Screen brightness not controllable on Lenovo Ideapad S10-3

[Martin Emrich]

When hitting Fn+Up/Down, the screen brightness does not change. The only Effect are these messages in dmesg:

[ 374.633266] atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0xba on isa0060/serio0).
[ 374.633278] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e03a <keycode>' to make it known.
[ 374.723429] atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0xba on isa0060/serio0).
[ 374.723443] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e03a <keycode>' to make it known.
[ 374.856818] atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0xba on isa0060/serio0).
[ 374.856831] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e03a <keycode>' to make it known.
[ 374.941623] atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0xba on isa0060/serio0).
[ 374.941635] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e03a <keycode>' to make it known.
[ 375.043834] atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0xba on isa0060/serio0).
[ 375.043847] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e03a <keycode>' to make it known.
[ 375.138875] atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0xba on isa0060/serio0).
[ 375.138888] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e03a <keycode>' to make it known.
[ 375.219720] atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0xba on isa0060/serio0).
[ 375.219732] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e03a <keycode>' to make it known.
[ 375.358080] atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0xba on isa0060/serio0).
[ 375.358093] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e03a <keycode>' to make it known.

Problem Maverick Kernel: 2.6.35-14-generic

WORKAROUND: 2.6.36-rc3 from kernel.org

---
Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Netbook 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Alpha i386 (20100224.3)
Package: linux (not installed)
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=de_DE.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
Tags: lucid ubuntu-une
Uname: Linux 2.6.34-knuffi i686
UnreportableReason: The running kernel is not an Ubuntu kernel
UserGroups: adm admin audio cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare

---
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.23.
AplayDevices:
 **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC272 Analog [ALC272 Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Architecture: i386
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC272 Analog [ALC272 Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: martin 2356 F.... pulseaudio
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0x40600000 irq 45'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC272'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0272,17aa4004,00100001'
   Controls : 14
   Simple ctrls : 8
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=7b9c6e56-a721-48ee-91b2-4ca4ea51bd6a
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Netbook 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Alpha i386 (20100224.3)
MachineType: LENOVO S10-3
Package: linux (not installed)
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-14-generic root=UUID=5db34229-6ce1-4eb1-b50c-602b395d3b36 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-14.20-generic 2.6.35
Regression: No
RelatedPackageVersions: linux-firmware 1.37
Reproducible: Yes
Tags: maverick ubuntu-une graphics needs-upstream-testing
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-14-generic i686
UserGroups: adm admin audio cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare
dmi.bios.date: 02/03/2010
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: 2ACN21WW
dmi.board.name: Mariana3A
dmi.board.vendor: Lenovo
dmi.board.version: Rev 1.0
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Tag
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Lenovo
dmi.chassis.version: Rev 1.0
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvr2ACN21WW:bd02/03/2010:svnLENOVO:pnS10-3:pvrLenovo:rvnLenovo:rnMariana3A:rvrRev1.0:cvnLenovo:ct10:cvrRev1.0:
dmi.product.name: S10-3
dmi.product.version: Lenovo
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO

[Martin Emrich (emme)]

apport-collect just says "No additional information collected" :( I am running current lucid i386 on a Lenovo Ideapad S10-3.

[Martin Emrich (emme)]

X.Org log file

[Martin Emrich (emme)]

I found a temporary way to control the brightness here: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=73889

To control the brightness, I run

 "sudo setpci -s 00:02.0 F4.B=??"

with ?? ranging from 00 (completely black) to FF (maximum brightness)

[Martin Emrich (emme)]

The bug is still present in lucid. Is there a way to hack/patch the existing packages to make brightness control work? After all the keys produce keycodes, and the brightness can be set via setpci. What component is usually responsible for brightness control (kernel,ddx,acpid,...)?

[Tom Jack (motkcaj)]

I've been looking for a way to patch it, no luck so far. Someone somewhere knows how to do this...

[Martin Emrich (emme)]

Any chance this is fixed until lucid is released?

[Martin Emrich (emme)]

As someone fixed it in a duplicate using another kernel, I chose linux as the affected source package.

[Christoffer Bovbjerg (cbovbj09)]

Tis bug i also present on Lenovo ideapad u350. (AMD64)

[munthe (emil-munthe)]

I have the same problem on my Lenove ideapad u350 32-bit.

I get the folowing from dmesg when pressing Fn+Up/Down:

[ 3024.700954] ACPI: Failed to switch the brightness
[ 3025.561165] ACPI: Failed to switch the brightness

kernel: 2.6.32-21-generic

Setting the brightness with setpci as Marting describes works.

