Created attachment 96051 [details] acpidump Acer Aspire V5-571G Fedora 18 With kernel 3.6.x on Fedora 17 the backlight control (via the Fn keys) of this laptop functioned when adding acpi_osi=Linux acpi_backlight=vendor to the grub command line, and I found I could also modify the backlight by echoing values to /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight. Since moving to kernel 3.7 in Fedora 18 (and also now at kernel 3.8) the backlight control doesn't function anymore, and there is no more /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight file, only an acpi_video0 file. Echoing to that file doesn't change anything to the backlight. I've tried with various values of acpi_osi, but none work: - with no value given: only /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0 - with acpi_osi=Linux acpi_backlight=vendor: /sys/class/backlight is empty - with acpi_osi=Linux: only /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0 - with acpi_osi="!Windows 2012": only /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0 I've experimented a bit further by installing old kernels and booting from them, and found: - kernel-3.6.11-5.fc17.x86_64.rpm: backlight control worked, intel_backlight file present - kernel-3.7.2-201.fc18.x86_64.rpm: backlight control doesn't work, intel_backlight file not present These tests are both done with 'acpi_osi=Linux acpi_backlight=vendor'. So something was broken between kernel 3.6 and 3.7. I'm attaching dmesg on both kernels, and acpidump.
Created attachment 96061 [details] dmesg on kernel 3.6.11
Created attachment 96071 [details] dmesg on kernel 3.7.2
My current kernel is kernel-3.8.3-203.fc18.x86_64 (latest one in Fedora 18) and has the same problem as the 3.7.2 kernel.
Hi Peter, Please attach dmidecode output, thanks. And please also list the directory of /sys/class/backlight both under v3.6 and v3.7, is there an acer_wmi entry?
Created attachment 96421 [details] dmidecode output
I've attached the dmidecode output. With 'acpi_osi=Linux acpi_backlight=vendor' (the case that works under 3.6), the contents of the directory is: - 3.6: only the intel_backlight file - 3.7: empty directory With other settings, the directory contains only an acpi_video0 file, both in 3.6 and 3.7.
Thanks Peter. So this means acpi video driver can't handle your backlight, the reason probably lies in the BIOS acpi table and I don't see much we can do here, sorry. And in v3.6, intel gpu driver's interface can handle the backlight, but in v3.7+, no such interface any more. I think you can file a separate bug against Drivers/DRI-intel on this.
OK, shouldn't this bug then simply be moved to that Product/Component?
Hello intel graphics experts, Peter encountered a problem: the intel_backlight interface disappeared starting from v3.7, v3.6 is good. Please help to take a look, thanks.
CONFIG_BACKLIGHT_CLASS_DEVICE unset? There's no other way (besides not having a lvds/edp panel) we don't register the backlight device.
Also, please boot latest kernels with drm.debug=0xe and attach the complete dmesg after the boot completes.
(In reply to comment #10) > CONFIG_BACKLIGHT_CLASS_DEVICE unset? There's no other way (besides not having > a > lvds/edp panel) we don't register the backlight device. In theory also if we fail to read the max backlight value we bail out. But that went in already in 3.6. This can be easily confirmed from the dmesg Daniel asks in comment #11.
The config parameter is definitely set. From /boot/config-3.8.3-203.fc18.x86_64: CONFIG_BACKLIGHT_CLASS_DEVICE=y # CONFIG_BACKLIGHT_GENERIC is not set CONFIG_BACKLIGHT_APPLE=m # CONFIG_BACKLIGHT_SAHARA is not set # CONFIG_BACKLIGHT_ADP8860 is not set # CONFIG_BACKLIGHT_ADP8870 is not set # CONFIG_BACKLIGHT_LM3630 is not set # CONFIG_BACKLIGHT_LM3639 is not set CONFIG_BACKLIGHT_LP855X=m I'm adding the config of 3.6.11 and 3.8.3 as attachment here. I'm also adding the dmesg output with the debug setting enabled, on both 3.6.11 and 3.8.3.
Created attachment 96481 [details] Config of 3.6.11 kernel
Created attachment 96491 [details] Config of 3.8.3 kernel
Created attachment 96501 [details] dmesg with debug on kernel 3.6.11
Created attachment 96511 [details] dmesg with debug on kernel 3.8.3
From the logs I don't see why your intel backlight device disappeared at all - it seems to work as expected. Can you please try to bisect where this regression has been introduced?
Can you clarify what you mean with 'bisect'? I'm not a kernel developer.
My favourite howto for kernel bisecting: http://www.reactivated.net/weblog/archives/2006/01/using-git-bisect-to-find-buggy-kernel-patches/
OK, seems clear. Although I'm a developer, I have no experience in building kernels. But I've found a pointer to that (http://www.wikihow.com/Compile-the-Linux-Kernel) and I'll try it out when I have enough time.
It's a subtle bug. We try and enable LVDS and create backlight. Then we go on to try to enable eDP, realize this doesn't work on the machine in question, and clean up. Unfortunately the cleanup path throws away the backlight initialized for LVDS...
Created attachment 97831 [details] drm/i915: ensure single initialization and cleanup of backlight device Please try the attached patch on top of the drm-intel-nightly branch of Daniels drm-intel repo at git://people.freedesktop.org/~danvet/drm-intel.
I can confirm that the problem is fixed with the patch. The intel_backlight file is there, and I can also change the backlight brightness with the Fn+arrow keys. Thanks!
Patch merged as commit dc652f90e088798bfa31f496ba994ddadd5d5680 Author: Jani Nikula <jani.nikula@intel.com> Date: Fri Apr 12 15:18:38 2013 +0300 drm/i915: ensure single initialization and cleanup of backlight device for 3.10 with cc: stable
I have the same problem on Ubuntu / Linux Mint 15 with kernel 3.8.0-23-generic, it was reported here (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1179315?comments=all) that even with kernel 3.10, the backlight control still doesn't work. My hardware is: dell xps ultrabook 13' with intel hd 3000?
(In reply to comment #26) > I have the same problem on Ubuntu / Linux Mint 15 with kernel > 3.8.0-23-generic, If you really can be absolutely certain comment #22 explains all your symptoms, please attach your dmesg with drm.debug=0xe exhibiting the problem. Otherwise, please just file a new bug. Thanks.
Created attachment 103711 [details] dmesg with debug on kernel 3.8.0-23
Comment on attachment 103711 [details] dmesg with debug on kernel 3.8.0-23 either echo 0 > /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness or echo 100 > /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness has no effect on the screen brightness.
(In reply to comment #28) > Created an attachment (id=103711) [details] > dmesg with debug on kernel 3.8 This dmesg does not have drm.debug=0xe module parameter enabled. Please also use a more recent kernel. (In reply to comment #29) > (From update of attachment 103711 [details]) > either > echo 0 > /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness > > or > echo 100 > /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness > > has no effect on the screen brightness. One of the symptoms of this fixed and closed bug is that the whole file ceases to exist. This is not the same bug. Please file a new bug instead of littering the logs of an old one, and attach dmesg there. Thank you.