Cannot adjust brightness in Lucid Lynx

I have a similar issue on my Samsung R730, the buttons I use are Fn + Up/Down arrow. They don't seem to work and for some reason if I get into Ubuntu and then plug my power charger in, the battery charges but I don't get an automatically brighter screen.

To get the screen brighter, I have to adjust it with the Fn + Up key BEFORE I get into Ubuntu, or have the AC plugged in before I get into Ubuntu.

Similar problem on Vaio VGN-SR after update to Lynx. it was ok with Karmic.
Cannot change brightness with either Fn+F5 or Brightness Applet. Seem like an issue with Power Management.

similar problem on Asus F5GL after update to Lynx. In Karmic it was OK.

Same problem here on Vaio VGN-SR after update to Lucid Lynx.
Brightness does not change with Fn keys and Power management properties.

When doing "sudo echo 52 > /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCD/brightness" I've got a permission denied error with "ls -al" giving
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 2010-04-30 20:27 brightness
Only when doing "sudo chmod 646 /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCD/brightness" changing brightness is possible on command line.
But Fn keys and Power management properties are still not changing anything.

I don't know if it's connected, I hope it helps.

I have this problem as well. The brightness applet will display that it has changed the brightness, however nothing changes. I can add that, for me at least, this appears to have something to do with the drivers. Setting brightness worked fine with the open source, but when I switched to fglrx it stopped working.

Toshiba L305 w/ Radeon HD 3100 card.

Exact problem as poster above. I tried to manually edit gnome-power-management using gconf-config and it still doesn't work. The fn buttons to change brightness work for me however.

Toshiba A355d with radeon 3100 card.

Same problem with a Compaq 615 with Radeon HD3000. Just upgraded from Karmic to Lucid. But I've the same issue when starting the LiveCD of Lucid.

I just finished upgrading from Koala to Lynx. With koala the brightness was so bright that I needed to turn it down. With Lynx the brightness is very dim. The Fn keys and power management brightness controls are not working properly now. Let me describe the unusual effect.

With the Fn key at the maximum it is very dim. When I use the Fn dimmer is becomes slightly brighter then it begins to dim once again. Similar behavior occurs with the power management slider as described below.

With the power management slider, it starts off dim at 100% and becomes darker as I approach 93%.
Between 93% and 79% it is black.
79% is actually brighter than 100%.
From 79% to 40% it dims as normal.
From 40% to 32% it is black.
At 32% it is once again the same as 78% again (which is brighter than 100%).
From 32% down to 0% the dimmer works again as normal.

This is very odd behavior.

Same problem here on my Asus K50ij notebook. Adjusting brightness does not work, and when pressing a few times to change it, the notification for changing brightness appears every 15 seconds or so, but does not increase, or decrease the brightness. now after pressing that, i plugged in my ac-adapter and the battery icon does not change to charging, and i think because its still busy to change the brightness, because the brightness notification still pops on after every 10-15 sec. major bug, if you ask me

I forgot to mention that the graphic card is an ATI Radeon HD 3400 and I installed proprietary drivers. I don't know if it could be the source of problems.

I have this bug in Lucid as well, on an HP 6735B with integrated ATI graphics.

Confirm the issue, 2.6.32-21-generic #32-Ubuntu SMP, HP 6730s, fresh install from CD.

Thanks tibibo, also I should mention that the HP 6730s has integrated ATI Radeon HD 3430 graphics.

Could this be an issue with the ATI driver?

Chris, just to clarify do you experiencing the issue with both, free and fglrx drivers?
I haven't tried fglrx yet 'cause of incompatibility with new xorg was reported since alpha. So I'd like to gather more feedbacks from the others before I'll give a try to ATI's proprietary myself.
Thanks!

Good decision, fglrx consistently crashed my x-server in Alpha and Beta. I was thinking the same thing as you, so I turned it back on to test the brightness issue. (While fglrx doesnt crash the x-server anymore, it's still got problems, I'm going to stick with the free one for now.)