Hope someone can work out a patch.

[munthe (emil-munthe)]

Tried to boot with the following kernel parameter (as suggested here: http://brettshaffer.com/blog/linux/fix-ubuntu-screen-brightness-problem/comment-page-1/):

nomodeset acpi_backlight=vendor

Which makes the brightness keys work on my ideapad u350.

But in return the graphics aren't that nice during boot, low resolution of the ubuntu boot screen (something around 640x480 I think).

Hope somebody can get it work without the nomodeset.

Cheers.

[Martin Emrich (emme)]

By the way, I tried kernel 2.6.34-020634rc6-generic from kernel-ppa as recommended somewhere in Bug #406515, but only the messages in the kernel log go away, brightness is still not controllable. So it seems to be a different issue.

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

Hi Martin,

This bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? Can you try with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO CD images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/ .

If it remains an issue, could you run the following command from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal). It will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report.

apport-collect -p linux 538256

Also, if you could test the latest upstream kernel available that would be great. It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag. This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text. Please let us know your results.

Thanks in advance.

    [This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Martin Emrich (emme)]

Hi!

I don't yet feel ready to install the development version of Ubuntu on my netbook (I usually do this ca. 2-3 months before release date).

The issue is still present in Lucid. I am currently running Kernel 2.6.34 directly from kernel.org (built using make-kpkg), and the xorg-edgers X.Org packages, and I am still unable to control the brightness using the hotkeys (the setpci command still works).

If someone could explain how the brightness changes are supposed to happen (Which components are involved, e.g. Kernel/KMS, DDX, xorg-server, ACPI stuff,...), I would be happy to dig a little deeper.

[Daniel Glaser (daniel-glaser)]

Included is a very dirty solution that really has poor performance (1-2 sec for action to take place), but in my opinion it is much better that typing commands on the shell to adjust brightness.

Attached is a bash script to handle the event generated by the /etc/acpi/events/ideapad-video that must be created with following content:

#----BEGIN------------------
# /etc/acpi/events/ideapad-video
# Called when the user presses the brightness fn-keys
#

event=video
action=/etc/acpi/ideapad-video.sh %e
#----END------------------

Should be possible to to also develop an executable with better performance, but I still hope that ACPI will be fixed in a later version ubuntu.

The acpi_fakekey command in fact gives no results, maybe someone knows hot to let ubuntu resond graphically in some way as it does with volume up/down.

Comments and improvements are welcome.

Cheers,
Daniel

[Martin Emrich (emme)]

Problem still present, with 2.6.35 from kernel.org, too.
If anyone of you also still has this bug, please confirm it (I don't feel well setting the status of my own report to "confirmed").

[Martin Emrich (emme)]

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[Martin Emrich (emme)]

I finally got around to upgrade to maverick, and I just added up-to-date apport collect data. Hope it helps.

Ciao

Martin

[Micheal Harker (mh0)]

I am willing to take on this project... Expect a patch soon!

[Micheal Harker (mh0)]

I'm sorry, but I can't seem to find the particular package in which seems to be bringing the problem. So I am making as Incomplete until more info is given on the package I (or someone else) need to look at.

[Martin Emrich (emme)]

Yay, I just tried 2.6.36-rc3 from kernel.org, and now the brightness hotkeys work (including libnotify OSD feedback). Please backport what ever made it work to the maverick kernel.

[splashis (splashote)]

Any news on this?

Using an update maverick version and still having the same issue.

I'll use Daniel's workaround for the moment but it's not particularly satisfying. ;)

[Daniel Glaser (daniel-glaser)]

@splashis:
You can still improve the script. I also did some fine tuning on step size after I posted the script here. A perfect solution for step size would be a logarithmic approach, but it will still not satisfy in sense of response speed.

[splashis (splashote)]

Thanks, Daniel.
I'm not skilled enough to develop the script. And I don't mind having a lag between the action and the effect while it works at all.

Anything else I need to do after creating the script? Make it executable?

[Daniel Glaser (daniel-glaser)]

As far as I remember, this would be enough...

[splashis (splashote)]

It does not work in my case.

I created is as sudo, was that wrong?

Thanks.

[Daniel Glaser (daniel-glaser)]

Creating it with sudo is the only way...
The rights are set as follows for me...

...in /etc/acpi/events:
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2010-08-13 09:58 .
 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 140 2010-07-01 23:13 ideapad-video

...in /etc/acpi:
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 2010-08-13 09:58 .
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 731 2010-07-01 23:00 ideapad-video.sh

[Hendy Irawan (ceefour)]

Also happens on Leonovo Ideapad Z360.

