laptop-screen darkens during bootup

Top_se · 2008-08-30 15:50:45

Hello

I`ve got a little problem:
While booting up arch the screen of my laptop darkens to the biggest possible amount. I explored that this happens after:
"loading udev uevents"
or maybe after loading the modules which happens short before this ...
I think it`s just some automatic energy-saving-feature in one of the programs/modules/etc ... I load during bootup.

After my screen got very dark I just press some special-keys here on my laptop and my screen begins to lighten again, so the described problem is more an annoying one than a really big one, but yeah, it`s annoying ...

So, that`s my /etc/rc.conf:

#
# /etc/rc.conf - Main Configuration for Arch Linux
#
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# LOCALIZATION
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# LOCALE: available languages can be listed with the 'locale -a' command
# HARDWARECLOCK: set to "UTC" or "localtime"
# USEDIRECTISA: use direct I/O requests instead of /dev/rtc for hwclock
# TIMEZONE: timezones are found in /usr/share/zoneinfo
# KEYMAP: keymaps are found in /usr/share/kbd/keymaps
# CONSOLEFONT: found in /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts (only needed for non-US)
# CONSOLEMAP: found in /usr/share/kbd/consoletrans
# USECOLOR: use ANSI color sequences in startup messages
#
LOCALE="en_US.utf8"
HARDWARECLOCK="localtime"
USEDIRECTISA="yes"
TIMEZONE="Canada/Pacific"
KEYMAP="de-latin1"
CONSOLEFONT=""
CONSOLEMAP=
USECOLOR="yes"
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# HARDWARE
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# MOD_AUTOLOAD: Allow autoloading of modules at boot and when needed
# MOD_BLACKLIST: Prevent udev from loading these modules
# MODULES: Modules to load at boot-up. Prefix with a ! to blacklist.
#
# NOTE: Use of 'MOD_BLACKLIST' is deprecated. Please use ! in the MODULES array.
#
MOD_AUTOLOAD="yes"
MOD_BLACKLIST=() #deprecated
MODULES=(ath_pci forcedeth
snd-mixer-oss snd-pcm-oss
snd-hwdep snd-page-alloc snd-pcm snd-timer snd snd-hda-intel soundcore)
# Scan for LVM volume groups at startup, required if you use LVM
USELVM="no"
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# NETWORKING
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# HOSTNAME: Hostname of machine. Should also be put in /etc/hosts
#
HOSTNAME="localhost"
# Use 'ifconfig -a' or 'ls /sys/class/net/' to see all available interfaces.
#
# Interfaces to start at boot-up (in this order)
# Declare each interface then list in INTERFACES
# - prefix an entry in INTERFACES with a ! to disable it
# - no hyphens in your interface names - Bash doesn't like it
#
# DHCP: Set your interface to "dhcp" (eth0="dhcp")
# Wireless: See network profiles below
#
################
#netcfg
#wlan0="static"
#networkmanager
#wlan0="dhcp"
###############
ath0="static"
eth0="dhcp"
# if networkmanager is in user never do: INTERFACES=(!eth0)
INTERFACES=(!eth0 ath0)
# Routes to start at boot-up (in this order)
# Declare each route then list in ROUTES
# - prefix an entry in ROUTES with a ! to disable it
#
#gateway="default gw 192.168.178.1"
#gateway1="-net 192.168.178.30
#192.168.178.1"
#gateway2="-net 192.168.178.33
#192.168.178.3"
#ROUTES=(gateway)
# Enable these network profiles at boot-up. These are only useful
# if you happen to need multiple network configurations (ie, laptop users)
# - set to 'menu' to present a menu during boot-up (dialog package required)
# - prefix an entry with a ! to disable it
#
# Network profiles are found in /etc/network.d
#
# This now requires the netcfg package
#
NETWORKS=(home_static)
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# DAEMONS
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# Daemons to start at boot-up (in this order)
# - prefix a daemon with a ! to disable it
# - prefix a daemon with a @ to start it up in the background
#
# disabled:
# dbus
# network
# hal dhcdbd networkmanager
DAEMONS=(syslog-ng crond
net-profiles
alsa
xinetd
httpd mysqld)

I would be really happy if anyone could give me a workaround for this or a least a hint which program/module/etc is causing the described behaviour ...

If you need anymore information, please tell me.