Either way, the brightness issue remains with both drivers. Hope this helps.

HP EliteBook 6930p has similar issues after upgrade to 10.4. It even managed to dim the display when plugging the AC cord IN after it was on full brightness running on Battery. Neither FN keys nor Brightness Applet work properly. I can't even grab the trigger, because the window disappears on click and next time it appears on the top left of the screen.

Everything was working fine with Karmic before, even the FN keys.

Changing brightness on command line after changing permission as said under #4 works.

I'm using the ATI drivers (with ATI Radeon HD 3430)

I see the following in /var/log/messages when I try to change the brightness via the function keys:

May 9 19:15:04 pacifica kernel: [17253.865571] ACPI Exception: AE_AML_BUFFER_LIMIT, Index (000000015) is beyond end of object (20090903/exoparg2-445)
May 9 19:15:04 pacifica kernel: [17253.865587] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.PCI0.SBRG.EC0_.STBR] (Node f701bb28), AE_AML_BUFFER_LIMIT
May 9 19:15:04 pacifica kernel: [17253.865653] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.PCI0.VGA_.LCDD._BCM] (Node f7016cd8), AE_AML_BUFFER_LIMIT
May 9 19:15:04 pacifica kernel: [17253.865722] ACPI Error: Evaluating _BCM failed (20090903/video-528)
May 9 19:15:04 pacifica kernel: [17253.873415] ACPI Exception: AE_AML_BUFFER_LIMIT, Index (000000015) is beyond end of object (20090903/exoparg2-445)
May 9 19:15:04 pacifica kernel: [17253.873431] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.PCI0.SBRG.EC0_.STBR] (Node f701bb28), AE_AML_BUFFER_LIMIT
May 9 19:15:04 pacifica kernel: [17253.873499] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.PCI0.VGA_.LCDD._BCM] (Node f7016cd8), AE_AML_BUFFER_LIMIT
May 9 19:15:04 pacifica kernel: [17253.873570] ACPI Error: Evaluating _BCM failed (20090903/video-528)
May 9 19:15:04 pacifica kernel: [17253.875458] ACPI Exception: AE_AML_BUFFER_LIMIT, Index (000000010) is beyond end of object (20090903/exoparg2-445)
May 9 19:15:04 pacifica kernel: [17253.875475] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.PCI0.SBRG.EC0_.STBR] (Node f701bb28), AE_AML_BUFFER_LIMIT
May 9 19:15:04 pacifica kernel: [17253.875543] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.PCI0.VGA_.LCDD._BCM] (Node f7016cd8), AE_AML_BUFFER_LIMIT
May 9 19:15:04 pacifica kernel: [17253.875614] ACPI Error: Evaluating _BCM failed (20090903/video-528)
May 9 19:15:04 pacifica kernel: [17253.885591] ACPI Exception: AE_AML_BUFFER_LIMIT, Index (000000010) is beyond end of object (20090903/exoparg2-445)
May 9 19:15:04 pacifica kernel: [17253.885601] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.PCI0.SBRG.EC0_.STBR] (Node f701bb28), AE_AML_BUFFER_LIMIT
May 9 19:15:04 pacifica kernel: [17253.885639] ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.PCI0.VGA_.LCDD._BCM] (Node f7016cd8), AE_AML_BUFFER_LIMIT
May 9 19:15:04 pacifica kernel: [17253.885678] ACPI Error: Evaluating _BCM failed (20090903/video-528)

Asus K50I, upgraded from 9.10 to 10.04.

The same problem on my HP Compaq 6735b. The brightness cannot be adjusted by Fn + F7/F8. The taskbar brightness applet doesn't work as well unfortunately. I tried on both Ubuntu 10.04 32bit and 64bit. On Ubuntu 9.10 there were no problem with brightness adjustment.

My ATI driver is installed.

