Brightness controls not working - Inspiron N4010 [SOLVED]

[ClutchDisc]

Hi guys, hoping someone can give me a little help here. I'm trying to get a friend going on his Dell Inspiron N4010 with Linux Mint Mate 17. Unfortunately the brightness control keys won't work... I've also tried setting it in the power management GUI as well.. Nothing. I have not installed Mint to the HDD yet, if that will make it easier I can do that.. But I would like to know that I can get the brightness controls working first if possible. I found this link but I don't understand how to do all these steps.. ?? http://askubuntu.com/questions/289171/b ... 010-laptop

Anyone have any ideas? Thanks!

[JeremyB]

It likely has the same issue as the Dell N411 and you will likely find that the brightness control works fine with LM13. There may be a work around

If it uses the i915 intel video driver you could test with

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echo 2400 | sudo tee /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness

and you should be at 50% backlight

If the command works, it is possible to use scripts and use custom keyboard shortcuts to control the backlight. I guess checking to see if the hotkeys are recognized won't hurt

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acpi_listen

and try the hotkeys for backlight, did anything appear in terminal? CTRL+c to stop acpi_listen

The N411 is strange the FN+F4/F5 simply do not register anything in acpi_listen in LM17 but an unmarked key does have a result, the FN+F6 results in PNP0C14:00 000000d0 00000000 It would be interesting to see if the N4010 does the same

[ClutchDisc]

Thank you Jeremy for your reply.. You are right, the brightness controls on LM13 work fine. That is good to know because if we can't get it working with LM17 then I could just put LM13 on there. I am not by the laptop at the moment so I can't run the commands yet. I will post back later today with what the commands give me. Thanks!

[ClutchDisc]

Ok so I ran the first command and the screen brightness darkened and this is what the output was:

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mint@mint ~ $ echo 2400 | sudo tee /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness
2400
mint@mint ~ $

2nd command plus the hotkey for brightness:

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mint@mint ~ $ acpi_listen
video/brightnessdown BRTDN 00000087 00000000
 PNP0C14:00 000000d0 00000000
video/brightnessdown BRTDN 00000087 00000000 K

Thanks for any more help you can offer. I guess I am going to go ahead and install LM17 to the HDD since I know I can use LM13 if we can't get it working.

[JeremyB]

Ok so I ran the first command and the screen brightness darkened and this is what the output was:

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mint@mint ~ $ echo 2400 | sudo tee /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness
2400
mint@mint ~ $

2nd command plus the hotkey for brightness:

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mint@mint ~ $ acpi_listen
video/brightnessdown BRTDN 00000087 00000000
 PNP0C14:00 000000d0 00000000
video/brightnessdown BRTDN 00000087 00000000 K

Thanks for any more help you can offer. I guess I am going to go ahead and install LM17 to the HDD since I know I can use LM13 if we can't get it working.

I wonder what happened to the brightness up key?

[ClutchDisc]

Same thing, just said BRTUP instead of BRTDN.

[PatH57]

Hi,

usually the keys are configured in
/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/xx-backlight.conf

see what you have on Mint13 and check what it is in Mint 17, could be a starting point.

[JeremyB]

Same thing, just said BRTUP instead of BRTDN.

As long as it worked and I will assume you know how to edit grub because of your post count. I would add

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video.use_native_backlight=1

to the grub quiet splash
If that doesn't work, you can leave it and

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sudo gedit /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf

and enter

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Section "Device"
    Identifier  "Intel Graphics"
    Driver      "intel"
    Option      "Backlight"       "intel_backlight" # use your backlight that works here
    Driver      "intel"
    BusID       "PCI:0:2:0"
 EndSection

Save and exit gedit

I thought this issue was going to be fixed for Ubuntu 14.04/Linux Mint 17 but I guess it hasn't fixed all. I don't know if the acpi_backlight=vendor in grub is still a good fix since the 3.13 kernel added the video.use_native_backlight parameter

[ClutchDisc]

Sorry but that is a dangerous thing to assume.. I've only been using Linux since April. I know how to do a lot of the simple stuff, but I have no idea how to edit grub.. Could you explain that to me?

[ClutchDisc]

Hi,

usually the keys are configured in
/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/xx-backlight.conf

see what you have on Mint13 and check what it is in Mint 17, could be a starting point.

If it helps, here is a screenshot first of Mint 13 and then Mint 17:

[JeremyB]

Sorry but that is a dangerous thing to assume.. I've only been using Linux since April. I know how to do a lot of the simple stuff, but I have no idea how to edit grub.. Could you explain that to me?

The fool proof way is to press e at the grub menu when booting and using the arrow keys to scroll to the line that starts with linux and at the end of the line there is quiet splash $vt_handoff, I usually add the command just after quiet splash and press F10 to boot with that command. If it works like I want I will make it permanent

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sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

and add it to this line

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GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

so it will look like this

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GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash video.use_native_backlight=1"

Then save, exit gedit and

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sudo update-grub

If you don't see a grub menu at boot, just edit /etc/default/grub as I doubt the command will cause any issue if it doesn't make the backlight work

[PatH57]

well as mine is a radeon on Dell studio 1535 the settings may be different.
Check also in /sys/class/backlight/....for me radeon yours could be intel
Ifound some settings but not sure what they do I have an actual _brightness of 13 and a max_brightness of 15.
I tried the brightness through the power settings and ,lowered it and got actual.... to 9.

Now how this maps to the keys??????


