Backlight control's not functioning

[DGINSD]

david@HP-G6:~$ cat /proc/cmdline
BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-26-generic root=UUID=f0ff1ffc-ca4e-416a-b47d-a6b0c7c4bbf0 ro acpi_backlight=vendor quiet splash vt.handoff=7

david@HP-G6:~$ for i in /sys/class/backlight/*; do echo $i; cat $i/brightness; cat $i/max_brightness; done/sys/class/backlight/*
cat: /sys/class/backlight/*/brightness: No such file or directorIs it possible with the bios update being done afete the initial instally
cat: /sys/class/backlight/*/max_brightness: No such file or directory

No brightness change or notification with the up or down hotkeys, in system settings, brightness & lock, there is no brightness slider.

As far as I know the only thing with the FGLRX driver that has to do with backlight is a feature called vari-Bright that works with the power-play functions which I have completely shut off. Basically it's supposed to work like the dim display when inactive feature of Ubuntu, but it's very obnoxious and just continually moves brightness up and down.

I put the install disc back in and booted off it to see if the backlight functions worked with that, and while it still was buggy, it was significantly more resopnsive, seemed to move in steps of 2, so 5 steps instead of 10.

Is it possible with the bios update being done after the initial install, something could of been configured incorrectly during install? I've had kernel updates since the bios update and I would think any issues would of been corrected then but I'm not sure that's the case

[Toz]

Okay. Lets try again the acpi_osi=\"!Windows 2012\" parameter.

Again:

cat /proc/cmdline

...and

for i in /sys/class/backlight/*; do echo $i; cat $i/brightness; cat $i/max_brightness; done

Check brightness slider, notifications and function keys.

I put the install disc back in and booted off it to see if the backlight functions worked with that, and while it still was buggy, it was significantly more resopnsive, seemed to move in steps of 2, so 5 steps instead of 10.

There is obviously some sort of regression between 12.10 and 13.04.

[DGINSD]

david@HP-G6:~$ cat /proc/cmdlineBOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-26-generic root=UUID=f0ff1ffc-ca4e-416a-b47d-a6b0c7c4bbf0 ro "acpi_osi=!Windows 2012" quiet splash vt.handoff=7

david@HP-G6:~$ for i in /sys/class/backlight/*; do echo $i; cat $i/brightness; cat $i/max_brightness; done/sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0
2
10

Same as before hotkeys will bring up notification indicator and show changes, but no actual, consistent, change in display brightness. If held full up, full down, or toggled back and forth rapidly, a change will eventually get made. The slider in system settings, brightness & lock, produces no change when moved at all, even when sliding it up, down, up, down, etc.

[Toz]

Does manually manipulating the interface work with this kernel parameter?

echo 5 | sudo tee /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness
echo 0 | sudo tee /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness
echo 7 | sudo tee /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness

What modules are loaded?

lsmod

Did you blacklist any modules?

If possible, can you try disabling the proprietary drivers and using the opensource drivers. It would be interesting to see if backlight control works with the opensource driver.

[DGINSD]

I haven't blacklisted any modules, though I had to on my old install of 12.04 and 12.10, but both modules were wireless drivers that were trying to load with the STA drivers and causing a conflict. Oddly enough I didn't have to do that this time around but I did have another wifi issue which I'm learning is related to the bios update. Here is lsmod.