I'd love to try and make some progress on this, I'm no C programmer but if there is anything more that I can do, such as provide more information?

I fixed the bug on my HP EliteBook 8530w. The problem was the following: HAL reported that changing the brightness was handled by hardware (which is not the case for my laptop). Thus when I pressed the brightness keys the gnome-power-manager simply showed the OSD and did not take further action. Here's what I did to resolve this:

1. Find out the vendor string used by hal:

 $ lshal | grep system.hardware.vendor

 (In my case: system.hardware.vendor = 'Hewlett-Packard' )

2. Find out the product string:

 $ lshal | grep system.hardware.product

 (In my case: system.hardware.product = 'HP EliteBook 8530w' )

3. Open /usr/share/hal/fdi/information/10freedesktop/10-laptop-panel-hardware.fdi in an editor with root privileges

4. Find the xml tag that contains the hardware vendor string

5. Add the product string ("8530w") to the list of products that do no handle the panel brightness in hardware:
 I changed the part where it says
 ...
  <match key="/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer:system.hardware.product" contains_outof="4410s;4415s;4416s;Compaq 5X5">
   <!-- needed since the acpi video module reports it handle the events, but it don't work on this machines-->
   <merge key="laptop_panel.brightness_in_hardware" type="bool">false</merge>
 ...
 to
 ...
  <match key="/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer:system.hardware.product" contains_outof="8530w;4410s;4415s;4416s;Compaq 5X5">
   <!-- needed since the acpi video module reports it handle the events, but it don't work on this machines-->
   <merge key="laptop_panel.brightness_in_hardware" type="bool">false</merge>
 ...

6. Reboot

Summary:
Edit /usr/share/hal/fdi/information/10freedesktop/10-laptop-panel-hardware.fdi to make sure that your laptop model is listed in a "/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer:system.hardware.product" xml-tag that contains a subtag like this:
 <merge key="laptop_panel.brightness_in_hardware" type="bool">false</merge>

Hope this helps!

Tried to run lshal on my EliteBook 6930p and got this:

  Could not initialise connection to hald.
  Normally this means the HAL daemon (hald) is not running or not ready.

Adding 6930p to the file didn't help either.

I tried
$ lshal | grep system.hardware.vendor
 I got system.hardware.vendor = 'Sony Corporation'

$ lshal | grep system.hardware.product
 I got system.hardware.product = 'VGN-SR29VN_S'

Then in the file /usr/share/hal/fdi/information/10freedesktop/10-laptop-panel-hardware.fdi
I added the following

      <match key="/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer:system.hardware.vendor" string="Sony Corporation">
        <match key="/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer:system.hardware.product" string="VGN-SR29VN_S">
          <merge key="laptop_panel.brightness_in_hardware" type="bool">false</merge>
        </match>

After reboot, I still can't change the brightness. Is it because my laptop does not support the brightness in hardware, and the problem comes from somewhere else ?

Silvan, that worked perfectly for me. One reboot and now I'm back in action and can change the brightness without a drama. Thanks a lot!

@Sylvain, try changing the file exactly as silvan describes, (ie, adding the string to the existing line) as this is what worked for me.

If I run hald first, it get the vendor and product string...

sudo hald

lshal | grep system.hardware.vendor
  system.hardware.vendor = 'Hewlett-Packard' (string)

lshal | grep system.hardware.product
  system.hardware.product = 'HP EliteBook 6930p' (string)

But how should changing a HAL related file make any difference, if HAL doesn't seem to run in the first place?

For me it's not working with a HP "Compaq 615" (thats even the product code from hal). And it won't work with the update of hald from today.

@Chris Jepsen, I can't add as proposed by silvan, since I don't have an HP but a Sony laptop. I had to add the lines I proposed (or maybe I made a mistake). The file
/usr/share/hal/fdi/information/10freedesktop/10-laptop-panel-hardware.fdi
seems to tell the system that brightness is controlled in hardware or is not when "acpi video module reports it handle the events, but it don't work on this machines".

