Comment 63 for bug 765438

I have actually tried that patch (actually the slightly newer version of it found here: http://lkml.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1203.1/04190.html), without success. (Although possibly I did something wrong.)

I followed the instructions located here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelCustomBuild (specifically the instructions starting at "MartinPitt: the easiest and best recipe that I found is to treat them as external modules, even when they are in-tree.")

I had to apply the patch manually due to it being for a different kernel version, however I was able to get the module to compile successfully, installed in "extra", and after a "depmod -a" was able to successfully execute an "update-initramfs -u", but after rebooting with the "i915.invert_brightness" parameter passed to the kernel, behavior remained unchanged.

Possibly my kernel was still loading the stock i915 driver though, I'll need to dig in to the init ramdisk image to confirm that it's actually using the patched drier as it's supposed to be.