HOWTO: Adjust brightness on Sony Vaio

[Sebby]

Thanks. I guess what I really am suggesting is to have the maximum brightness when it is running of AC power, and a bit lower when on battery. Is this possible?

[no1wantdthisname]

Yeah I've set my laptop to turn brightness to 8 and turn off powernowd for when it's plugged in.
When it's on battery the brightness goes to 1 and powernowd turns on.
This also leaves powernowd off when you boot up if you're plugged in.

To do this I modified the powernowd script in /etc/init.d/ and the power.sh script in /etc/acpi/. I've attached them.

Just search in the powernowd script for

echo 1 > /proc/acpi/sony/brightness

if you want to change how low brightness is when you are unplugged.

Probably a better way to do this, but eh, whatever.

[Sebby]

Yeah I've set my laptop to turn brightness to 8 and turn off powernowd for when it's plugged in.
When it's on battery the brightness goes to 1 and powernowd turns on.
This also leaves powernowd off when you boot up if you're plugged in.

To do this I modified the powernowd script in /etc/init.d/ and the power.sh script in /etc/acpi/. I've attached them.

Just search in the powernowd script for

echo 1 > /proc/acpi/sony/brightness

if you want to change how low brightness is when you are unplugged.

Probably a better way to do this, but eh, whatever.

Great, this is exactly what I want, but I'm a little confused about what I need to do in the files.

I don't want powernowd not to load when the adaptor is plugged in, I just want to dim/brighten the screen depending on when the adaptor is plugged in.

[no1wantdthisname]

Great, this is exactly what I want, but I'm a little confused about what I need to do in the files.

I don't want powernowd not to load when the adaptor is plugged in, I just want to dim/brighten the screen depending on when the adaptor is plugged in.

Okay, here's the modified powernowd and power.sh

EDIT: See below for fixed powernowd

[Sebby]

Okay, here's the modified powernowd and power.sh

Thanks, that works brilliantly. Just out of interest, what does the echo 1 in powernowd do compared to the echo 1 in power.sh? I'm just interested to know what they are both needed for.

[no1wantdthisname]

The echo 1 in the powernowd script is for when powernowd is stopped. It's just left over from my version. Seeing as how you don't stop powernowd, it shouldn't matter. You can remove it if you want.

EDIT: See below for fixed version.

[Sebby]

The echo 1 in the powernowd script is for when powernowd is stopped. It's just left over from my version. Seeing as how you don't stop powernowd, it shouldn't matter. You can remove it if you want.

When I rebooted my computer, it came back on with the screen on its dimmest setting. So I changed it to 8 and now the computer comes on with the brightest setting.

[no1wantdthisname]

Ah yeah, I messed up. Try this version.
The modification to the powernowd script is for when you boot up your laptop. It'll check whether your laptop is plugged in or not and adjust the brightness accordingly.
The power.sh script is for when you unplug and plug in your laptop. It'll just change brightness accordingly. Change the echo 1 and echo 8 in both files if you want the max brightness or min brightness to be different.

[Sebby]

Excellent, thanks. Now I have it working just like under Windows.

[drakeoutlaw]

You guys are the Best! I have nearly attained full functionality of my Sony Vaio FS630. Only a few items remain.

1. Please help to tweak the fsfn utility to be able to use the S1 and S2 programmable buttons. I've tried to download the new fsfs-0.3-r1 but Belios's server seems to be down.

2. My vaio freezes/hangs occasionally for no apparent reason.

Any suggestions? I've already tried noapic nolapic.