So I must simply be in the case where brightness is not controlled in hardware, and the software control does not work for another reason.

No problem, it's just that you have "string=" instead of "contains_outof="

Not sure how much of a difference this will make though, but it's worth a shot.

Just to clarify: my _exact_ intstructions only apply for laptops made by HP. Also I'm using the 64 bit version of ubuntu.

@phox: You are right, if HAL isn't enabled on your system in the first place editing a HAL config file should not make any difference. In your case the problem seems to be somewhere else. Have you tried runing gnome-power-manager in verbose mode (killall gnome-power-manager && gnome-power-manager --verbose) ? Does it produce any output if you press the brighness keys?

@Sylvain: Run "lshal | grep laptop_panel.brightness_in_hardware" to check whether hardware brightness control is really set to false (it should be if you edited the 10-laptop-panel-hardware.fdi file correctly). If it is try running gnome-power-manager in verbose mode to see if it receives any brightness key events.

silvan's solution works like a charm for me on HP Compaq 6730s.
Thank you, silvan!

Thank you, silvan. It worked on my HP Compaq 6735b too. I am writing below what I did. Combined from silvan's posts.

$ sudo killall gnome-power-manager
$ gnome-power-manager --verbose

I pushed brightness keys(Fn+F9/F10) on the keyboard, the brightness scale popped up on the screen

$ lshal | grep system.hardware.vendor
 system.hardware.vendor = 'Hewlett-Packard' (string)
$ lshal | grep system.hardware.product
 system.hardware.product = 'HP Compaq 6735b' (string)

$ sudo gedit /usr/share/hal/fdi/information/10freedesktop/10-laptop-panel-hardware.fdi

<match key="/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer:system.hardware.vendor" string="Hewlett-Packard"> // my vendor 'Hewlett-Packard'
        <match key="/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer:system.hardware.product" contains_outof="2510p;2710p;nc2400">
          <merge key="laptop_panel.brightness_in_hardware" type="bool">true</merge>
        </match>
 <match key="/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer:system.hardware.product" contains_outof="6735b;4410s;4415s;4416s;Compaq 5X5"> //added '6735b' to this list
   <!-- needed since the acpi video module reports it handle the events, but it don't work on this machines-->
          <merge key="laptop_panel.brightness_in_hardware" type="bool">false</merge> //here is false
        </match>
      </match>

After that I saved the changes and rebooted.

Did NOT make any difference for me.

I tried several combinations. And to start with, there was no matching entry for my vendor or product. I had to add them myself to test this potential fix. Seems like there are several causes for the same symptoms, as this has helped some people but not others.

I would also like to know however, IF Hal is no longer used, WHY does it help anyone!?
That seems very strange if this is the case; That some other application or device is using a configuration file for a daemon that is no longer setup to run in Ubuntu? That 'sounds' downright dirty.

That's what gnome-power-manager is reporting:

gnome-power-manager --verbose

TI:12:56:18 TH:0x854c6d8 FI:gpm-brightness.c FN:gpm_brightness_up,257
 - no hardware support

Is the problem related to the fact that HAL is not loaded any more? It was working fine before the upgrade...
But why is it still running on the other Laptops then?

Comment #20 worked for me, but the brightness is set at 100% on battery power, and can't change it neither with brightness applet nor Fn keys. I've got a HP EliteBook 8530p

Same problem here with an HP 6735s, not solved by the fix suggested by Silvan. When I hit Fn+F7/F8 I get the brightness OSD displayed once (display unaffected) and then nothing on further button presses.

killall gnome-power-manager && gnome-power-manager --verbose

Fn+f8 gives;