Thx a lot so far!

l33tunderground · 2008-08-30 16:31:01

Well, I'm not really sure about the syntax checking of rc.conf, but have you considered putting your daemons and modules all on one line?

Diaz · 2008-08-30 23:10:41

oh, i'd like to know wich module/setting changes this too. I noticed it in my new laptop, but hadn't time to really look at it.

Top_se · 2008-08-31 08:41:47

l33tunderground wrote:

Well, I'm not really sure about the syntax checking of rc.conf, but have you considered putting your daemons and modules all on one line?

Thx for this hint, but it doesn`t consider whether I put them in one or more lines though ...

@ Diaz, which modules do you load automatically which I do either? Maybe we can solve the problem by ruling out the modules (if the problem is caused by modules) that can`t be the reason ...

Diaz · 2008-08-31 22:04:02

my rc.conf:

#
# /etc/rc.conf - Main Configuration for Arch Linux
#

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# LOCALIZATION
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# TIMEZONE: timezones are found in /usr/share/zoneinfo
# KEYMAP: keymaps are found in /usr/share/kbd/keymaps
# CONSOLEFONT: found in /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts (only needed for non-US)
# CONSOLEMAP: found in /usr/share/kbd/consoletrans

LOCALE="pt_PT.utf8"
HARDWARECLOCK="localtime"
USEDIRECTISA="no"
TIMEZONE="Europe/Lisbon"
KEYMAP="pt-latin9"
CONSOLEFONT="default8x16"
CONSOLEMAP=
USECOLOR="yes"

MOD_AUTOLOAD="yes"
#MODULES=(r8169 snd-mixer-oss snd-pcm-oss snd-hwdep snd-page-alloc snd-pcm snd-timer snd snd-hda-intel soundcore)
MODULES=()
USELVM="no"

HOSTNAME="portatil"

NETWORKS=(!ethernet ethernet-static)

DAEMONS=(syslog-ng hal !avahi-daemon !avahi-dnsconfd @net-profiles @crond @alsa)

lsmod:

Module                  Size  Used by
fuse                   51228  2 
uvcvideo               56456  0 
compat_ioctl32          3072  1 uvcvideo
videodev               31872  1 uvcvideo
v4l1_compat            16260  2 uvcvideo,videodev
hci_usb                15516  0 
bluetooth              50532  1 hci_usb
ext2                   66184  1 
mbcache                 8708  1 ext2
joydev                 11584  0 
snd_seq_dummy           4740  0 
snd_seq_oss            33280  0 
snd_seq_midi_event      8192  1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                50672  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device          8460  3 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_hda_intel         365976  1 
ohci1394               30128  0 
sdhci                  16388  0 
snd_pcm_oss            39840  0 
snd_mixer_oss          16512  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm                69892  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss
fglrx                1757280  25 
mmc_core               43036  1 sdhci
psmouse                38288  0 
pcspkr                  4352  0 
ricoh_mmc               5632  0 
snd_timer              21512  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
ieee1394               80696  1 ohci1394
r8169                  27396  0 
serio_raw               7044  0 
asus_laptop            17656  0 
snd_page_alloc          9352  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
ehci_hcd               35596  0 
video                  18064  0 
output                  4608  1 video
uhci_hcd               23952  0 
intel_agp              26428  0 
snd_hwdep               9220  1 snd_hda_intel
snd                    51876  12 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_hwdep
agpgart                29652  2 fglrx,intel_agp
led_class               5508  1 asus_laptop
usbcore               132080  5 uvcvideo,hci_usb,ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd
soundcore               8032  1 snd
sg                     28596  0 
evdev                  10880  6 
thermal                16796  0 
processor              33836  3 thermal
fan                     6020  0 
button                  7824  0 
battery                12036  0 
ac                      6020  0 
rtc_cmos               11424  0 
rtc_core               17436  1 rtc_cmos
rtc_lib                 4480  1 rtc_core
xfs                   562404  2 
sr_mod                 16836  0 
cdrom                  36128  1 sr_mod
sd_mod                 25240  6 
ahci                   27144  5 
libata                150048  1 ahci
scsi_mod               95692  4 sg,sr_mod,sd_mod,libata
dock                    9488  1 libata
radeonfb              110528  0 
fb_ddc                  3968  1 radeonfb
i2c_algo_bit            7556  1 radeonfb
i2c_core               21140  3 radeonfb,fb_ddc,i2c_algo_bit

pyther · 2008-09-01 00:36:08

Why don't you put a command to change the brightness in rc.local

For example (on my machine):
echo 50 > /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCD/brightness

and you can get all your possible values by running
cat /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCD/brightness

/etc/rc.local gets ran after all the daemons load.