[splashis (splashote)]

Hm...

these are the rights for the two files on my computer:

ls -l /etc/acpi/ideapad-video.sh
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 731 2010-10-27 20:23 /etc/acpi/ideapad-video.sh

ls -l /etc/acpi/events/ideapad-video
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 195 2010-10-28 17:10 /etc/acpi/events/ideapad-video

I made the first on executable...

it still does not work..

any suggestions?

thanks!

[splashis (splashote)]

@Daniel Glaser: What command did you enter?

My netbook is now stuck with a very low brightness...

[Daniel Glaser (daniel-glaser)]

Try to set it to highest brightness an cmd line with
sudo setpci -s 00:02.0 F4.B=0xFF

Cheers,
Daniel

[splashis (splashote)]

Thanks, Daniel, the setpci solved my first problem.

But the script for the Fn-keys still refuses to work.

Any idea what could be wrong?

Thanks!

[Daniel Glaser (daniel-glaser)]

Try finding out the keycodes with acpi_listen command. If nothing happens when pressing the buttons, there is some deeper problem.

[Ali Onur Uyar (aouyar)]

The bug also affects Lenovo Ideapad U150. On this laptop, the brightness buttons work, the brightness applet notification pops up to show current brightness level and the respective files in /sys and /proc folders are updated with the brightness value, but the display brightness level stays at maximum value.

Only by using setpci command I am able to set display brightness, so I am using /etc/acpi/ideapad-video.sh script as a temporary
workaround.

I've also tried upgrading to 2.6.36 kernel from the Kernel PPA, but there is no improvement to the brightness setting issue.

[Gen Zhang (genneth)]

The problem is actually kernel modesetting (KMS). With KMS, the kernel takes over control of the screen brightness completely, and ACPI no longer gets to control things. The correct thing to do is to some how hook up the ACPI keys (Fn+{up,down}) to the setpci commands. However, it is unclear at what level all this should happen... Can we use/abuse things like upower? Or is the acpid script the cleanest way to proceed?

[Daniel Glaser (daniel-glaser)]

How would a upower solution look like?

[Christoph (capats)]

The issue apparently has been solved with last update.
The ACPI keys for panel brightness work like a charm on my Ideapad S10-3.
Running Linux ideapad 2.6.35-25-generic #44-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jan 21 17:40:44 UTC 2011 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Can somebody of the affected user confirm this?

[Tom Jack (motkcaj)]

I have not seen this resolved in any updates to date. Running Lucid 10.04 (2.6.31.20-generic). Lenovo S10-3

[Tom Bjerck (tom-bjerck)]

I'm using 10.10 Maverick Meerkat, and can confirm that the keys for panel brightness work on my Lenovo Ideapad S10-3.

tom@netbook:~$ uname -a
Linux netbook 2.6.35-27-generic #48-Ubuntu SMP Tue Feb 22 20:25:46 UTC 2011 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[lykourgos (lyk)]

lykourgos@U350:~$ uname -a
Linux U350 2.6.35-28-generic-pae #49-Ubuntu SMP Tue Mar 1 14:58:06 UTC 2011 i686 GNU/Linux

I don't know if I have broke something previously while trying other suggested workarounds, but the keys still don't work on my U350... I cannot control the brightness. Only with the command (sudo setpci -s 00:02.0 F4.B=xx) I can...

[Hendy Irawan (ceefour)]

Check out this thread:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=10037609&postcount=10

And solution here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-driver/+bug/568611/comments/77

Currently works for me on Lenovo IdeaPad Z360, Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick with GNOME. Doesn't work on KDE 4.6 for me.

[AlexWinner (scukonick)]

I'm running Ubuntu 11.04 on Lenovo u350, issue is not resolved.

[Rudi Daemen (fludizz)]

I'm running Ubuntu 11.04 on a Lenovo ThinkPad W510 (Nvidia Quadro FX 880M graphics card).
- setpci does nothing
- using /proc/acpi tables to adjust display brightness doesn't work
- Using /sys/class/backlight/... also doesn't work
All of the above still aren't working if I pass the acpi_backlight=vendor kernel option in grub. All this does is locking the brightness to max.

If I kill X and work on the CLI, the brightness setting DOES work! It's only under gnome that I cannot adjust the brightness.

