Sony E series brightness control not working in 12.10

[djpeck1]

Hi. The 3 commands that you asked me to try did not adjust the brightness so I've run the commands to report on the video card. This is the output;

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Thames [Radeon 7500M/7600M Series] [1002:6841] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: Sony Corporation Device [104d:90ac]
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 45
Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
Memory at c4000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
I/O ports at 5000 [size=256]
Expansion ROM at c4040000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [58] Express Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00
Capabilities: [a0] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [100] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0001 Rev=1 Len=010 <?>
Capabilities: [150] Advanced Error Reporting
Kernel driver in use: radeon


I don't know if it's relevant but when I was running 12.04 LTS the brightness control worked just fine, but I was using the proprietary AMD drivers (fglrx). I can't test this theory in 12.10, because the proprietary driver is not supported by the new version of X-server and consequently Unity does not run.

Regards, Dave.

[Toz]

I don't know if it's relevant but when I was running 12.04 LTS the brightness control worked just fine, but I was using the proprietary AMD drivers (fglrx). I can't test this theory in 12.10, because the proprietary driver is not supported by the new version of X-server and consequently Unity does not run.

Yes, I'm thinking that this is why you're not getting brightness control in 12.10. I can't seem to manipulate the backlight interface manually. Can you post back the contents of your dmesg and Xorg log files via:

pastebinit /var/log/dmesg
pastebinit /var/log/Xorg.0.log

...and post back the links that are generated? I want to see if there is anything in there that might help.

Also, one more long shot, do the following commands affect brightness?

sudo setpci -s 01:00.0 F4.B=96
sudo setpci -s 01:00.0 F4.B=00
sudo setpci -s 01:00.0 F4.B=FF
xrandr --output default --brightness 0.5
xrandr --output default --brightness 1.0

[djpeck1]

Hi.
The first pasteinit is http://paste.ubuntu.com/1425381/ (dmesg)
The scond is http://paste.ubuntu.com/1425387/ (Xorg)

The three setpci commands did not affect the brightness and the two xrandr commands gave the following messages;

warning: output default not found; ignoring
xrandr: Need crtc to set gamma on.

but did not affect the brightness.

Please let me know if you find anything interesting in the log files.

Regards, Dave.

[Toz]

From your dmesg log:

sony_laptop: brightness ignored, must be controlled by ACPI video driver

...and yet ACPI video can't control brightness. Might be related to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...x/+bug/1005196 but according to that bug report, a patch was applied to kernel 3.5 rc5 and you're already running that kernel.

I think you should create a bug report:

ubuntu-bug linux

...and have the devs look at it.

[djpeck1]

Hi Toz.

Thanks for all your help with this. It is much appreciated.

I will do as you suggest and raise a bug report.

I have also noticed that ATI have recently released a proprietary driver for my graphics adapter that is not yet available in the Ubuntu repositories. I might download that and give it a try.

Regards, Dave.

[keibee]

Does anyone have an update on this? 100% screen brightness by default is seriously influencing the autonomy on 12.10. Even after using powertop I get less than 3 hours...

[chetancr9]

Hi Toz,

I too have the same problem.
Brightness control doesn't work with the function key on sony E series laptop on ubuntu 12.10.
I tried updating in grub but still it didn't work for me.

And here is the output of what u have asked.

chetan@chetan-SVE15115ENB:~$ for i in /sys/class/backlight/*; do echo $i; cat $i/brightness; cat $i/max_brightness; done
/sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0
0
15
chetan@chetan-SVE15115ENB:~$ acpi_listen
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 00000010
video PEGP 00000081 00000000
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 0000003b
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 00000010
video PEGP 00000081 00000000
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 0000003b
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 00000010
video PEGP 00000081 00000000
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 0000003b
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 00000011
video PEGP 00000081 00000000
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 0000003b
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 00000011
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 0000003b
video PEGP 00000081 00000000
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 00000011
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 0000003b
video PEGP 00000081 00000000
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 00000011
video PEGP 00000081 00000000
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 0000003b
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 00000011
video PEGP 00000081 00000000
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 0000003b
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 00000011
video PEGP 00000081 00000000
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 0000003b
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 00000011
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 0000003b
video PEGP 00000081 00000000
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 00000011
video PEGP 00000081 00000000
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 0000003b
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 00000011
video PEGP 00000081 00000000
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 0000003b
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 00000011
video PEGP 00000081 00000000
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 0000003b
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 00000011
video PEGP 00000081 00000000
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 0000003b
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 00000011
video PEGP 00000081 00000000
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 0000003b
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 00000010
video PEGP 00000081 00000000
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 0000003b


Kindly help me to control the brightness.

really my eyes are burning with this full brightness

Thanks
Chetan C R

[chetancr9]

Hello All,

I am running Ubuntu 12.10 on Sony E series Laptop

Brightness Control is not working (Fn F5/F6 ) is not working
The brightness remains same for all values (0-15)

I tried to update from the grub it didn't work for me.

Below is the output of commands acpi_listen with brightness + ans - function keys pressed.

chetan@chetan-SVE15115ENB:~$ for i in /sys/class/backlight/*; do echo $i; cat $i/brightness; cat $i/max_brightness; done
/sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0
0
15
chetan@chetan-SVE15115ENB:~$ acpi_listen
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 00000010
video PEGP 00000081 00000000
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 0000003b
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 00000010
video PEGP 00000081 00000000
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 0000003b
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 00000010
video PEGP 00000081 00000000
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 0000003b
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 00000011
video PEGP 00000081 00000000
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 0000003b
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 00000011
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 0000003b
video PEGP 00000081 00000000
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 00000011
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 0000003b
video PEGP 00000081 00000000
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 00000011
video PEGP 00000081 00000000
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 0000003b
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 00000011
video PEGP 00000081 00000000
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 0000003b
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 00000011
video PEGP 00000081 00000000
sonyl/hotkey SNC 00000001 0000003b
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 00000011
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 0000003b
video PEGP 00000081 00000000
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 00000011
video PEGP 00000081 00000000
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 0000003b
sony/hotkey SNC 00000001 00000011




Kindly help me to solve this problems

[mörgæs]

Threads merged.
Please don't post multiple threads on the same subject.

[Toz]

@chetancr9, does your Sony model come with an AMD video card?

sudo lspci -vnn | grep -A15 VGA

...If so, have you installed the proprietary drivers?

Does the following command change the brightness?

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

What kernel boot kernel parameters are you using?

cat /proc/cmdline

...have you tried the acpi_backlight=vendor parameter?