[arrandale] Brightness is all the way down at login screen on HP Pavilion dm4

[Andrew]

Binary package hint: xorg

When the login screen loads after rebooting, the brightness is all the way down so that the screen is unreadable. The brightness must be increased using Fn+F3 in order to log in.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: xserver-xorg 1:7.5+6ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-23.41-generic 2.6.35.7
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-23-generic i686
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx wl
Architecture: i386
DRM.card0.LVDS.1:
 status: connected
 enabled: enabled
 dpms: On
 modes: 1366x768
 edid-base64: AP///////wAGrzwiAAAAAAAUAQSQHxF4Apf1m1lUjCUiUFQAAAABAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBEhtWRlAAIzAmFjYANa0QAAAYDBJWRlAAIzAmFjYANa0QAAAYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgAMM/kKPGQfFCJuICAgAH0=
DRM.card0.VGA.1:
 status: disconnected
 enabled: disabled
 dpms: On
 modes:
 edid-base64:
Date: Mon Dec 6 14:15:33 2010
DkmsStatus:
 fglrx, 8.780, 2.6.35-23-generic, i686: installed
 fglrx, 8.780, 2.6.35-22-generic, i686: installed
 bcmwl, 5.60.48.36+bdcom, 2.6.35-23-generic, i686: installed
 bcmwl, 5.60.48.36+bdcom, 2.6.35-22-generic, i686: installed
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release i386 (20101007)
MachineType: Hewlett-Packard HP Pavilion dm4 Notebook PC
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-23-generic root=/dev/sda2 loop=/hostname/disks/root.disk ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: xorg
dmi.bios.date: 04/02/2010
dmi.bios.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.bios.version: F.03
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: 1469
dmi.board.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.board.version: KBC Version 58.1A
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: CNU0202SQ3
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnHewlett-Packard:bvrF.03:bd04/02/2010:svnHewlett-Packard:pnHPPaviliondm4NotebookPC:pvr048E100000242B10000020000:rvnHewlett-Packard:rn1469:rvrKBCVersion58.1A:cvnHewlett-Packard:ct10:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.name: HP Pavilion dm4 Notebook PC
dmi.product.version: 048E100000242B10000020000
dmi.sys.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
glxinfo: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
system:
 distro: Ubuntu
 codename: maverick
 architecture: i686
 kernel: 2.6.35-23-generic

[lspci]
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0046] (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
     Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:1469]
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc Manhattan [Mobility Radeon HD 5000 Series] [1002:68e0] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
     Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:1469]

[Milan Bouchet-Valat (nalimilan)]

From the Fedora bug report:
> I have an HP Pavilion DM4-1060US. If I remove rhgb quiet from the boot line, it
> appears that the blank screen begins when the kernel initially configures the
> console framebuffer. Once the full X server starts via gdm, display is visible.
>
> Similar to Description above, adding nomodeset to the kernel command line
> causes the boot messages to remain visible, although X cannot start because it
> depends on kernel modesetting in order to operate.

The Fedora reporter also tried Ubuntu 10.10, and attached many log files, which may be useful to his report.

Contrary to what he says, though, and in key with what the Ubuntu bug description says, using Fn+F3 to increase brightness is enough to see Plymouth on my laptop (a dm4-1170sf). And maybe it's useful to restate that this bug only affects Plymouth: when X is started, brightness is always OK.

Still happens with kernel 2.6.38rc5, and with xorg-edgers PPA enabled, FWIW.

[Milan Bouchet-Valat (nalimilan)]

Hm, "this bug only affects Plymouth": this is true for me, but apparently not for the other reporters, so maybe it's more severe on other "submodels" of dm4. Andrew, what is the exact reference of your laptop? Can you also confirm again that the GDM login screen (where you choose your user account) is still black if you don't manually change brightness?

[chreko (chreko)]

I am not sure if the following is a relevant workaround for you, but it is worth checking it:

See section "BRIGHTNESS CONTROL OF THE DISPLAY" at http://www.andreas-demmer.de/en/2010/07/18/testbericht-linux-auf-dem-hp-envy-14/

In particular: "[...] After having done this, there should exist a file named /sys/class/backlight/i915/brightness. If you write values between 0 and 9 into it, the brightness of the screen changes immediately:

echo -n5 > /sys/class/backlight/i915/brightness

[...]"

[chreko (chreko)]

This could also be helpful: http://linuxenvy.blogspot.com/2011/01/first-solutions.html

[bugbot (bugbot)]

Hey Andrew,

Thanks for your interest in Ubuntu.

Thanks for testing maverick during its development period. Unfortunately it looks like this bug report didn't get attention during the maverick development period. But I see there's not been more comments on the bug since the release, which makes me wonder if this is still an issue for you?

If you've not seen this issue since maverick's release yourself, it may have been solved by kernel or X or other updates that occurred late in the release; if so, would you mind please closing the bug for us? Go to the URL mentioned in this bug report, click the yellow icon(s) in the status column and set to 'Fix Released'.

If you no longer have the hardware needed to reproduce the problem, or otherwise feel the bug no longer needs tracked in Launchpad, you can set the status to 'Invalid'.

If you are the original reporter and still have this issue, just reply to this email saying so. (Or set the bug status to Confirmed.) If you are able to re-test this against 11.04 Natty Narwhal (our current development focus) and find the issue still affects Natty, please also run 'apport-collect <bug-number>' while running natty, which will add fresh logs and debug data, and flag it for the Ubuntu-X development team to look at.

[shane (shane-animail)]

I am getting this problem on kubuntu 11.10 64-bit (Testing), fully up to date as of today.

Same thing, the boot process is dimmed (one can just make out the boot logo and login screen in a dark room) and have to turn up the brightness at login screen.

HP Pavillion dm4-1150ea

Only had the laptop a couple of days so not messed around with it much to try workarounds/experiments.

Any information I can provide to help?

[Andrew (andrewkvalheim)]

I no longer have access to this laptop.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Since the hardware is no longer available for doing troubleshooting with, we'll have to close the bug for now. However please feel free to reopen if you or anyone else has the same HW and can reproduce this issue using the latest development version of Ubuntu and is willing to do some troubleshooting with it.

[MikeRich (bigmeanmikerich)]

I am running Ubuntu on an HP Pavilion dm4-2070us, and I can confirm that this bug still exists in 12.04 x64, up-to-date. At boot, the splash displays appropriately. Once the login screen comes up, however, the screen's brightness is reduced to zero. This problem affected me when running 11.04 and 11.10 as well.