Natty 11.04 Gateway NV79 BACKLIGHT TURNED OFF DURING BOOT

[Daudi Amani]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-intel

BUG creeped into Maverick 10.10; wasn't in Lucid 10.04. Still exists in Natty 11.04 (can be verified with Natty distribution CD).
During boot sequence, display backlight is turned off. Also occurs when waking up from suspend. Graphics are being output but cannot be seen because backlight is off. Plugging in an external monitor and setting to mirror displays turns on the backlight. (which will go off again upon suspend). Seems related to i915 chip settings.

same bug referenced in detail in: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/685727 and
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+bug/705949 .. both bugs which have languished for ages with no response and have been inexplicably closed.

[Chris Wilson (ickle)]

Many, many backlight issues have come and gone, and then come back again. Please do update and retest.

[bugbot (bugbot)]

We're closing this bug since there has not been a response from the original reporter. However, the issue still exists please feel free to reopen with the requested information. If you're not the original reporter, we'd prefer you file a new bug report.

Some tips:

  * Report X.org bugs via the command: `ubuntu-bug xorg`

  * Test against the latest development Ubuntu. http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/
    Bugs marked as affecting the development version tend to get priority attention.

  * The `xdiagnose` utility has functionality for enabling debugging and
    analyzing a few common X problems.

  * Tag your bugs with the Ubuntu versions you have reproduced the issue in.

  * See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Reporting for tips on writing good bug reports.

[Daudi Amani (dsaronin)]

Same bug still exists. Am doing a fresh install of Saucy 13.10 on Gateway NV79, but the install CD won't turn on the laptop display LCD backlight. There is no way to provide further information since I cannot directly install the 13.10 from CD image. Even if I attach an external monitor, the install CD formats the monitors for dual screen but puts all the install information on the darkened laptop monitor. By shining a bright light onto the screen, i can vaguely make out the displayed information and select TRY UBUNTU. When that comes up, I am able to navigate to settings, displays, mirror display, and continue with the install via the external monitor.

[Daudi Amani (dsaronin)]

Additional information:
Once 13.10 is installed, it still boots to an off backlight; BUT I can use the laptop screen brightness keys to increase backlight power and see the screen, although it is somewhat washed out. Each time the laptop is restarted, however, the setting is lost and it boots to black.

[Daudi Amani (dsaronin)]

Additional information 2: using the screen brightness keys only works After SIGNING in, not before. closing and opening the laptop cover (prior to signing in) also does not turn on the backlight, permantly. It turns on briefly before ubuntu resumes after the suspend and then turns off when unity is displayed.

[Daudi Amani (dsaronin)]

Additional information 3: work around for having backlight turned on after boot:
add the following to the grub: "acpi_backlight=vendor"