[i965gm] lcd backlight never stays off

[Martin Pool]

Binary package hint: xorg

I think this is different to bug 71368:

I have a thinkpad X61s running Karmic. If I run 'xset dpms force off' then the screen turns off properly. However, if I set in the power preferences that the screen should turn off after 5m, then it goes black but never shuts down the backlight.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Thu Sep 3 15:09:37 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
MachineType: LENOVO 76697DM
Package: xorg 1:7.4+3ubuntu5
PccardctlIdent:
 Socket 0:
   no product info available
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   no card
ProcCmdLine: root=/dev/mapper/hostname-karmic_root ro quiet splash resume=/dev/mapper/hostname-swap_1
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_AU.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/zsh
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.30-9.10-generic
RelatedPackageVersions:
 xserver-xorg 1:7.4+3ubuntu5
 libgl1-mesa-glx 7.6.0~git20090817.7c422387-0ubuntu3
 libdrm2 2.4.12+git20090801.45078630-0ubuntu1
 xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.8.1-1ubuntu1
 xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.12.99+git20090629.f39cafc5-0ubuntu6
SourcePackage: xorg
Uname: Linux 2.6.30-9-generic i686
XorgConf:

dmi.bios.date: 09/19/2007
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: 7NET27WW (1.08 )
dmi.board.name: 76697DM
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: Not Available
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: Not Available
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvr7NET27WW(1.08):bd09/19/2007:svnLENOVO:pn76697DM:pvrThinkPadX61s:rvnLENOVO:rn76697DM:rvrNotAvailable:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
dmi.product.name: 76697DM
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad X61s
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO
fglrx: Not loaded
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 architecture: i686kernel: 2.6.30-9-generic

[Martin Pool (mbp)]

I turns out that if I do 'dpms force off' then after a few minutes the backlight wakes up again.

I think this is a recent regression in karmic, or maybe I just haven't noticed...

[Geir Ove Myhr (gomyhr)]

> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.30-9.10-generic

Your Karmic kernel hasn't been updated since early June (see https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux). Could you check if updating the kernel fixes this? The current version is 2.6.31-9.29.

[Martin Pool (mbp)]

> Could you check if updating the kernel fixes this?

That's strange, my menu.lst wasn't updating for some reason when I installed new kernels. Running update-grub manually fixed it, and I rebooted into 2.6.31-9 (30 Aug) from today's Karmic updates. The problem is still present.

[Geir Ove Myhr (gomyhr)]

> That's strange, my menu.lst wasn't updating for some reason when I installed new kernels.

I had the same behaviour with an early install of karmic. I thought it was because I also had windows and Jaunty on other partitions. Next time I installed karmic it started updating menu.lst after every new kernel.

I'm no expert on dpms issues, but since `xset dmps force off` works and whatever gnome-power-manager does doesn't work, I'm guessing that the bug may be within there. If not, those who know gnome-power-manager should be able to tell us what low level commands to try.

[hgergo (hutongergo)]

I think tis is power manager related too while i have the same problem with Ati x1100 !

[Sergio Melas (sergiomelas-gmail)]

I have the same issue with a Lenovo S10e (GPU i945gm). When the power manager blank the screen the backlight remains on. On the other hand running "xset dpms force off" the backlight go off.

[Matt Drake (mattduckman)]

confirming in gnome-power-manager since I see this issue on two computers, one with intel graphics, the other with ati. Also, #6 has this issue on an ati card as well.

[Nathan Crawford (njcrawford)]

I see this issue on my Asus eeePC 900a. The video card is reported by lspci as an Intel 945GME.
It appears that the screen goes into DPMS sleep for about 1 second and then turns back on.

[jbfoley (jbfoley)]

This is happening on my HP HDX16 with Nvidia 9600M graphics. "xset dpms force off" shuts off the light for 30-60 seconds, then the backlight comes back on. This appears to be different from the earlier bug, because this function worked fine under 9.04