X session crashes when using Function key on laptop

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

On my Dell Inspiron 9400 laptop, pressing Fn+Up (to increase display brightness) makes X restart.

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Is this symptom reproducible on a Ubuntu (GNOME) desktop cd? I can't reproduce this on a ThinkPad X41-2527 using both Ubuntu and Xubuntu.

[Juan Pablo Salazar Bertín (snifer)]

it's probably related to https://bugs.launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.17/+bug/74284

[Sridhar Dhanapalan (sridhar)]

A solution is to add the line "alias video off" to /etc/modprobe.d/local

[wrekced (wrekced)]

Does it on my Dell XPS M1210 using Edgy. Under Xubuntu too. Haven't tried it in Kubuntu yet...

[wrekced (wrekced)]

Won't do it now... (Dell XPS M1210 under Edgy) I just recently re-installed after playing aroung Xubuntu... Tried to get a dump of the crash. Oh, well. Must be fixed already!

[Sridhar Dhanapalan (sridhar)]

I upgraded from the Dell A04 to the latest A05 BIOS and removed the 'alias video off' line. After a power cycle, the problem returned.

[Jani Monoses (jani)]

not an xfce issue apparently

[Sridhar Dhanapalan (sridhar)]

On Gutsy final (Linux 2.6.22-14-generic), disabling 'alias video off' renders the brightness controls totally inoperable (not even X restarts). Other uses for the Fn key (volume, etc.) continue to work regardless.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

The Hardy Heron Alpha2 release will be coming out soon. It will have an updated version of the kernel. It would be great if you could test with this new release and verify if this issue still exists. I'll be sure to update this report when Alpha2 is available. Thanks!

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Hardy Heron Alpha2 was recently released. It contains an updated version of the kernel. You can download and try the new Hardy Heron Alpha2 release from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/hardy/alpha-2/ . You should be able to then test the new kernel via the LiveCD. If you can, please verify if this bug still exists or not and report back your results. General information regarding the release can also be found here: http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/hardy/alpha2 . Thanks!

[Matthew Woerly (nattgew)]

We are closing this bug report as it lacks the information, described in
the previous comments, we need to investigate the problem further.
However, please reopen it if you can give us the missing information and
feel free to submit bug reports in the future.