Pommed and backlight in intrepid

[sjatkins]

lv1001,

From what I gather, the community is moving towards the use of Xorg XRandR, which has support for a broad range of graphics cards, backed up by kernel support. Both the gnome-power-manager and xbacklight use XRandR.

As for pommed, much of its code seems to have been incorporated into this effort.

Your model has nvidia graphics, has it not? Then there is a kernel module mbp_nvidia_bl to add to /etc/modules. This just might make xbacklight work.

On my gen 3 MBP this does not work. Adding the module changes nothing. xbacklight claims "No outputs have the backlight property".

Does someone have fully up-to-date info on this gen of MBP running kubuntu? Why do I have to go foraging forums on every single update anyway? There has to be a better way.

[kosumi68]

On my gen 3 MBP this does not work. Adding the module changes nothing. xbacklight claims "No outputs have the backlight property".

The mbp_nvidia_nl driver adds a sysfs backlight interface under /sys/class/backlight; it does not affect randr in anyway (my bad - old info).

Does someone have fully up-to-date info on this gen of MBP running kubuntu? Why do I have to go foraging forums on every single update anyway? There has to be a better way.

The ubuntu community forums and help pages are based on voluntary work. If you feel something is lacking, you are welcome to contribute: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=969360

[cyberdork33]

The MacBookPro3,1 seems to have gathered quite a few issues especially on this release. I would be very helpful if someone could point out the various issues and make sure that bugs are reported for them.

[kjano]

kosumi68, does this mean that the macbook function keys do not work with kde4 at all?

[kosumi68]

kosumi68, does this mean that the macbook function keys do not work with kde4 at all?

I run gnome, and unfortunately have no deeper knowledge of kde4. If pommed does not work for you, things probably changed a lot in kde4 (and hal) as well. Someone with kde4 knowledge might be able to help you.

[nossifer]

I agree that on a MBPro, the light keys, wifi, sound keys, etc do not work in KDE4.1 / Ibex. I too have followed the suggested actions and have had no results so far.

If there is anything you need from me to help this problem (logs, etc) then please let me know what you need and I will get it to you asap.

[lv1001]

Sound function keys work for me, but none of the others.

xev shows that they are mapped to other things (dim lcd -> XF86Stop, toggle keyboard backlight -> XF86Mail, etc.).
I can change the lcd backlight via kde-power-manager so the problem might be solved by just remapping the keys...

my macbook pro 3,1 has a lot of problems with intrepid.
keyboard backlight did not work at all until I tried to use gnome-power-manager instead of kde-power-manager, but I am not happy with this solution at all.
Similarly I changed from knetworkmanager to the gnome "Network manager applet" since the beforementioned would not connect to any wireless lan.
The gnome programs are much better supported by the mactel ppa.

Also I am affected by the slowing down of some kde functions which seem to be related to nvidia cards as I gathered from other posts.

One last thing: My battery has suffered a lot during the last few weeks, leaving around 30% of the original capacity.
Could this be related to any problems with the "power-manager"s or is it just bad luck with my hardware?

Thanks a lot,
LV

[david_edmundson]

KDE 4 does not have any support for the backlight control hotkeys. guidance-power-manager was ported as a last ditch effort, we should be seeing the brand new PowerDevil daemon in KDE4.2 which is where all the focus and attention is.

[hellmitre]

Yes! That worked! Thanks! I even get the little popup window showing the brightness level. Woot. Just added the mbp_nvidia_bl line to the end of /etc/modules and rebooted. Wondrous. I can take the pommed.conf file off my desktop (I was manually editing its init value and restarting pommed to change the brightness levels). Beeeeautiful.

[nossifer]

mbp_nvidia_bl is only working in gnome. I tried KDE 4.1 on MBP3.1 and the brightness did not work. Also just tried in KDE 4.2 and it is not working as well.

<quote> There has to be a better way. </quote>
Agreed with the previous response. The better way is to contribute to the community.