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Thinkpad backlight brightness bug in recent kernels [INCLUDES WORKAROUND]

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    Thinkpad backlight brightness bug in recent kernels [INCLUDES WORKAROUND]

    Bug Affects:
    Thinkpad T41 (and possibly other models)

    Kernels:
    2.6.32-18 (Not bugged)
    2.6.32-19 (Bugged)
    2.6.32-20 (Bugged)

    Symptoms:
    - Display backlight brightness changes to the lowest value once kde starts to load after logging in from kdm (once hal starts)
    - Same happens when switching to X session from tty
    - Cannot change display brightness with Powerdevil (kde's power manager), any change dims display
    - thinkpad extra buttons for changing backlight brightness (Fn+Home, Fn+End) work normally.

    Cause:
    Difference in lshal output with nonbugged *-18 and bugged *-20 kernels
    165c149
    < laptop_panel.num_levels = 8 (0x8) (int)
    ---
    > laptop_panel.num_levels = 1 (0x1) (int)
    Workaround:
    1. Create a custom hal policy file for forcing laptop_panel.num_levels value to 8:
    file '/etc/hal/fdi/policy/10-thinkpad-backlight' contents:
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <!-- -*- SGML -*- -->
    <deviceinfo version="0.2">
    <device>
    <match key="info.category" string="laptop_panel">
    <match key="linux.sysfs_path" suffix="/backlight/thinkpad_screen">
    <merge key="laptop_panel.num_levels" type="int">8</merge>
    </match>
    </match>
    </device>
    </deviceinfo>
    2. Relog to restart hal

    Remaining Issues:
    Powerdevil display brightness slider still doesn't work as expected, but other issues should be fixed.
    This is just a workaround and not a definite fix (seems something was changed between *-18 and *-19 kernel, and everything hasn't catched up with the change yet)
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