Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Backlight problems
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
On Fri, Mar 16, 2012 at 10:58 AM, Grant emailgr...@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
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
On Fri, Mar 16, 2012 at 11:55 AM, Grant emailgr...@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 root0 Mar 16 04:35 . drwxr-xr-x 3 root root0 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 root0 Mar 16 12:09 device - ../../../asus_laptop -r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Mar 16 11:40 max_brightness lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root0 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
On Fri, Mar 16, 2012 at 12:25 PM, Mark Knecht markkne...@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
[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
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. signature.asc Description: PGP signature
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Backlight problems
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
[gentoo-user] Re: Backlight problems
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
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
