Screen brightness indicator Gateway laptop

[robin1802]

I am running Linux Mint 8 on a Gateway MT6832b laptop. When adjusting the screen brightness a 'bar code' indicator appears in the top left hand corner of the screen. This is part of the Gateway architecture. The bars do not increase or decrease under Linux which doesn't bother me as Mint has its own indicator in the top RH corner. However, the 'bar code' indicator keeps popping up at random and is very annoying. Has anyone any suggestions?
Thanks

[Husse]

Sorry for the late answer
Which one? The Mint one?
I think you accidentally press some keyboard shortcut

[robin1802]

The random appearance of the Gateway brightness indicator happens when running Mint 8. It is not due to an accidental keyboard press as it sometimes happens just by moving the mouse.

[Husse]

This is a tough one
The next time it happens immediate run (from a terminal)

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dmesg | tail

Let's hope that something left a trail

[Mitchel]

I am having this exact same problem on a Gateway MT6831

I did

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dmesg | tail

right after it happened, and got this:

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dmesg | tail
[53669.853776] usblp0: USB Bidirectional printer dev 3 if 1 alt 0 proto 2 vid 0x04A9 pid 0x1721
[53669.853816] usbcore: registered new interface driver usblp
[53670.977083] usb 1-1: usbfs: interface 1 claimed by usblp while 'usb' sets config #1
[53688.040230] usb 1-1: usbfs: interface 1 claimed by usblp while 'usb' sets config #1
[53761.897410] [drm] TV-14: set mode NTSC 480i 0
[53762.037995] [drm] TV-14: set mode NTSC 480i 0
[54215.264075] usb 1-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 4
[54215.396460] usb 1-3: config 1 interface 0 altsetting 0 endpoint 0x83 has an invalid bInterval 0, changing to 9
[54215.397134] usb 1-3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[67225.021009] CE: hpet increasing min_delta_ns to 15000 nsec

I'd really appreciate some assistance in getting this solved.

[Mitchel]

I'd like to bump this topic because as I said above, I have the exact same issue with Linux Mint 8.0 on my Gateway. Immediately above this post, I gave the output to dmesg | tail. Here I will give my lspci;

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lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) SATA AHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8038 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller (rev 14)
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection (rev 02)
04:09.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 Cardbus Controller
04:09.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments PCIxx12 OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
04:09.2 Mass storage controller: Texas Instruments 5-in-1 Multimedia Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO/xD)

If anyone can shed some light on this, it would be fantastic. This problem is EXTREMELY annoying.

[Mitchel]

I might have found a solution to this... at least it seems to be working on my machine.

I was having this problem with my MT6831 Gateway Laptop, and here is what I found.

By pressing Fn+F5 twice, it seemed to stop the brightness indicator from appearing randomly. Normally on this model Gateway, the Fn+F5 key combination is for displaying the power status box, and by pressing it again, will close that box.

I can't say why this works, other than maybe because the power indicator box appears in the same area as the brightness indicator, then by using Fn+F5 twice (forcing a close on the power status box) you may effectively force a close on the brightness indicator as well since they appear in the same area.

I don't know. But so far it is holding, and I haven't seen the brightness indicator since doing this.

I have not checked if this state will remain after doing a manual brightness change (Fn+F8) or after a reboot...

[Mitchel]

Nevermind. It doesn't hold, and the problem is back even after the screensaver comes on. Any ideas?

[Husse]

It would be helpful to know the dmesg | tail output from both of you
What I see in the one posted is that something happens with USB - printer connected it seems and something with a TV card - does that make sense?
There may be a solution out there, but I cant find it

[Mitchel]

I have solved this issue on Linux Mint!

When I bought my gateway in 2006, it came with a system restore disk which had Windows Vista on it. So what I did was this;

1. Used Killdisk to completely erase the hard drive.
2. Placed the System Restore Disk in the CD drive, and rebooted.
3. Installed the legitimate copy of Windows Vista that was on the CD.
4. Upgraded to Windows 7.

After performing these steps, I now have no issues with anything. No annoying indicator for no logical reason whatsoever, no problem getting sound to work, or glitchy sounds, no problem with networking or getting the system to recognize my NIC in the first place, no program freeze ups, and no searching for hours on end for solutions to problems that will eat up tons of time trying to fix. In fact, everything works exactly as it should. I now have a system that is ready for the end-user, and I no longer want to clean out my ears with a .357 Magnum.

FYI, I've used Linux fairly regularly since 2006-2007, starting with Debian, moving onto Ubuntu 7.04 and working through to 9.10, and then coming to Mint 8.0. So it isn't like I gave up after this one issue. I'm completely fed up with Linux, and how every issue becomes a huge investigation, and a time eating distraction. I don't have time for this anymore.

[Husse]

I'm sorry to hear that
Good luck
and watch out for the viruses, worms, malware and other benefits of Windows
Seriously I can understand that if you have hardware problems with one type of operating system you change it
Windows has the best support, but not by a long way a complete support
I don't have any hardware problems except for the scanner in my Brother multifunction, but I would endure rather long hours to get Linux to work because in my experience running Windows means a constant vigilance to avoid "the bad guys" and that takes hours every week

[Mitchel]

I'm sorry to hear that
Good luck
and watch out for the viruses, worms, malware and other benefits of Windows
Seriously I can understand that if you have hardware problems with one type of operating system you change it
Windows has the best support, but not by a long way a complete support
I don't have any hardware problems except for the scanner in my Brother multifunction, but I would endure rather long hours to get Linux to work because in my experience running Windows means a constant vigilance to avoid "the bad guys" and that takes hours every week

Nor does Linux have complete support. I would argue that Linux support is like a grab bag. Sometimes you find something inside you need or want, but more often, it's useless stuff.

I have another machine which had the RC of Win 7 on it, with MS Security Essentials. Before that, it too, had Vista with Webroot. Never had a threat on that machine, save for once, when I was using Limewire. I even used it to view pornography all the time and I never had an issue.

Personally, I think the safety / security thing is somewhat overrated and hyped up to be something it isn't anyway. If Linux ever were to make it to the mainstream public as a common desktop OS, then it would be Linux's turn in the barrel, and there would be threats for it as well.

I just can't continue to live my life behind a computer that never works right. It get's tiring.