Screen can't dpms off/standby/shutdown, wakes instantly

[Zorael]

TL;DR: Whenever the screen tries to dpms off/standby/shutdown, brightness change key events are generated, simulating activity and instantly waking it. This is on an Advent 4211 netbook (rebranded MSI Wind U100), running 2.6.31-14-generic on Kubuntu 9.10 x86.

- Background:
Whenever the brightness changes, both the hardware/kernel and the software seems to generate a keypress, which in turn triggers a brightness change each and causes them to race. This is tightly related to bug #415023, where the solution so far has been to make changes to the HAL .fdi file for laptop screens to properly signal this by enabling the property laptop_panel.brightness_in_hardware on known affected laptop screens, and then change the the software (here power managers; Powerdevil, gnome-power, xfce4-power-manager, ...) to be aware of the property and to largely back off brightness handling.

When the screen tries to DPMS off/standby/shutdown, both xev and dbus-monitor report brightness key events (xev one brightness down key release, dbus-monitor three up/down keypress events), and the screen promptly wakes. If the power manager (here Powerdevil) is set to let the screen sleep after a period of inactivity, this phantom activity will reset the cycle.

     KeyRelease event, serial 34, synthetic NO, window 0x3600001,
         root 0xf9, subw 0x0, time 271798228, (55,-14), root:(59,11),
         state 0x0, keycode 232 (keysym 0x1008ff03, XF86MonBrightnessDown), same_screen YES,
         XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
         XFilterEvent returns: False

Asking Felix Geyer (debfx) whether Powerdevil could be told to ignore the event;
     [18:21] <debfx> there is nothing powerdevil can do to prevent key events
     [18:23] <debfx> hmm well yeah it could probably ignore them
     [18:23] <debfx> i'll have a look at the code
     [18:38] <debfx> doesn't seem that easy, by default powerdevil uses the
xsync extension to get notified on user activity

As it happens, this is a netbook (Advent 4211, a rebranded MSI Wind U100), so thankfully I can close the lid. But the screen will never otherwise sleep.

ProblemType: Bug
AplayDevices:
 **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC1200 Analog [ALC1200 Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: zorael 5629 F.... knotify4
                      zorael 5648 F.... kmix
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xffe00000 irq 16'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC1200'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0888,14620110,00100101'
   Controls : 22
   Simple ctrls : 14
Date: Sun Nov 15 15:27:45 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=271467da-45c3-4047-b445-19929c58ab91
MachineType: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD U-100
Package: linux-image-2.6.31-14-generic 2.6.31-14.48
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=3970f499-b9ea-47af-9c60-2080e8e229ce ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-backports-modules-2.6.31-14-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.24
RfKill:
 0: phy0: Wireless LAN
  Soft blocked: no
  Hard blocked: no
SourcePackage: linux
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686
dmi.bios.date: 10/06/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 4.6.3
dmi.board.asset.tag: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: U-100
dmi.board.vendor: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD
dmi.board.version: Ver.001
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD
dmi.chassis.version: Ver.001
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr4.6.3:bd10/06/2008:svnMICRO-STARINTERNATIONALCO.,LTD:pnU-100:pvrVer.001:rvnMICRO-STARINTERNATIONALCO.,LTD:rnU-100:rvrVer.001:cvnMICRO-STARINTERNATIONALCO.,LTD:ct3:cvrVer.001:
dmi.product.name: U-100
dmi.product.version: Ver.001
dmi.sys.vendor: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD

[Zorael (zorael)]

Attaching a short clip showing dbus-monitor as it catches the phantom key events.

When I execute 'xset force dpms off' in the clip, the screen does go black, but as soon as the d-bus call is monitored it wakes and I break the recording. By extension, that's as long as it will sleep when the power manager tells it to sleep after n minutes of user inactivity.

It's short to keep the size down; pause it if you want to read the actual output.

[Guido Berhoerster (gber)]

This problem is as you wrote in the description closely related to, but not the same as bug #415023, rather it is a duplicate of bug #453812 which is linked to the appropriate upstream bug.
In short, the keypress events that are observed here are resulting from the Intel Xorg driver setting the brightness to 0 before turning off the screen via DPMS.

[[e-mail] (robertzaccour)]

Is there gonna be a fix for this?

On Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 4:02 AM, Guido Berhoerster <guido+launchpad.net@
berhoerster.name> wrote:

> *** This bug is a duplicate of bug 453812 ***
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/453812
>
> This problem is as you wrote in the description closely related to, but not
> the same as bug #415023, rather it is a duplicate of bug #453812 which is
> linked to the appropriate upstream bug.
> In short, the keypress events that are observed here are resulting from the
> Intel Xorg driver setting the brightness to 0 before turning off the screen
> via DPMS.
>
> ** This bug is no longer a duplicate of bug 415023
> brightness is broken on MSI WIND U100
> ** This bug has been marked a duplicate of bug 453812
> [i945] [karmic] regression: I can't turn off LVDS on my MSI Wind (Intel
> 945GME)
>
> --
> Screen can't dpms off/standby/shutdown, wakes instantly
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/483116
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of a duplicate bug (via bug 415023).
>
> Status in “linux” package in Ubuntu: New
>
> Bug description:
> TL;DR: Whenever the screen tries to dpms off/standby/shutdown, brightness
> change key events are generated, simulating activity and instantly waking
> it. This is on an Advent 4211 netbook (rebranded MSI Wind U100), running
> 2.6.31-14-generic on Kubuntu 9.10 x86.
>
> - Background:
> Whenever the brightness changes, both the hardware/kernel and the software
> seems to generate a keypress, which in turn triggers a brightness change
> each and causes them to race. This is tightly related to bug #415023, where
> the solution so far has been to make changes to the HAL .fdi file for laptop
> screens to properly signal this by enabling the property
> laptop_panel.brightness_in_hardware on known affected laptop screens, and
> then change the the software (here power managers; Powerdevil, gnome-power,
> xfce4-power-manager, ...) to be aware of the property and to largely back
> off brightness handling.
>
> When the screen tries to DPMS off/standby/shutdown, both xev and
> dbus-monitor report brightness key events (xev one brightness down key
> release, dbus-monitor three up/down keypress events), and the screen
> promptly wakes. If the power manager (here Powerdevil) is set to let the
> screen sleep after a period of inactivity, this phantom activity will reset
> the cycle.
>
> KeyRelease event, serial 34, synthetic NO, window 0x3600001,
> root 0xf9, subw 0x0, time 271798228, (55,-14), root:(59,11),
> state 0x0, keycode 232 (keysym 0x1008ff03, XF86MonBrightnessDown),
> same_screen YES,
> XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
> XFilterEvent returns: False
>
> Asking Felix Geyer (debfx) whether Powerdevil could be told to ignore the
> event;
> [18:21] <debfx> there is nothing powerdevil can do to prevent key
> events
> [18:23] <debfx> hmm well yeah it could probably ignore them
> [18:23] <debfx> i'll have a look at the code
> [18:38] <debfx> doesn't seem that easy, by default powerdevil uses the
> xsync extension to get notified on user activity
>
> As it happens, this is a netbook (Advent 4211, a rebrand...

[[e-mail] (robertzaccour)]

Oh I deleted the power manager and no problems with that since

On Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 11:23 PM, Robert Zaccour <email address hidden>wrote:

> Is there gonna be a fix for this?
>
>
> On Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 4:02 AM, Guido Berhoerster <guido+launchpad.net@
> berhoerster.name> wrote:
>
>> *** This bug is a duplicate of bug 453812 ***
>> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/453812
>>
>> This problem is as you wrote in the description closely related to, but
>> not the same as bug #415023, rather it is a duplicate of bug #453812 which
>> is linked to the appropriate upstream bug.
>> In short, the keypress events that are observed here are resulting from
>> the Intel Xorg driver setting the brightness to 0 before turning off the
>> screen via DPMS.
>>
>> ** This bug is no longer a duplicate of bug 415023
>> brightness is broken on MSI WIND U100
>> ** This bug has been marked a duplicate of bug 453812
>> [i945] [karmic] regression: I can't turn off LVDS on my MSI Wind (Intel
>> 945GME)
>>
>> --
>> Screen can't dpms off/standby/shutdown, wakes instantly
>> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/483116
>> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
>> of a duplicate bug (via bug 415023).
>>
>> Status in “linux” package in Ubuntu: New
>>
>> Bug description:
>> TL;DR: Whenever the screen tries to dpms off/standby/shutdown, brightness
>> change key events are generated, simulating activity and instantly waking
>> it. This is on an Advent 4211 netbook (rebranded MSI Wind U100), running
>> 2.6.31-14-generic on Kubuntu 9.10 x86.
>>
>> - Background:
>> Whenever the brightness changes, both the hardware/kernel and the software
>> seems to generate a keypress, which in turn triggers a brightness change
>> each and causes them to race. This is tightly related to bug #415023, where
>> the solution so far has been to make changes to the HAL .fdi file for laptop
>> screens to properly signal this by enabling the property
>> laptop_panel.brightness_in_hardware on known affected laptop screens, and
>> then change the the software (here power managers; Powerdevil, gnome-power,
>> xfce4-power-manager, ...) to be aware of the property and to largely back
>> off brightness handling.
>>
>> When the screen tries to DPMS off/standby/shutdown, both xev and
>> dbus-monitor report brightness key events (xev one brightness down key
>> release, dbus-monitor three up/down keypress events), and the screen
>> promptly wakes. If the power manager (here Powerdevil) is set to let the
>> screen sleep after a period of inactivity, this phantom activity will reset
>> the cycle.
>>
>> KeyRelease event, serial 34, synthetic NO, window 0x3600001,
>> root 0xf9, subw 0x0, time 271798228, (55,-14), root:(59,11),
>> state 0x0, keycode 232 (keysym 0x1008ff03,
>> XF86MonBrightnessDown), same_screen YES,
>> XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
>> XFilterEvent returns: False
>>
>> Asking Felix Geyer (debfx) whether Powerdevil could be told to ignore the
>> event;
>> [18:21] <debfx> there is nothing powerdevil can do to prevent key
>> events
>> [18:23] <debfx> hmm well yeah it could probably ignore them
>> [18:23] <debfx> i...