[regression] Keyboard brightness control keys (down/up) don't work in cosmic (upower 0.99.8)

[Daniel van Vugt]

* Impact
keyboard backlight control keys don't work in cosmic

* Test case
On a laptop with keyboard backlight and keys to control the level, try using the keys, they should change the level

* Regression potential
The change is to lift some systemd process restriction, have extra access shouldn't create issue but check that other features like suspend, battery pourcentage report, etc keep working

-----------------------

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/upower/upower/issues/73

---

On laptops with two separate (down,up) keys to control the backlit keyboard, both keys seem to do nothing. The OSD for the backlit keyboard is displayed but no progress bar and no actual effect to the backlight. Almost as if the shell only understands laptops with a single key for controlling the keyboard backlight...

Bug verified in cosmic on:
  * Asus UX331UAL
  * Apple Macbook Pro 12,1
  * Apple Macbook Air

All of them have these keys and they all fail in the same way. However it is not a kernel bug. The kernel interface (/sys/class/leds/*::kbd_backlight/*) works when I write to it directly. This seems to be a problem with Gnome Shell only.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.10
Package: gnome-shell 3.30.0-3ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.18.0-8.9-generic 4.18.7
Uname: Linux 4.18.0-8-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.10-0ubuntu11
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Sun Oct 7 13:41:50 2018
DisplayManager: gdm3
InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-09-11 (25 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.10 "Cosmic Cuttlefish" - Alpha amd64 (20180822)
SourcePackage: gnome-shell
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Upstream: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/issues/636

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Now upstream in: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-settings-daemon/issues/100

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Also, the kernel does recognise the keys:

Event: time 1539010310.047487, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1539010313.623520, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 229 (KEY_KBDILLUMDOWN), value 1
Event: time 1539010313.623520, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1539010313.735405, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 229 (KEY_KBDILLUMDOWN), value 0
Event: time 1539010313.735405, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1539010314.263525, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 230 (KEY_KBDILLUMUP), value 1
Event: time 1539010314.263525, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1539010314.359497, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 230 (KEY_KBDILLUMUP), value 0
Event: time 1539010314.359497, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------

So we have all the kernel bits we need. Only the GUI is broken.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Upstream bug link now:
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/upower/upower/issues/73

The fix (which is also a workaround you can apply yourself) is:
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/upower/upower/merge_requests/12/diffs?commit_id=0a9d9ab4949effb20e77aa52e7b4ee07e776fc0d

[Will Cooke (willcooke)]

Not a release blocker. Seb will look to SRU.

[Danny Stieben (dmaxel)]

I have an Apple MacBook Pro 11,2 running Cosmic with this same issue.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Hello Daniel, or anyone else affected,

Accepted upower into cosmic-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/upower/0.99.8-2ubuntu0.1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested and change the tag from verification-needed-cosmic to verification-done-cosmic. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-cosmic. In either case, without details of your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s) fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in -proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Fix verified in version 0.99.8-2ubuntu0.1

[Mario Vukelic (kreuzsakra)]

Some feedback for Cosmic:

FWIW, I can confirm that the update did NOT break the keyboard backlight key on Dell XPS 15 9575, where it had already worked flawlessly out-of-the-box with Cosmic since installation in early September (contrary to the bug description above stating that "keyboard backlight control keys don't work in cosmic")

At the time also submitted the similar bug #1791372, "Keyboard backlight not working on Asus ZenBook Flip UX561UD laptop in Cosmic 18.10, works with 18.04.1 desktop installer live image".
I can test this update on the Asus as well but cannot report result before Sunday, Oct 4.

[Denis Floch (denez65)]

Fix verified in version 0.99.8-2ubuntu0.1 on a MacBook Air 11" running Kubuntu cosmic

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package upower - 0.99.8-2ubuntu0.1

---------------
upower (0.99.8-2ubuntu0.1) cosmic; urgency=medium

  * debian/patches/git_access_sys.patch:
    - Fix upower's keyboard backlight support (lp: #1796550)

 -- Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden> Thu, 25 Oct 2018 13:31:01 +0200

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

The verification of the Stable Release Update for upower has completed successfully and the package has now been released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regressions.

[Mario Vukelic (kreuzsakra)]

The update fixed the issue on the Asus ZenBook UX561UD mentioned in comment #10 (i.e. Bug #1791372)