TI:14:23:59 TH:0x226c4f0 FI:gpm-button.c FN:gpm_button_filter_x_events,121
 - Key 233 mapped to key brightness-up
TI:14:23:59 TH:0x226c4f0 FI:gpm-button.c FN:gpm_button_emit_type,81
 - emitting button-pressed : brightness-up
TI:14:23:59 TH:0x226c4f0 FI:gpm-manager.c FN:gpm_manager_button_pressed_cb,914
 - Button press event type=brightness-up
TI:14:23:59 TH:0x226c4f0 FI:gpm-backlight.c FN:gpm_backlight_button_pressed_cb,451
 - Button press event type=brightness-up
TI:14:23:59 TH:0x226c4f0 FI:gpm-brightness.c FN:gpm_brightness_trust_cache,107
 - using cache for value 100 (probably okay)
TI:14:23:59 TH:0x226c4f0 FI:gpm-brightness.c FN:gpm_brightness_up,257
 - no hardware support

Fn+f7 gives;

TI:14:26:15 TH:0x72b4f0 FI:gpm-button.c FN:gpm_button_filter_x_events,121
 - Key 232 mapped to key brightness-down
TI:14:26:15 TH:0x72b4f0 FI:gpm-button.c FN:gpm_button_emit_type,81
 - emitting button-pressed : brightness-down
TI:14:26:15 TH:0x72b4f0 FI:gpm-manager.c FN:gpm_manager_button_pressed_cb,914
 - Button press event type=brightness-down
TI:14:26:15 TH:0x72b4f0 FI:gpm-backlight.c FN:gpm_backlight_button_pressed_cb,451
 - Button press event type=brightness-down
TI:14:26:15 TH:0x72b4f0 FI:gpm-brightness.c FN:gpm_brightness_trust_cache,107
 - using cache for value 100 (probably okay)
TI:14:26:15 TH:0x72b4f0 FI:gpm-brightness.c FN:gpm_brightness_down,301
 - no hardware support

I have the same problem. I cannot adjust the display brightness neither with the brightness applet, nor with the power management options from gnome. This is annoying and a total dealbreaker for anyone using a notebook or netbook. It sucks out much battery life because of always having full brightness and it hurts the eyes.

It happened after installing the proprietary Ati 3D drivers. 3D acceleration works, but the brightness adjustment doesn't work anymore. I think this goes hand in hand with the issue that the boot-logo gets ugly after installing proprietary video drivers. This must be fixed, please.

There's loads of information on this now, surely a dev can take a quick look at this?

Hi, everyone!
Tried out the way it is described in #20 but still nothing.
I have HP 4515s and same problem, ether :(

But tried to experiment. Just in a moment of startup (when the desktop is shown but not all of processes are loaded) I've pressed the Fn+F8,F7,F11 and F12 to adjust the brightness and volume.

The volume is changed and I see it in the right top corner.
The brightness changed too but only once. And didn't response on other key pressings. ((

Maybe anybody can help to solve this problem?

Thanks in advance.

Silvan's fix not working here on another 6735s. The only way of changing brightness is echoing /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness or /proc/acpi/video/IGFX/LCD/brightness

It seems that with new catalyst 10.5 which was released today brightness working just fine

Hell yeah, problem solved with catalyst 10.5.

Problem solved for me also with catalyst 10.5

Yeeeeeah!!! ATI made a good work. Problem solved for me.
Thanks ATI team :)

After almost screwing up my whole system I eventually managed to install the new catalyst driver...

Would there an easier way other than follow these instructions to upgrade catalyst?
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/ATI
Otherwise whoever has trouble installing the drivers can just replace karmic with lucid and it should work.

Brightness works now fine. Just the applet still seems to be screwed. Arrow keys are working, but grabbing the ruler still doesn't. It doesn't really bother me now though, as long as the Fn keys are working.

Silvan's fix in comment #20 worked for me (HP EliteBook 6930p). I'm using the open drivers.
For the people who tried Silvan's fix and reported no success: Is it always because HAL is not running?

Toshiba Satellite a210, ATI x1200, amd64 turion t-56

Can't adjust brightness using the advice above, tried uninstalling/reinstalling gnome power manager. It's treating my laptop as a desktop (ie, no battery options, no dimming options).

A little help? How about a release of Ubuntu that actually works properly without several days of pulling my hair out? Or even just an option to downgrade to the last release? I didn't have these problems with Karmic.

Silvan's solution (#20) worked perfectly for me (I have exactly the same hardware configuration he has, but I'm running 32-bit Lucid).

Thanks Silvan!

Silvan's solution works only for radeon driver and not work for fglrx driver that ubuntu provide.
The new catalyst 10.5 works only when you install driver direct from GUI. This howto: "https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/ATI" does not work.

Finally, my Sony Vaio SR55 works.

@C Charles #47:

 > Silvan's solution works only for radeon driver

Huh?
AFAIKT, the hp 8530w we both have is an Intel / nvidia machine (Quadro FX 770M)...

Well, I try Silvan's solution/catalyst 10.5 my Sony Vaio SR55. That's what I found on my laptop.
That's clear? Filofel

BTW, my laptop Sony Vaio SR55 (ATI Technologies Inc M92 [Mobility Radeon HD 4500 Series]).
I'm running ubuntu 10.04 amd64.

silvan's solution (#20) worked for me, on an HP EliteBook 6930p, running Lucid (thanks man - I've been looking for a solution to this issue for a long time!).

Inexplicably, I still have a problem where switching to/from AC power triggers a brightness change to a very low level. This happens if I am switching from battery to AC or vice-versa. All of my gconf-editor and power management settings are set to 100% brightness with battery-power dimming disabled. Indeed, when the dimming occurs, it doesn't actually change the brightness setting (it still shows 100%), but the screen is dimmer anyway. It's very annoying, but at least with the above fix I am able to hit Fn+F10 (brightness up) to reset it back to proper full brightness.

Cheers,
Jeremy

Sorry for my bad English.
I have a Packard Bell notebook Butterfly with a card "Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07)" and I can not change the brightness of the screen with the fn keys. I tried to change the brightness with xbacklight, but without successful results.

Silvans Fix (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-power-manager/+bug/555122/comments/28) worked for me. My laptop is also an HP Elitebook 8530w with nVIDIA Quadro.

same problem on my lenovo g550 laptop bug #530238

on Compaq 615 w/ lucid64
- the proposed fix (#20) didn't work
- ati catalyst 10.094
  downloaded from amd website
  installed as described there
  -> solved the problem!

good luck to all the others.

re #55: Oops, sorry: catalyst is: 10.6

same problem affected my HP Compaq nc6000 laptop

also left Ctrl no working :(

Samsung R505 with HD 3400 ATI
Brightness adjustment is not possible.
I use flgrx driver.
{{{cat /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCD/brightness}}}
says:
{{{<not supported>}}}

So the ATI driver seems to fix the issue, but what about people on Intel chipsets? This bug also affects Maverick fyi

Same bug here.

Just one strange thing:
Sometimes the Brightness Keys do work as intended, and sometimes they do not.

I have not yet figured out why.

When the Brightness Keys work my "dmesg | grep video" only shows:
[ 2.385961] ACPI Warning: _BQC returned an invalid level (20090903/video-631)

When the keys fail to work I have additionally:
[ 2.443136] ACPI Warning: _BQC returned an invalid level (20090903/video-631)
[ 6.540549] ACPI Error: Evaluating _BCM failed (20090903/video-528)

My machine is a Fujitsu Lifebook A530 with Intel HD Graphics running Ubuntu Lucid 64 Bit Desktop Edition
uname -a
Linux A530 2.6.32-26-generic #48-Ubuntu SMP Wed Nov 24 10:14:11 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux

lspci shows the graphics adapter
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02)

I've got a Hewlett Packard ProBook 4515s and Sylvains fix (#20) works. Thanks a lot.

Will this ever be reflected in an update of Lucid ?