uname -a
> Linux slinky 3.2.10 #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Mar 13 09:45:35 PDT 2012 x86_64
> Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU Q 740 @ 1.73GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux
> slinky ~ # ls -al /etc/local.d/
> total 20
> drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4096 Feb 23 21:03 .
> drwxr-xr-x 72 root root 4096 Mar 16 11:53 ..
> -rw-r--r--  1 root root  387 Feb 23 21:03 README
> -rwxr-xr-x  1 root root  123 May  3  2011 baselayout1.start
> -rwxr-xr-x  1 root root  217 May  3  2011 baselayout1.stop
> slinky ~ # ls -la /sys/class/backlight/asus_laptop/
> total 0
> drwxr-xr-x 2 root root    0 Mar 16 04:35 .
> drwxr-xr-x 3 root root    0 Mar 16 04:35 ..
> -r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Mar 16 12:09 actual_brightness
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Mar 16 12:09 bl_power
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Mar 16 11:40 brightness
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root    0 Mar 16 12:09 device ->
> ../../../asus_laptop
> -r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Mar 16 11:40 max_brightness
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root    0 Mar 16 04:35 subsystem ->
> ../../../../../class/backlight
> -r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Mar 16 12:09 type
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Mar 16 04:35 uevent
> slinky ~ # cat /sys/class/backlight/asus_laptop/brightness
> 15
> slinky ~ #
>
>   So, it seems to me that following your example, if I wanted to
> experiment with screen backlighting what would I do? I'm in KDE BTW in
> case we're doing something different in that regard.
>
>   I see in the Global Keyboard Shortcuts in KDE that there are
> Monitor Brightness Down/Up controls defined but I'm not understanding
> what keys actually control those. I  Googled around for a minute and
> found Fn-ArrowUp/ArrowDn but they didn't work o I'm hoping you can
> tell me and save me a few minutes. Maybe it's because I haven't
> started something required?
>
>   acpi_listen on n-ArrowUp/Dn does produce a response so maybe I
> don't have something properly mapped?

Have you tried adding 'acpi_osi=Linux acpi_backlight=vendor' to grub?
Is asus_laptop all you have in /sys/class/backlight?

>   I do have baselayout1.start/stop stuff so it seems our systems are
> fairly different.

My new install doesn't have them, but all of my old installs do have
them and 'equery b /etc/local.d/baselayout1.start' comes back with
nothing so I don't think they're being installed anymore.

- Grant

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Backlight problems

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:06:17 -0700, Grant wrote:

> >   I do have baselayout1.start/stop stuff so it seems our systems are
> > fairly different.  
> 
> My new install doesn't have them, but all of my old installs do have
> them and 'equery b /etc/local.d/baselayout1.start' comes back with
> nothing so I don't think they're being installed anymore.

They never were installed in the sense of being files in the openrc
package. The ebuild created them from the old style baselayout start/stop
files if they were present, so you wouldn't expect to see them on a new
install - or an old install in which you'd renamed them to something more
helpful.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

Middle-age - because your age starts to show at your middle.

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Backlight problems

[Grant]

>> >   I do have baselayout1.start/stop stuff so it seems our systems are
>> > fairly different.
>>
>> My new install doesn't have them, but all of my old installs do have
>> them and 'equery b /etc/local.d/baselayout1.start' comes back with
>> nothing so I don't think they're being installed anymore.
>
> They never were installed in the sense of being files in the openrc
> package. The ebuild created them from the old style baselayout start/stop
> files if they were present, so you wouldn't expect to see them on a new
> install - or an old install in which you'd renamed them to something more
> helpful.

Thanks Neil.

- Grant