[Gutsy]Backlight brightness dims after a minute of idle on battery, regardless of preferences.

[Matt Brannock]

Binary package hint: gnome-power-manager

Hello,

I am running a fully-updated version of Gutsy on my HP DV6000 laptop (GM945 chipset). In gnome-power-manager's preferences, I disabled "dim when idle" for both AC and Battery power. However, when running on batteries, the display brightness would dim anyway after a minute of being idle, regardless of what the setting was in gnome-power manager. The brightness would then restore to the default battery brightness instead of my previously set brightness (but that's another already-reported bug).

I checked in gconf-editor to ensure I had the settings correct, and indeed, they were. However, while reading the key description for idle_brightness, it says "Only valid when use_time_for_policy is true." I disabled use_time_for_policy, and now things work properly--no dimming after any amount of idle.

This is not an ideal solution, but at least there's a workaround. If you need any more information, please let me know.

Thank you,

Matt Brannock

[Anonym25712 (anonym25712)]

I can confirm this bug on my Thinkpad T60.

This is really annoying because the brightness used when I'm on batteries is too low and I can hardly see anything. If I manually increase the brightness, it goes back automatically to the low value after more or less 2 minutes.

[Anonym25712 (anonym25712)]

No news on that subject?

Disable use_time_for_policy has no effect on my laptop, and having to change the brigthness every two minutes or so is *really* annoying.

[Matt Brannock (heisroot)]

This worked on my laptop until a recent GPM update. Now there's no way to prevent it that I can find. Help? Someone?

[Tom Bresson (turfyman)]

I'm having a very similar problem. On my Inspiron e1505, after sitting idle for a bit the brightness will drop, then when input is applied, the brightness level does not change.

[Cam Cope (ccope)]

I've got a similar issue. I've got a Dell 1420n with Ubuntu preloaded, upgraded to gutsy.

On AC power, after a short period of inactivity (not what I have set in Power Management) the screen brightness will turn back to 100% (as it is set in Power Management) regardless of what has been done with the Fn keys. New activity does not reverse this brightness adjustment.

On battery power, after a short period of inactivity (not what I have set in Power Management) the screen brightness will turn down to 70% (as it is set in Power Management) regardless of what has been done with the Fn keys. New activity does not reverse this brightness adjustment either.

I can't tell if this is a poorly implemented feature or just a glitch, but if there is going to be autodimming it should be reversed when activity resumes. And there should be no autodimming on AC power.

[Lethe (nick-ukfsn)]

I think I got this!!!

If you go to power management settings, on battery power, I bet you have the slider set to 80% or what not.

I did, and the screen keeps going dark. Well, the there is a BUG! The slider works in reverse - so set it to 20% if you want 80% brightness, 0% if you want 100% brightness etc.

Nick

[Matt Brannock (heisroot)]

While this is indeed how the slider is supposed to work, the problem here is the screen will dim to that set level after about a minute of idle (or sometimes even if there is no idling), regardless of whether "dim screen while idle" is set or whether the user has set a screen brightness other than that setting manually.

"Dim when idle" should only do so when the option is selected.

[Arangel Angov (arangel)]

Lethe,

I think this fixed the problem for me too. Thanks! :)

Btw, Thinkpad T60 also and exactly the same behavior, really, really annoying.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thanks for the bug report. This particular bug has already been reported, but feel free to report any other bugs you find.