Arch Linux

nam_lah

Member

From: San Salvador, El Salvador

Registered: 2016-01-16

Posts: 9

x230 - backlight won't go down/up thru FN+F8/F9 on 5.14.5-arch1-1

Hello all,

I've recently got an x230 and installed a brand new Arch instance on its mDrive.
Unlike my T430, controlling its backlight using the Fn + F8/F9 keys hasn't been that simple.

$ uname -a:

Linux x230 5.14.5-arch1-1 #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu, 16 Sep 2021 11:02:40 +0000 x86_64 GNU/Linux

I've tried advice I found at https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Lenovo … ntrol_keys:

acpi_osi="!Windows 2012"
acpi_backlight=vendor

Per https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Backli … ne_options, I also tried each of these:

acpi_backlight=video
acpi_backlight=vendor
acpi_backlight=native

And per https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Kernel_parameters#GRUB, I've naturally ensured to run

# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

but nogo yet.

I've also goitten the stdOut from dmesg:

$ sudo dmesg | grep -i thinkpad 
[    2.591431] thinkpad_acpi: ThinkPad ACPI Extras v0.26
[    2.591435] thinkpad_acpi: http://ibm-acpi.sf.net/
[    2.591437] thinkpad_acpi: ThinkPad BIOS G2ETB7WW (2.77 ), EC G2HT36WW
[    2.591438] thinkpad_acpi: Lenovo ThinkPad X230, model 2306CTO
[    2.592447] thinkpad_acpi: radio switch found; radios are enabled
[    2.592579] thinkpad_acpi: This ThinkPad has standard ACPI backlight brightness control, supported by the ACPI video driver
[    2.592581] thinkpad_acpi: Disabling thinkpad-acpi brightness events by default...
[    2.602021] thinkpad_acpi: battery 1 registered (start 0, stop 100)
[    2.602028] ACPI: battery: new extension: ThinkPad Battery Extension
[    2.602064] input: ThinkPad Extra Buttons as /devices/platform/thinkpad_acpi/input/input5

Which suggests that thinkpad-acpi brightness is disabled upon boot.
I'm open to any other workarounds you guys might know of.

Thank you in advance for  your support!

---

X555 4210u 8GB GeForce 840M | Mini CQ10 N270 1GB | Banana Pro | Raspie B | Rasbie B+

elvin

Member

Registered: 2021-10-05

Posts: 5

Re: x230 - backlight won't go down/up thru FN+F8/F9 on 5.14.5-arch1-1

Since no one else is responding, ill testify that the backlight article on the wiki is 99%miss for me, the only way that changing the brightness has worked flawlessly across laptops of generations spanning 12 years is writing(echo) to /sys/class/backlight. this is just a temporary fix so you dont rek your eyes while trying to fix the problem

anarki@buttereblume

Member

Registered: 2015-12-29

Posts: 64

Re: x230 - backlight won't go down/up thru FN+F8/F9 on 5.14.5-arch1-1

I've been using a X230 for quite some years and I remember a day, when after a system upgrade the backlight fuction keys stopped working.

Since then (and today on X280 too) I kept using light to set the brightness and sxhkd to bind it to XF86MonBrightnessUp/Down keysyms

pacman -S light sxhkd

Caveat: sxhkd needs Xorg to run, so for a tty you'd need a different approach.

Last edited by anarki@buttereblume (2021-11-06 20:55:30)