Comment 169 for bug 568611

Good questions, Andy.

> Can I ask what the upstream status of these patches are?

Upstream status: Unfortunately, the core patches which enable the new intel_backlight did not make it into the upstream Linux 2.6.38 mainline kernel (soon to be released). The patches will likely get re-submitted for consideration for the next mainline kernel version. I will continue to encourage the upstream teams to finalize and adopt the patches.

> So what's the holdup? Why isn't this in mainline, or at the very least in Ubuntu's default kernel?

Ubuntu status: While it is true that many of us have had successful results with my PPA, the patch set (as backported to Maverick at least) is known to cause regressions on a few systems. I do not feel that these patches are suitable for inclusion in the Ubuntu main kernel yet. After they (eventually) land in the Linux mainline kernel I expect that they will stabilize quickly, and at that time I will port and propose them for inclusion in all the currently supported Ubuntu versions.

In the meantime, I will continue to maintain my PPA, which I update regularly to reflect new variants of the core backlight patch set and other related brightness control fixes:
https://launchpad.net/~kamalmostafa/+archive/linux-kamal-mjgbacklight

Thanks for your continued patience folks.