Last edited by pyther (2008-09-01 00:48:41)

Top_se · 2008-09-01 14:29:19

@ pyther, this is quite a nice idea which I didn`t get till now, so, thx very much, but, hm, it`s not a relly nice one for me, because it seems to be rather redudant to let some system-settings darken my screen when I just lighten my screen again only a few seconds later. And as well this shouldn`t be too healthy for the lcd-display either.

So, if anyone had an idea about how to stop the darkening of my screen at all, this would be just nice!

Thank you anyway!

@Diaz, okay, I think the thing which darkens our screen seems to be hidden in udev uevent, because the modules loaded in rc.conf aren`t responsible for this behaviour I think ...

VuDu · 2009-02-26 23:14:18

I'm having the same problem now that I've reinstalled arch, now on 64bits.
I have to use lapsus to put the brightness back to the max. catting isn't working:

[23:11:42][vudu@vudumachine ~]$ cat /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCDD/brightness 
levels:  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
current: 13
[23:11:46][vudu@vudumachine ~]$ echo 7 > /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCDD/brightness 
bash: /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCDD/brightness: Permission denied
[23:12:05][vudu@vudumachine ~]$ sudo echo 7 > /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCDD/brightness 
bash: /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCDD/brightness: Permission denied
[23:15:21][vudu@vudumachine ~]$ sudo su
[23:15:33][root@vudumachine vudu]# echo 7 > /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCDD/brightness
*** no change on screen's brightness ***
[23:15:38][root@vudumachine vudu]# exit
[23:15:47][vudu@vudumachine ~]$ cat /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCDD/brightness 
levels:  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
current: 7
[23:15:49][vudu@vudumachine ~]$

Did anyone found a way to fix this? I can confirm that it darkens as soon as the udev events message shows up on th boot windows.

Last edited by VuDu (2009-02-26 23:18:25)

Diaz · 2009-02-27 01:55:40

since some kernel update ago i had to change my rc.local

echo 0 > /sys/devices/platform/asus-laptop/ls_switch

And after that i can control the brigthness with the Fn keys, wich i couldn't before.

VuDu · 2009-02-27 08:19:49

wow!! thank you!! it worked!

Wishes · 2009-08-23 09:20:00

Sorry to catch this up again. After my latest reinstall i also have this annoying problem. While "echo 5 > /proc/acpi/video/GFX0/LCD/brightness" works nice, i'd really like to change the brightness also with the Fn keys. The strange thing here is that the Fn keys are kind of working, but only one works correctly. I only can lower the brightness, if i push the button to raise it, the screen gets brighter just for maybe 0.5 seconds, and then darkens again. So i only can darken the screen with the Fn keys.
Also the Screen Brightness Slider in Power Management has no effect. I don't know, maybe is has to do something with that it can't find consolekit although it is installed.

Oh, and i have no /sys/devices/platform/asus-... (i dont have an asus laptop, mine is from fujistu, and i cant find a ls_switch in any of the folders there).

Arch Linux

#1 2008-08-30 15:50:45

laptop-screen darkens during bootup

#2 2008-08-30 16:31:01

Re: laptop-screen darkens during bootup

#3 2008-08-30 23:10:41

Re: laptop-screen darkens during bootup

#4 2008-08-31 08:41:47

Re: laptop-screen darkens during bootup

#5 2008-08-31 22:04:02

Re: laptop-screen darkens during bootup

#6 2008-09-01 00:36:08

Re: laptop-screen darkens during bootup

#7 2008-09-01 14:29:19

Re: laptop-screen darkens during bootup

#8 2009-02-26 23:14:18

Re: laptop-screen darkens during bootup

#9 2009-02-27 01:55:40

Re: laptop-screen darkens during bootup

#10 2009-02-27 08:19:49

Re: laptop-screen darkens during bootup

#11 2009-08-23 09:20:00

Re: laptop-screen darkens during bootup

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