Ubuntu 11.10 - Adjusting the brightness causes the screen to flicker intensely until the user logs out

[Sam Heitzer]

Using a Samsung N130 netbook with Ubuntu 11.10. Adjusting the brightness via the settings or the function keys yields this result. In addition, the brightness indicator comes up in the far right corner and oscilates as the screen flickers. This also causes mild slowdown.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[neferty (roman-semko)]

Same problem on a N130, just updated to 11.10.
Had milder flickering issues on 11.04 (bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/776637), but it intensified in 11.10

Any time if i try to adjust brightness via fn keys or in settings > screen the screen brightness starts flickering until logout.

Don't know if this is the same issue as #873752

[neferty (roman-semko)]

If you switch to tty terminals (when flickering started) and back the flickering stops.

[Hans Flip (hans-flippo)]

As a workaround you can disable screen dimming in Screen, that may work (or not).

It is disappointing that this bug of 11.04 still is not fixed. It affects a lot of netbooks with the same video chip. Ubuntu had a special netbook version, why this bug was neglected is hard to understand.

[Simon King (simonking)]

Also affects me in 11.10 on Samsung NC10

[cleggton (mat-cleggville)]

A workaround that I have found to work is to add the PPA ppa:voria/ppa and install the samsung-backlight package. The screen brightness keys work and the flickering is gone.

[papukaija (papukaija)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This particular bug has already been reported and is a duplicate of bug 810093, so it is being marked as such. Please look at the other bug report to see if there is any missing information that you can provide, or to see if there is a workaround for the bug. Additionally, any further discussion regarding the bug should occur in the other report. Feel free to continue to report any other bugs you may find.