[heian (heian12)]

Same problem with a Lenovo Y450. GT-240M video-card

[Pol Quintana (polquintana)]

Having the same problem on Lenovo z360, on Ubuntu 10.04 with xfce 4.6. As Hendy Irawan, I'm also gonna try:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-driver/+bug/568611/comments/77

[Pol Quintana (polquintana)]

Problem solved! Brightness control works perfectly

[Alexey (blackredprince)]

now will be cool to solve suspend mode!

2011/7/3 Pol Quintana <email address hidden>:
> Problem solved! Brightness control works perfectly
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/538256
>
> Title:
>  Screen brightness not controllable on Lenovo Ideapad S10-3, U350, and
>  Z360
>
> Status in “linux” package in Ubuntu:
>  Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
>  When hitting Fn+Up/Down, the screen brightness does not change. The
>  only Effect are these messages in dmesg:
>
>  [  374.633266] atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0xba on isa0060/serio0).
>  [  374.633278] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e03a <keycode>' to make it known.
>  [  374.723429] atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0xba on isa0060/serio0).
>  [  374.723443] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e03a <keycode>' to make it known.
>  [  374.856818] atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0xba on isa0060/serio0).
>  [  374.856831] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e03a <keycode>' to make it known.
>  [  374.941623] atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0xba on isa0060/serio0).
>  [  374.941635] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e03a <keycode>' to make it known.
>  [  375.043834] atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0xba on isa0060/serio0).
>  [  375.043847] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e03a <keycode>' to make it known.
>  [  375.138875] atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0xba on isa0060/serio0).
>  [  375.138888] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e03a <keycode>' to make it known.
>  [  375.219720] atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0xba on isa0060/serio0).
>  [  375.219732] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e03a <keycode>' to make it known.
>  [  375.358080] atkbd.c: Unknown key released (translated set 2, code 0xba on isa0060/serio0).
>  [  375.358093] atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes e03a <keycode>' to make it known.
>  ---
>  Architecture: i386
>  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
>  EcryptfsInUse: Yes
>  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Netbook 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Alpha i386 (20100224.3)
>  Package: linux (not installed)
>  ProcEnviron:
>   PATH=(custom, user)
>   LANG=de_DE.utf8
>   SHELL=/bin/bash
>  Tags: lucid ubuntu-une
>  Uname: Linux 2.6.34-knuffi i686
>  UnreportableReason: The running kernel is not an Ubuntu kernel
>  UserGroups: adm admin audio cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare
>
>  ---
>  AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.23.
>  AplayDevices:
>   **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
>   card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC272 Analog [ALC272 Analog]
>     Subdevices: 1/1
>     Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
>  Architecture: i386
>  ArecordDevices:
>   **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
>   card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC272 Analog [ALC272 Analog]
>     Subdevices: 1/1
>     Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
>  AudioDevicesInUse:
>   USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
>   /dev/snd/controlC0:  martin     2356 F.... pulseaudio
>  CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
>  Card0.Amixer.info:
>   Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0x40600000 irq 45'
>     Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC272...

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Martin Emrich, thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better. This bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. As you noted in https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/538256/comments/36 this was fixed for your Lenovo Ideapad S10-3 by using 2.6.36-rc3 from kernel.org. In order to backport the patch that fixed the issue, a kernel bisect would need to be performed for 2.6.35-14.20 to 2.6.36-rc3 to identify which patch specifically fixed it. Could you please perform a bisect following http://www.kernel.org/doc/local/git-quick.html#bisect ?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Robert (robert-havryluk)]

Hello to all,

I havr installed ubuntu 14.10 on my Lenovo ideapad S10-3 and had the same problem with hotkey function for brightness adjustment -- Fn+Up/Down.

The instruction under the following link have solved my problem:
http://itsfoss.com/fix-brightness-ubuntu-1310/

now the brightness adjustment with the hotkeys are working.

regards,
Robert

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Robert, thank you for your comment. So your problem and hardware may be tracked, could you please file a new report with Ubuntu by executing the following in a terminal while booted into the default Ubuntu kernel (not a mainline one) via:
ubuntu-bug linux

For more on this, please read the official Ubuntu documentation:
Ubuntu Bug Control and Ubuntu Bug Squad: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/BestPractices#X.2BAC8-Reporting.Focus_on_One_Issue
Ubuntu Kernel Team: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/KernelTeamBugPolicies#Filing_Kernel_Bug_reports
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/Policies/DuplicateBugs
Ubuntu Community: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs#Bug_reporting_etiquette

When opening up the new report, please feel free to subscribe me to it.

As well, please do not announce in this report you created a new bug report.

Thank you for your understanding.

Helpful bug reporting tips:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs