Currently the video module export backlight interface to sysfs also if there is no _BCL ACPI method in the bios or if acpi_video_device_lcd_query_levels() fail for some reason. Because of the failure the user can't set the brightness (echo return with: "write error: Invalid Argument") also because the user don't know the allowed/ available brightness level. One example is e.g. a ASUS R1F Laptop which is correct supported by the asus-laptop module. The kernel should not export the backlight interface if _BLC is missing because the interface is needless in this case. See attached patch.
Created attachment 11283 [details] patch to prevent sysfs backlight interface if query _BLC fail
acked
patch in comment #1 added to acpi-test
patch in comment #1 shipped in 2.6.23-rc1 closed.