jaunty on samsung Q45 looses mouse/kdb interface after adjusting brightness

[malcolm]

No packages here it's Ubuntu 9.04 Beta running from a live CD on a Samsung Q45.
It looks good, unlike 8.10 it boots with no complaints and the battery icon works.

Unplug the power and the display dims and increasing the brightness goes only half way (it's not bright enough to use).
Decreasing the brightness continues automatically from one keystroke (Fn Down-arrow) to a black screen.
Hitting Fn Up continually will keep the screen visible but you have to continue doing it for a v-e-r-y l-o-n-g time.
Hitting Fn Right arrow (speaker vol up) stops the screen going black but after that although you can move the mouse pointer around clicking on things (like the gnome menu, the shutdown button) has no effect, and the keyboard does not seem to work. I tried Alt-F2/run program (nothing) and also Ctrl-Alt-Backspace (no effect).
The power button (hardware) does work and then you can click on the window that appears and select an option with the mouse.
It's a little bit confusing: the mouse will start firefox but not move the window around, but attempting to type in a url has no effect. The maximise and close(X) buttons do work.

I'd really like to install this and ditch Vista, but this is a killer app.

[malcolm (mal-colm)]

Hmmnn... no repsonse at all I must be in the wrong place.

However FWIW here is a work around; there is still 1 bug and one feature that could be fixed.

Tha samsung Q45 comes with 320G of HD split into 2, the idea being that when vista crashes you can re-install everything. So I appropriated D: and installed jaunty (9.04), chaining the grub loader stored on D: (/dev/sda3) to the vista loader on C: (/dev/sda2). (after doing this you only get Vista w/ C:, you need to download and run EasyBCD, which can only be described as idiot proof and a marvelous product to boot.

Then, in Ubuntu you add the gnome configuration editor to your applications menu (follow System -> Preferences -> Main Menu). Run that program (Applications -> System Tools -> Configuration Editor).

Select apps -> gnome-power-manager -> backlight

Set brightness_battery to 100
Set brightness_dim_battery to 0
Set enable to not
Exit the program

Right click on the top panel and Add something, select the battery applet and choose 'always display an icon'.

That's kind of it, except for a little dance after booting:

Log in
Press Fn CursorDn ... the brightness keepe going down...
Press Fn CursorUp ... the brightness keeps going up ...
Press Fn CursorRight ... it starts behaving properly
(not finished yet)
Click on the date/time in the top panel, do it again till the calendar displays
Click on it again to hide the calendar
Hover over the battery icon till the tooltip shows
Click on it to display a menu
(now we are finished)
Observe that the Gnome menu and keyboard are working again.

Ok it's rubbish, but takes very little time and it seems to work afterwards. That's the bug.

The Feature is that if you disconnect the power then the 100% brightness-battery is about 70%: anyone got any ideas on this??

[malcolm (mal-colm)]

Ahah!

Hit F2 on boot and dive into the BIOS and set brightness on battery to 'User Control', then the screen is the same as on AC, so you can actually use it in daylight on battery.

[malcolm (mal-colm)]

Since a week or two ago when <whoever it was> announce a 'better work around' for the intel 965 vidio chip thingy I've had faultless Ubuntu. Not only does the compositing now work but also the silly brightness ->0 situation is not more.

thanks everyone, Vista is history