Toshiba screen brightness fails to function after waking from standby

[Carl Menke]

Bought a new laptop (Toshiba Portege R835-P70) and installed xubuntu 11.04. Everything works fine and is up to date (including screen brightness controls) except when it wakes from standby. At that time, the brightness controls cease to function. Syslog and kern.log both report the same error. I've tried to "cat "brightness:4" > /proc/acpi/toshiba/lcd", as su, but it refuses to lower or raise the brightness. Video adapter is an Intel generic. Again, it works perfectly fine after a fresh boot, but on waking from standby, the screen brightness cannot be changed. I suspect that resuming from standby also causes other malfunctions, but I haven't been able to confirm it yet.

Based on other, similar, problems regarding the newer Toshiba laptops, it seems that something in the ACPI or toshiba_acpi is buggy. Unloading and reloading the toshiba_acpi module does not return functionality. I can provide more information if needed.

Steps to reproduce:
1. Put laptop into standby, then wake.
2. Attempt to change brightness settings.

log of attempting to change brighness after wake:

Sep 18 15:11:15 PORTEGE-R835 kernel: [ 102.456526] ACPI Error: [GTF0] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20110112/psargs-359)

Sep 18 15:11:15 PORTEGE-R835 kernel: [ 102.456531] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.PCI0.SAT0.PRT0._SDD] (Node ffff880147646cd0), AE_NOT_FOUND (20110112/psparse-536)

Sep 18 15:11:15 PORTEGE-R835 kernel: [ 102.456550] ACPI Error: [GTF0] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20110112/psargs-359)

Sep 18 15:11:15 PORTEGE-R835 kernel: [ 102.456554] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.PCI0.SAT0.PRT0._GTF] (Node ffff880147646cf8), AE_NOT_FOUND (20110112/psparse-536)

Sep 18 15:11:15 PORTEGE-R835 kernel: [ 102.458177] ACPI Error: [GTF0] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20110112/psargs-359)

Sep 18 15:11:15 PORTEGE-R835 kernel: [ 102.458181] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.PCI0.SAT0.PRT0._SDD] (Node ffff880147646cd0), AE_NOT_FOUND (20110112/psparse-536)

Sep 18 15:11:15 PORTEGE-R835 kernel: [ 102.458193] ACPI Error: [GTF0] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20110112/psargs-359)

Sep 18 15:11:15 PORTEGE-R835 kernel: [ 102.458196] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.PCI0.SAT0.PRT0._GTF] (Node ffff880147646cf8), AE_NOT_FOUND (20110112/psparse-536)

Sep 18 15:11:23 PORTEGE-R835 kernel: [ 110.661102] ACPI: Failed to switch the brightness
Sep 18 15:11:23 PORTEGE-R835 kernel: [ 110.917468] ACPI: Failed to switch the brightness
Sep 18 15:11:24 PORTEGE-R835 kernel: [ 111.196951] ACPI: Failed to switch the brightness

lsb_release: (pastebin version: http://pastebin.com/eiTtwhYY)
PORTEGE-R835:~$ lsb_release -a; lsmod
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 11.04
Release: 11.04
Codename: natty
Module Size Used by
sha256_generic 21031 2
cryptd 20510 0
aes_x86_64 17208 160
aes_generic 38279 1 aes_x86_64
binfmt_misc 17565 1
parport_pc 36959 0
ppdev 17113 0
dm_crypt 22993 1
vboxnetadp 13340 0
vboxnetflt 28297 0
vboxdrv 252684 2 vboxnetadp,vboxnetflt
snd_hda_codec_hdmi 28167 1
snd_hda_codec_realtek 336771 1
joydev 17606 0
snd_hda_intel 33176 3
arc4 12529 2
snd_hda_codec 103804 3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep 13604 1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm 96391 3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
uvcvideo 72195 0
snd_seq_midi 13324 0
videodev 82052 1 uvcvideo
snd_rawmidi 30486 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event 14899 1 snd_seq_midi
v4l2_compat_ioctl32 17078 1 videodev
snd_seq 61621 2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
iwlagn 333716 0
snd_timer 29602 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device 14462 3 snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
snd 67382 16 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
iwlcore 167502 1 iwlagn
mac80211 294370 2 iwlagn,iwlcore
psmouse 73535 0
serio_raw 13166 0
cfg80211 178528 3 iwlagn,iwlcore,mac80211
soundcore 12680 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 18529 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
toshiba_acpi 14180 0
sparse_keymap 13898 1 toshiba_acpi
lp 17825 0
parport 46458 3 parport_pc,ppdev,lp
i915 515121 2
e1000e 159096 0
ahci 25951 2
drm_kms_helper 42136 1 i915
libahci 26642 1 ahci
drm 227534 3 i915,drm_kms_helper
sdhci_pci 13989 0
xhci_hcd 77643 0
sdhci 27387 1 sdhci_pci
i2c_algo_bit 13400 1 i915
video 19438 1 i915

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[madmack (madmack)]

same exact issue here. if you guys need any additional logs let me know.

no workarounds so far?

[madmack (madmack)]

fixed.

1. patch toshiba_acpi.c and replace toshiba_acpi.ko. (reload the module)

references to the patch and all you need is here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1550219&highlight=acpi

Make sure the patch actually succeeds.
I found this post also helpful http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=986075

2. Do this: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=9785837&postcount=10 with a slight modification:

run "acpi_listen" and click on the fn+brightness up/down and record the values you get. Now replace "event=hkey VALZ 00000001 00000140" with whatever you got and reboot. (you have two instances, replace both)

brightness keys should work after suspend and hibernation now.

tested on mint 11 and a portege r835.

sorry if it's not the best write-up or if it lacks some clarity. I've been working on this for the last 2 hours and let's just say it's getting late over here.

side note: toshset was installed, but it was useless because the kernel module was not patched?!

[Jeff (loy-aei1-h67)]

As comment #3 says, the fix requires a patch to the toshiba_acpi module to enable the use of the toshset utility, and then adding scripts that are triggered by the acpi events.

But the brightness functionality works perfectly fine BEFORE a suspend. It also works okay after waking up from a hibernate. So it seems like the real fix is to fix the resume from suspend in toshiba_acpi, rather than changing it to work with a utility and having to create additional stuff that's not strictly needed.

Is there a clear description anywhere of what the actual issue in toshiba_acpi is?

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Carl Menke, 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? If so, could you please test for this with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ .

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

apport-collect -p linux <replace-with-bug-number>

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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