david@HP-G6:~$ sudo lsmod[sudo] password for david: 
Module                  Size  Used by
michael_mic            12612  12 
arc4                   12615  6 
parport_pc             28152  0 
ppdev                  17073  0 
bnep                   18036  2 
rfcomm                 42641  12 
binfmt_misc            17500  1 
snd_hda_codec_idt      70256  1 
snd_hda_codec_hdmi     36913  1 
snd_hda_intel          39619  5 
snd_hda_codec         136453  3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_idt,snd_hda_intel
uvcvideo               80847  0 
snd_hwdep              13602  1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm                97451  3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel
videobuf2_vmalloc      13056  1 uvcvideo
videobuf2_memops       13202  1 videobuf2_vmalloc
joydev                 17377  0 
videobuf2_core         40513  1 uvcvideo
videodev              129260  2 uvcvideo,videobuf2_core
snd_page_alloc         18710  2 snd_pcm,snd_hda_intel
lib80211_crypt_tkip    17379  0 
fglrx                5294837  119 
btusb                  22474  0 
kvm_amd                59717  0 
wl                   3074449  0 
hp_wmi                 18048  0 
snd_seq_midi           13324  0 
kvm                   443165  1 kvm_amd
snd_seq_midi_event     14899  1 snd_seq_midi
bluetooth             228619  22 bnep,btusb,rfcomm
snd_rawmidi            30180  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq                61554  2 snd_seq_midi_event,snd_seq_midi
sparse_keymap          13890  1 hp_wmi
snd_seq_device         14497  3 snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_midi
snd_timer              29425  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
lib80211               14352  2 wl,lib80211_crypt_tkip
microcode              22881  0 
snd                    68876  20 snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_idt,snd_pcm,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_seq_device
rtsx_pci_ms            13011  0 
psmouse                95870  0 
wmi                    19070  1 hp_wmi
memstick               16554  1 rtsx_pci_ms
i2c_piix4              13266  0 
k10temp                13126  0 
cfg80211              510937  1 wl
soundcore              12680  1 snd
mac_hid                13205  0 
amd_iommu_v2           19068  1 fglrx
video                  19390  0 
lp                     17759  0 
serio_raw              13215  0 
parport                46345  3 lp,ppdev,parport_pc
rtsx_pci_sdmmc         17475  0 
rtsx_pci               33355  2 rtsx_pci_ms,rtsx_pci_sdmmc
r8169                  67446  0 
ahci                   25731  4 
libahci                31364  1 ahci

I actually decided this morning to experiment a bit and get rid of my mint install and try re-installing 13.04 on that partition, so far so good I actually have backlight control, though is as I stated in an earlier post only 5 steps, but it works every time like clockwork. I just finished installing the FGLRX drivers and popped back over to my original 13.04 install to make a yppa backup file, and installed software list, in between the reboot for the graphics install.

If this ends up working perfectly, I'll be very curious why a reinstall was nessessary to fix the issue? I tried kernel re-installation and initrd reconfiguration using dpkg, though I'm not sure I did that correctly. In the interest of learning something I'd really like to continue to try and fix the original install. BTW I'm very appreciative of all the help you've offered me.

EDIT: Interestingly enough turns out it is the video driver the backlight controls no longer work after the reboot, Think I should try an older version of the driver?

[Toz]

EDIT: Interestingly enough turns out it is the video driver the backlight controls no longer work after the reboot, Think I should try an older version of the driver?

You could (unfortunately I have very little experience with ati drivers to be of assistance). You might also want to submit a bug report against that version of the video driver. There is obviously some sort of regression happening here.

If you don't mind, I'd be interested in seeing:

modinfo fglrx

[DGINSD]

I guess I'm stuck with the problem till AMD or Ubuntu releases a fix for it, installing the Catalyst 12.10 driver produces an error (no kernel module named apport found) and causes X to break (the backlights do still work though, LOL) this causes almost a completely un-recoverable state where even tty1 is scrambled and the Xsession tty7 only produces a wallpaper. I suppose a new custom kernel could be compiled, but I'm not sure I'm up for that right now.

[Toz]

Not sure if this is helpful, but there are instructions here for installing the upstream drivers.

[DGINSD]

I actually installed the 13.6 beta version of the driver, didn't do anything for the backlight situation, but it did fix an issue I was having with the shutdown plymouth screen the "Ubuntu" on the purple background was smearing off to the right, for lack of a better way to describe it.

I filed a bug with AMD, or at least tried to. I don't really know what information would be best to send, so I guess that will be my next project; learning to gather relevant bug info.

[Toz]

I filed a bug with AMD, or at least tried to. I don't really know what information would be best to send, so I guess that will be my next project; learning to gather relevant bug info.

I don't have an ati card to test with, but you should be able to:

apport-bug fglrx

...and it will lead you through the bug creation process and upload some basic information to kick start the process.