screen brightness / macbook pro 5.5

[sa]

Initially I thought the screen brightness was working: when I pressed f1/f2 a little slider came up and moved but then I noticed the screen brightness did not actually change.

Since then I've been tinkering - installed pommed and and few other things and now the problem is worse - the slider doesn't come up and the screen brightness can't change.

I did have nvidia_bl_dkms installed - I don't know where it came from but there appears to be no oneiric mactel ppa at the moment (anyone know why?). I found this out by trying to reinstall nvidia_bl_dkms only to find I could remove it but could not reinstall it (cannot be installed because it is a virtual package).

Anyway I'm stuck - the screen is way too bright and I can't change it!

Any hints please?

The volume control does work, and the onscreen slider appears, but it is slow, and inconsistent and sometimes there is a bleep when the keys are pressed, sometimes the bleep lags the button presses and sometimes there is no bleep. Weird...

[sa]

Re: screen brightness / macbook pro 5.5

I forgot to add: I've tried with and without pommed (with my pommed config and with the default) and with nvidia_bl_dkms (seemed to be installed by default) and without and with the ones available from maverick and natty mactel ppa (but the oneiric ppa seems unavailable).

I've no idea what killed off the slider but this at least worked initially even if the screen didn't dim.

[sa]

Re: screen brightness / macbook pro 5.5

I tried mbp_nvidia_dkms from maverick but this won't load - the driver builds but won't load with "device not found" as an error.

I stimied

[sa]

Re: screen brightness / macbook pro 5.5

just now when trying f1/f2 the slider appeared on screen for a fraction of a second before dissappearing and not returning. Needless to say the screen brightness did not change.

I have /sys/class/backlight directories apple_brightness and nvidia_brightness by rights I should be able to set the brightness by echoing numbers into the brightness files (eg echo 100> brightness) but this does not change the screen. If I cat brightness then I get 255 in nvidia_brightness and 11 in apple brightness and these values do not change.

Any hints, I'm stuck and need to put sun glasses on to use my laptop!

[SteveRiley]

Re: screen brightness / macbook pro 5.5

Which nVidia driver does a Mac use -- proprietary or open source?

[sa]

Re: screen brightness / macbook pro 5.5

It uses the nividia driver delivered via kubuntu - I've no idea how the nouveau driver runs one this machine if at all. The instructions for everything all assume the nvidia driver. (BTW everything worked under 10.04)...

[SteveRiley]

Re: screen brightness / macbook pro 5.5

Then I suppose a Mac would also have an /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Check yours...do you have this line in the "Screen" section?

  Option     "RegistryDwords" "EnableBrightnessControl=1"

If not, try adding it and let us know whether that works.

[sa]

Re: screen brightness / macbook pro 5.5

Sorry - It tried this already but what it resulted in a computer that wouldn't boot (dead at the blue screen with the 5 dots, unresponsive keyboard, unable to get a text console). Hard reboot required.

/var/log/messages appears to be empty as well and this is where I'd be looking for any error messages

[bra|10n]

Re: screen brightness / macbook pro 5.5

@ Sa

Adding acpi_osi=Linux to the grub file gave me control over screen brightness via the keyboard, but without on-screen display or control using the battery icon slider widget.

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="acpi_osi=Linux"

Hope this helps somehow

[sa]

Re: screen brightness / macbook pro 5.5

Ok scratch the last message - I screwed up. I had tried the xorg thing in the "device" section and this is what screwed up the boot process. I noticed just now the error and put it in the screen section.

The f1/f2 keys aren't working but I can change the brightness by echo 100> brightness in /sys/class/backlight/nvidia_backlight/ so the back light subsystem is working. Now I just need to figure how to get the keys working (any hints, I have pommed running but not sure it is configured correctly).


note on f1/f2 keys - f1 does nothing, f2 if I hold it down brings up the slide but doesn't change anything...

[sa]

Re: screen brightness / macbook pro 5.5

After a reboot the f1/f2 keys have started working insofar that they change the brightness but I get no slider on screen when I do this (this is fine by me). It is pommed that is in control now and reinstating my pommed.conf file gives me 16 levels of brightness. /sys/class/backlight/apple_.. is in control.

All looks to be working fine now - thanks for the help.

Anyone know how to disable the three separate notification messages the nepomuk generates 4 minutes after logging I when it is turned off?