[SOLVED] backlight tweaks dont work, update-grub fails

[alex2035]

So I went from Bodhi to Mint 13 KDE , to my surprise it runs not so disimilar to E17 on my netbook, and very nice on desktop. now if I could only have backlight control on my Acer Aspire One I can stay with this. I went to the usual tweak, acpi_osi=Linux and acpi_backlight=vendor on /etc/default/grub , edited as root, saved, and run update-grub , where the problem arises. it simply wont let me do it, with a message :

alex@alex-netbook ~ $ sudo update-grub
[sudo] password for alex:
/usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig: 11: /etc/default/grub: =quiet splash: not found

which has nothing to do with my editing, this parameters where there since the beginning and belong nearly to every other grubs distro I know.
what gives? can someone enlighten me? thank you.

[wyrdoak]

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Maya-Xfce ~ $ sudo nano /etc/default/grub
[sudo] password for wyrdoak: 

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# If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update
# /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
# For full documentation of the options in this file, see:
#   info -f grub -n 'Simple configuration'

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT=3
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="i915.modeset=1 acpi_osi= acpi_backlight=vendor"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="/dev/sda5"

# Uncomment to enable BadRAM filtering, modify to suit your needs
# This works with Linux (no patch required) and with any kernel that obtains
# the memory map information from GRUB (GNU Mach, kernel of FreeBSD ...)
#GRUB_BADRAM="0x01234567,0xfefefefe,0x89abcdef,0xefefefef"

# Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only)
                               [ Read 34 lines ]
^G Get Help  ^O WriteOut  ^R Read File ^Y Prev Page ^K Cut Text  ^C Cur Pos
^X Exit      ^J Justify   ^W Where Is  ^V Next Page ^U UnCut Text^T To Spell

Make your changes

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Ctrl+x

then save with y
then

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sudo update-grub

reboot

[alex2035]

Thank you for trying to help, it doesnt work. have done what you suggested and could update-grub but to no joy, no backlight control at all. have not used i915.modeset because my problem is not a blank screen, anyhow tried with and without it. this netbook has the infamous Intel GMA500 chipset, I might need to do some scripting but dont know where to start.

without backlight KDE eats the battery in less than an hour, whereas in W$ it lasts some 3 or more.

[wyrdoak]

Whatever restore program Acer was using started doing that, I was having the same problem as you, so instead of restoring Win7 I just had it make a back up copy of the restore partition on DVD, had to use a flashlight to do it. Then formatted the whole hard drive and put Maya-Xfce on it. Then add what you saw to my grub. still having times that the back light goes out during boot, but everything is OK at login. I'm starting to believe that at least part of the problem is the hardware. GMA3500 here.

[alex2035]

[SOLVED] I did some scripting , edited rc.local , assigned functon keys to these scripts and I have control of brightness. nothing to add in grub , I just removed modificationes done before.
I took instructions form bodhi forum and modified certain directories for my graphics. if someone has an Intel GMA500 with this problem I can guide him, it is a lenghty procedure to post now.