Now that you are fluent at GRUB

try this as well

Run:

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sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

Update these lines:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

with the following arguments:

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GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_backlight=vendor" 
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="acpi_osi=Linux"

Then run

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sudo update-grub

and reboot

[ClutchDisc]

The fool proof way is to press e at the grub menu when booting and using the arrow keys to scroll to the line that starts with linux and at the end of the line there is quiet splash $vt_handoff, I usually add the command just after quiet splash and press F10 to boot with that command. If it works like I want I will make it permanent

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sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

and add it to this line

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GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

so it will look like this

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GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash video.use_native_backlight=1"

Then save, exit gedit and

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sudo update-grub

If you don't see a grub menu at boot, just edit /etc/default/grub as I doubt the command will cause any issue if it doesn't make the backlight work

This is probably a really funny question, but am I editing grub in the terminal or somewhere else? And what is the grub menu when booting? Sorry, but this is a little bit over my head at the moment.. I really want to learn how to do this though.

[PatH57]

Hi,

GRUB is your boot loader, it quicks in right after the bios post and allows you to choose witch OS to boot (bye default the wait time could be set to 0 especially if you only have one OS)
You can customize the boot at start and you will have to maually change the settings (they are lost once you reboot)
or you can edit the file and make it permanent

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sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

or you could use a tool called grub-customizer (carefull using it)
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1664134

[JeremyB]

The fool proof way is to press e at the grub menu when booting and using the arrow keys to scroll to the line that starts with linux and at the end of the line there is quiet splash $vt_handoff, I usually add the command just after quiet splash and press F10 to boot with that command. If it works like I want I will make it permanent

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sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

and add it to this line

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GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

so it will look like this

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GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash video.use_native_backlight=1"

Then save, exit gedit and

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sudo update-grub

If you don't see a grub menu at boot, just edit /etc/default/grub as I doubt the command will cause any issue if it doesn't make the backlight work

This is probably a really funny question, but am I editing grub in the terminal or somewhere else? And what is the grub menu when booting? Sorry, but this is a little bit over my head at the moment.. I really want to learn how to do this though.

You are just using terminal to start the text editor gedit with permissions to edit the file. The changes will be made in gedit and saved. With any luck the video.use_native_backlight=1 will correct the backlight hotkey issue and if it doesn't maybe acpi_backlight=vendor might- just use one at a time

At boot I see a screen like this http://i1275.photobucket.com/albums/y45 ... htxi6r.jpg
and by pressing e I get to this screen http://i1275.photobucket.com/albums/y45 ... baoxzk.jpg
As you can see in the second pic, I added acpi_osi= in an attempt to get the hotkeys to register in Ubuntu 14.04

You should be able to get the grub menu to appear at boot by pressing the spacebar, or by using a # in front of the

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GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0

line in /etc/default/grub

[ClutchDisc]

Ok, thanks for all the help guys! I think I have how to edit grub down now! But the bad news is I tried all 3 of the above suggestions and rebooted after each one.. Nothing. All I get on each one is a little tiny white box when I press the brightness up/down keys like it's trying to do something but the brightness stays where it's at. Where do I go from here? Thanks!

[JeremyB]

Ok, thanks for all the help guys! I think I have how to edit grub down now! But the bad news is I tried all 3 of the above suggestions and rebooted after each one.. Nothing. All I get on each one is a little tiny white box when I press the brightness up/down keys like it's trying to do something but the brightness stays where it's at. Where do I go from here? Thanks!

Try the brightness keys again and then check

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dmesg | tail

for any type of error

You could also run

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xev

and see what response the brightness keys register

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for interface in /sys/class/backlight/*; do echo $interface; cat $interface/brightness; cat $interface/max_brightness; done

[ClutchDisc]

Try the brightness keys again and then check

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dmesg | tail

for any type of error

No errors for brightness that I see..

You could also run

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xev

and see what response the brightness keys register

The brightness keys changed a lot of numbers.. nothing else that I could see. Both the up and down keys made the numbers go up.

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for interface in /sys/class/backlight/*; do echo $interface; cat $interface/brightness; cat $interface/max_brightness; done

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$  for interface in /sys/class/backlight/*; do echo $interface; cat $interface/brightness; cat $interface/max_brightness; done
/sys/class/backlight/dell_backlight
14
15
/sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight
4882
4882

[JeremyB]

Try the brightness keys again and then check

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dmesg | tail

for any type of error

No errors for brightness that I see..

You could also run

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xev

and see what response the brightness keys register

The brightness keys changed a lot of numbers.. nothing else that I could see. Both the up and down keys made the numbers go up.

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for interface in /sys/class/backlight/*; do echo $interface; cat $interface/brightness; cat $interface/max_brightness; done

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$  for interface in /sys/class/backlight/*; do echo $interface; cat $interface/brightness; cat $interface/max_brightness; done
/sys/class/backlight/dell_backlight
14
15
/sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight
4882
4882

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cat /proc/cmdline

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cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep -i backlight

Use the brightness dimming hotkey and run the for interface code again to see if it making any changes to one of the backlight interfaces

[ClutchDisc]

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cat /proc/cmdline

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~ $ cat /proc/cmdline
BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-24-generic root=UUID=2e083ce9-bbdc-4e7c-b99d-9e07bcc6ab36 ro quiet splash acpi_backlight=vendor acpi_osi=linux vt.handoff=7

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cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep -i backlight

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~ $ cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep -i backlight
[    22.473] Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-24-generic root=UUID=2e083ce9-bbdc-4e7c-b99d-9e07bcc6ab36 ro quiet splash acpi_backlight=vendor acpi_osi=linux vt.handoff=7
[    22.748] (--) intel(0): found backlight control interface dell_backlight (type 'platform')

Use the brightness dimming hotkey and run the for interface code again to see if it making any changes to one of the backlight interfaces

Same as before.