Re: Backlight mystery - anyone shed light? some progress
On 24 Apr 2011, shawn wilson wrote: On Sun, Apr 24, 2011 at 5:10 PM, Anthony Campbell a...@acampbell.org.uk wrote: On 24 Apr 2011, Anthony Campbell wrote: On 24 Apr 2011, Camaleón wrote: Well, it's beginning to look as if it was a hardware problem all along. The Windows partition disappeared and the backlight began to work perfectly. I decided to do a reinstall in the former Windows partition. Everything seemed to go off correctly but when I came to reboot into Debian I got Nonsystem Disk or disk failure: Replace and strike any key when ready. I think there must have been some hardware failure. that's your mbr talking to you. don't think that's hardware 'failure'. Yes -thanks to another kind soul on this always-helpful list, I needed to set the partition with the bootable flag. It then came up at once. It's beginning to look as if the original problem discussed in this thread (dim backlight) was due to the egregious Windows. Now that that is gone the backlight is bright all the time. Much relief. Anthony -- Anthony Campbell - a...@acampbell.org.uk Microsoft-free zone - Using Debian GNU/Linux http://www.acampbell.org.uk - sample my ebooks at http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/acampbell -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20110425080117.gf2...@acampbell.org.uk
Re: Backlight mystery - anyone shed light? some progress
On 23 Apr 2011, Camaleón wrote: This is a laptop (6735s) and is over a year old so not very new. I don't think it has that feature. It uses the radeon driver. You will find out in the BIOS screen. If the feature is there, there should be an option to toggle it on/off under system configuration menu/ buit-in options Also, check for a BIOS update, most of these ACPI things are usually fixed after updating to the latest BIOS. Thanks, Camaleon. I found a lot of people using the same laptop with Windows who have the same problem. In some cases a bios upgrade fixed it, in others not. I tried to do this but it requires using an .exe file, and though I could do this with both wine and dosemu I couldn't obtain a suitable iso file to do the upgrade. (Also, I was a little afraid of ending up with an unbootable machine, which a few people report as happening.) BUT I have found that by unloading and reloading the video module (and/or the radeon module) I can sometimes obtain the requisite backlight file in /sys/devices/virtual .., after which the screen either becomes bright automatically or I can do it manually. So it seems to be something to do with the order in which the modules are loaded, though I can't figure out what. The effect is unpredictable - sometimes it works, sometimes not. Anthony -- Anthony Campbell - a...@acampbell.org.uk Microsoft-free zone - Using Debian GNU/Linux http://www.acampbell.org.uk - sample my ebooks at http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/acampbell -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20110424094926.ga2...@acampbell.org.uk
Re: Backlight mystery - anyone shed light? some progress
On Sun, Apr 24, 2011 at 5:49 AM, Anthony Campbell a...@acampbell.org.uk wrote: Thanks, Camaleon. I found a lot of people using the same laptop with Windows who have the same problem. In some cases a bios upgrade fixed it, in others not. I tried to do this but it requires using an .exe file, and though I could do this with both wine and dosemu I couldn't obtain a suitable iso file to do the upgrade. (Also, I was a little afraid of ending up with an unbootable machine, which a few people report as happening.) don't run an exe bios upgrade inside of wine, dosemu, or any other vm. you might be able to extract the exe and find some binary file and then there might be some sort of linux utility to write that. however, when you upgrade a bios, don't do anything weird because the only way (that i know of) to test it is to reboot. well, if something isn't written correctly and you try to reboot, you'll know because the machine won't post. at that point there are three choices: replace the machine, replace the bios (might require soldering / desoldering), or rewriting the firmware onto the bios (might not be possible depending on whether you can find schematics for a writer for that type of chip and software). most people (including me) shed a tear and go shopping for a new computer at this point. though, if your laptop is under warranty, you could call them and make sure they'll replace the board if it doesn't post, once you confirm they will, go and have fun :) -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/banlktikq6bpwf-p8+k6z0cesae4gofb...@mail.gmail.com
Re: Backlight mystery - anyone shed light? some progress
On 24 Apr 2011, shawn wilson wrote: On Sun, Apr 24, 2011 at 5:49 AM, Anthony Campbell a...@acampbell.org.uk wrote: Thanks, Camaleon. I found a lot of people using the same laptop with Windows who have the same problem. In some cases a bios upgrade fixed it, in others not. I tried to do this but it requires using an .exe file, and though I could do this with both wine and dosemu I couldn't obtain a suitable iso file to do the upgrade. (Also, I was a little afraid of ending up with an unbootable machine, which a few people report as happening.) don't run an exe bios upgrade inside of wine, dosemu, or any other vm. you might be able to extract the exe and find some binary file and then there might be some sort of linux utility to write that. however, when you upgrade a bios, don't do anything weird because the only way (that i know of) to test it is to reboot. well, if something isn't written correctly and you try to reboot, you'll know because the machine won't post. at that point there are three choices: replace the machine, replace the bios (might require soldering / desoldering), or rewriting the firmware onto the bios (might not be possible depending on whether you can find schematics for a writer for that type of chip and software). most people (including me) shed a tear and go shopping for a new computer at this point. though, if your laptop is under warranty, you could call them and make sure they'll replace the board if it doesn't post, once you confirm they will, go and have fun :) Thanks - this is pretty much what I thought myself. The laptop is out of warranty so I think I shall soldier on trying to figure out how to make it work by some combination of module loading, since sometimes that succeeds. Failing that, I shall have to junk it. Anthony -- Anthony Campbell - a...@acampbell.org.uk Microsoft-free zone - Using Debian GNU/Linux http://www.acampbell.org.uk - sample my ebooks at http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/acampbell -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20110424115800.gb2...@acampbell.org.uk
