nouveau not supporting backlight

[Schmirrwurst]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau

I experience problems with backlight.
There is no backlight information in /sys/class backlight nor /proc/acpi/video
xbacklight is also not working

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Jul 27 19:05:17 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
MachineType: Sony Corporation VGN-FZ21E
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:0.0.10~git+20090708+ef3a386-0ubuntu1
ProcCmdLine: root=UUID=0918e4be-9bb8-4304-8f19-1fd016c6837b ro initcall_debug nomodeset
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=
 LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-3.19-generic
RelatedPackageVersions:
 xserver-xorg 1:7.4+3ubuntu5
 libgl1-mesa-glx 7.5-1ubuntu1
 libdrm2 2.4.11-1ubuntu1
 xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.8.0-0ubuntu1
 xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.12.99+git20090629.f39cafc5-0ubuntu1
SourcePackage: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-3-generic x86_64
dmi.bios.date: 07/04/2007
dmi.bios.vendor: Phoenix Technologies LTD
dmi.bios.version: R1120J7
dmi.board.asset.tag: N/A
dmi.board.name: VAIO
dmi.board.vendor: Sony Corporation
dmi.board.version: N/A
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: N/A
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Sony Corporation
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnPhoenixTechnologiesLTD:bvrR1120J7:bd07/04/2007:svnSonyCorporation:pnVGN-FZ21E:pvrC3LPXCR7:rvnSonyCorporation:rnVAIO:rvrN/A:cvnSonyCorporation:ct10:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.name: VGN-FZ21E
dmi.product.version: C3LPXCR7
dmi.sys.vendor: Sony Corporation
fglrx: Not loaded
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 architecture: x86_64kernel: 2.6.31-3-generic

[lspci]
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: nVidia Corporation G86 [GeForce 8400M GT] [10de:0426] (rev a1)
     Subsystem: Sony Corporation Device [104d:9005]

[Chris Halse Rogers (raof)]

I notice from your dmesg that you're being hit with the problem that
prevents nouveau.ko being loaded on boot - the initramfs loads i915.ko
which pulls in a different version of drm.ko to the one that nouveau
needs.

There's a more recent nouveau snapshot in the xorg-edgers ppa - you
can add this with "sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/nouveau" to
test if you wish. I'll push a newer snapshot to Karmic at some point,
too.

[Schmirrwurst (schmirrwurst)]

I've a sony vgn-fz-21e, and have no backlight information
in /proc/acpi/video
nor
in /sys/class/backlight

My card is a nVidia Corporation G86 [GeForce 8400M GT] (rev a1)

the nouveau driver version is :
git+20090724

xbacklight is also not working

[Schmirrwurst (schmirrwurst)]

I've also reported by ubuntu, apport updated a lot of additional informations/log files there : https://bugs.launchpad.net/nouveau/+bug/405387

I experience the same pb with the proprietary driver

[Schmirrwurst (schmirrwurst)]

I've just tried the ppa version 1:0.0.10~git+20090724+094e4e0-0~9.10, but still no support...
I'll report to the mailing list...

[Schmirrwurst (schmirrwurst)]

It was working properly with the latest git version... closing...

[Ian Pilcher (arequipeno)]

I'm not getting any backlight support here:

[ipilcher@localhost ~]$ lspci | grep VGA
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GT218 [NVS 3100M] (rev a2)
[ipilcher@localhost ~]$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 8192 x 8192
LVDS-1 connected 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 344mm x 193mm
   1920x1080 60.0*+ 60.0 50.0
   1680x1050 60.0
   1400x1050 60.0
   1280x1024 59.9
   1280x960 59.9
   1152x864 60.0
   1024x768 59.9
   800x600 59.9
   640x480 59.4
   720x400 59.6
   640x400 60.0
   640x350 59.8
VGA-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-3 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
[ipilcher@localhost ~]$ xbacklight
No outputs have backlight property

nouveau version is xorg-x11-drv-nouveau-0.0.16-13.20101010git8c8f15c.fc14.x86_64

[Alex Mayorga (alex-mayorga)]

Ended up here looking for a solution to "Fn+F5 and Fn+F6 don't modify brightness on Sony VAIO VPCCW (GT 230M)"[1]

Posting the card details below in case they're useful to anyone.

[1] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/551668

alex-mayorga@VPCCW1FFXL:~$ lspci | grep VGA
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GT216 [GeForce GT 230M] (rev a2)
alex-mayorga@VPCCW1FFXL:~$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1366 x 768, maximum 8192 x 8192
LVDS-1 connected 1366x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 309mm x 174mm
   1366x768 59.9*+
   1024x768 59.9
   800x600 59.9
   640x480 59.4
   720x400 59.6
   640x400 60.0
   640x350 59.8
VGA-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
alex-mayorga@VPCCW1FFXL:~$ apt-cache policy xserver-xorg-video-nouveau
xserver-xorg-video-nouveau:
  Installed: 1:0.0.16+git20111201+b5534a1-1build2
  Candidate: 1:0.0.16+git20111201+b5534a1-1build2
  Version table:
 *** 1:0.0.16+git20111201+b5534a1-1build2 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
alex-mayorga@VPCCW1FFXL:~$ uname -a
Linux VPCCW1FFXL 3.2.0-21-generic #34-Ubuntu SMP Fri Mar 30 04:25:35 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[Ilia Mirkin (imirkin)]

Re-closing this. The people who reopened posters (a) had totally different hardware, (b) did not provide any actual info, and (c) didn't add themselves to cc.

If someone should still have issues regarding backlight, please file a full issue as instructed by http://nouveau.freedesktop.org/wiki/Bugs/