Re: Backlight mystery - anyone shed light? some progress
On Sun, 24 Apr 2011 10:49:26 +0100, Anthony Campbell wrote: On 23 Apr 2011, Camaleón wrote: Also, check for a BIOS update, most of these ACPI things are usually fixed after updating to the latest BIOS. Thanks, Camaleon. I found a lot of people using the same laptop with Windows who have the same problem. In some cases a bios upgrade fixed it, in others not. I tried to do this but it requires using an .exe file, and though I could do this with both wine and dosemu I couldn't obtain a suitable iso file to do the upgrade. (Also, I was a little afraid of ending up with an unbootable machine, which a few people report as happening.) Don't be afraid of a BIOS update. Laptops need this piece of code to be updated more often than desktops machines due to buggy firmware and notebook's embedded nature. What happens here is that manufacturers do not always provide a utility to extract the update file in order you can put it into a USB/CD-ROM to run the update and sadly the complete procedure needs to be done in a windows environment. (That's one of the reasons why it is a good idea to do not remove the windows partition although you don't use it on your day work :-/) BUT I have found that by unloading and reloading the video module (and/or the radeon module) I can sometimes obtain the requisite backlight file in /sys/devices/virtual .., after which the screen either becomes bright automatically or I can do it manually. So it seems to be something to do with the order in which the modules are loaded, though I can't figure out what. The effect is unpredictable - sometimes it works, sometimes not. If you can wait with that bypass, msot sure is that any kernel update will solve the problem as you seemed to experience with 2.6.37 and 2.6.38 branches. Greetings, -- Camaleón -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/pan.2011.04.24.11.58...@gmail.com
Re: Backlight mystery - anyone shed light? some progress
On 24 Apr 2011, Camaleón wrote: On Sun, 24 Apr 2011 10:49:26 +0100, Anthony Campbell wrote: On 23 Apr 2011, Camaleón wrote: Also, check for a BIOS update, most of these ACPI things are usually fixed after updating to the latest BIOS. Thanks, Camaleon. I found a lot of people using the same laptop with Windows who have the same problem. In some cases a bios upgrade fixed it, in others not. I tried to do this but it requires using an .exe file, and though I could do this with both wine and dosemu I couldn't obtain a suitable iso file to do the upgrade. (Also, I was a little afraid of ending up with an unbootable machine, which a few people report as happening.) Don't be afraid of a BIOS update. Laptops need this piece of code to be updated more often than desktops machines due to buggy firmware and notebook's embedded nature. What happens here is that manufacturers do not always provide a utility to extract the update file in order you can put it into a USB/CD-ROM to run the update and sadly the complete procedure needs to be done in a windows environment. (That's one of the reasons why it is a good idea to do not remove the windows partition although you don't use it on your day work :-/) Yes, I was keeping it for that reason, but unfortunately it has ceased to work for some reason. BUT I have found that by unloading and reloading the video module (and/or the radeon module) I can sometimes obtain the requisite backlight file in /sys/devices/virtual .., after which the screen either becomes bright automatically or I can do it manually. So it seems to be something to do with the order in which the modules are loaded, though I can't figure out what. The effect is unpredictable - sometimes it works, sometimes not. If you can wait with that bypass, msot sure is that any kernel update will solve the problem as you seemed to experience with 2.6.37 and 2.6.38 branches. There was an upgrade of 2.6.38 in unstable today and also an upgrade of udev. Unfortunately I now can't even get 2.6.37 to work reliably, though it did after a bit of fiddling. It's just hit and miss. I've come to the conclusion I hate all laptops! -- Anthony Campbell - a...@acampbell.org.uk Microsoft-free zone - Using Debian GNU/Linux http://www.acampbell.org.uk - sample my ebooks at http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/acampbell -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20110424121537.gc2...@acampbell.org.uk
Re: Backlight mystery - anyone shed light? some progress
On 24 Apr 2011, Anthony Campbell wrote: On 24 Apr 2011, Camaleón wrote: Well, it's beginning to look as if it was a hardware problem all along. The Windows partition disappeared and the backlight began to work perfectly. I decided to do a reinstall in the former Windows partition. Everything seemed to go off correctly but when I came to reboot into Debian I got Nonsystem Disk or disk failure: Replace and strike any key when ready. I think there must have been some hardware failure. Anthony -- Anthony Campbell - a...@acampbell.org.uk Microsoft-free zone - Using Debian GNU/Linux http://www.acampbell.org.uk - sample my ebooks at http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/acampbell -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20110424211012.gd2...@acampbell.org.uk
Re: Backlight mystery - anyone shed light? some progress
On Sun, Apr 24, 2011 at 5:10 PM, Anthony Campbell a...@acampbell.org.uk wrote: On 24 Apr 2011, Anthony Campbell wrote: On 24 Apr 2011, Camaleón wrote: Well, it's beginning to look as if it was a hardware problem all along. The Windows partition disappeared and the backlight began to work perfectly. I decided to do a reinstall in the former Windows partition. Everything seemed to go off correctly but when I came to reboot into Debian I got Nonsystem Disk or disk failure: Replace and strike any key when ready. I think there must have been some hardware failure. that's your mbr talking to you. don't think that's hardware 'failure'. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/BANLkTi=yiQ4iErQ4d=wgw-wbvyst9l5...@mail.gmail.com
