Screen on EeePC 1000HE Randomly Brightens Itself

tidalwav1 · 2009-05-01 01:32:41

Hello all,

I have an EeePC 1000HE running Arch with kernel 2.6.29 installed, and the latest acpi-eeepc-generic (v0.9.2-1) installed from AUR. I use GNOME.

I'm having some very frustrating issues with screen brightness. There are two basic problems:

1) The screen brightness randomly sets itself to 100%, even after I manually dim it using the keyboard Fn key combinations. It will reset itself to 100% brightness multiple times throughout one GNOME session.

2) The screen brightness isn't 'remembered' between reboots, or even between GNOME sessions. After dimming the screen, then pressing CTRL-ALT-Backspace, the screen stays at the same brightness at the GDM username/password prompt, but then resets to 100% after successfully logging in.

I want my screen brightness to not reset itself randomly, and for the computer to remember the last-set brightness between boots (I see that acpi-eeepc-generic has provisions for this in its configuration but these issues still remain.) I think it's worth noting that in GNOME's power management preferences, I've unchecked all check boxes on all tabs dealing with dimming the display when idle or when on battery power. I also DO NOT use the GNOME brightness applet and usually control screen brightness using the Fn key combinations only.

This issue is extremely annoying...can anyone help me to solve this?

Thanks in advance!

Wilco · 2009-05-01 09:59:35

I don't have this problem on the same netbook, but then again I don't use gnome. Can you try this with a windowmanager to see if it's a Gnome problem?

tung · 2009-05-01 16:04:29

I'm getting the random re-brightening and I think the reboot lack-of-brightness issues too. My setup is almost identical to yours i.e. GNOME and acpi-eeepc-generic installed, except I'm on an Eee 901 using Blind's custom kernel (based on 2.6.29).

The brightness (re)sets itself sporadically to whatever's set in System -> Preferences -> Power Management, so I've resorted to setting brightness manually in there for now.

scio · 2009-05-01 18:36:53

Happens on KDEmod 4, except it's not random it all, it's based on when your power management tells it to dim but you used the acpi-eeepc-generic based keys to dim it already. I would guess it's based on the acpi events being caught in both places and some confusion happening there, so Wilco is right, a plain on wm will not see this.

Edit: I'm on KDEmod 4 not regular KDE (just to be specific)

Last edited by scio (2009-05-01 18:37:17)

tidalwav1 · 2009-05-01 19:40:03

scio wrote:

it's based on when your power management tells it to dim but you used the acpi-eeepc-generic based keys to dim it already.

So if that's the case, then shouldn't it just stay dimmed? Or at least brighten and re-dim? I don't want to have to switch to another WM just to prevent this issue.

scio · 2009-05-01 19:55:02

tidalwav1 wrote:

scio wrote:
it's based on when your power management tells it to dim but you used the acpi-eeepc-generic based keys to dim it already.
So if that's the case, then shouldn't it just stay dimmed? Or at least brighten and re-dim? I don't want to have to switch to another WM just to prevent this issue.

I would have thought so as well, but it seems like it gets confused about what the current brightness is. If I had more time to investigate I would, but it's finals time and I'm loaded at work.

big_gie · 2009-05-09 16:53:35

It looks like a gnome issue. Setting manually the brightness via the keys will tell the bios to lower the brightness, but maybe gnome wants absolute control over this, so it puts it back to 100%.

I don't use gnome, I use kdemod on my 1000, but I would say try to find an option in gnome to prevent it from doing that, or setting it to "manually". In KDE you can choose if you want to dim or not on idle, probably in gnome too...

tidalwav1 · 2009-05-10 04:39:38

big_gie wrote:

I would say try to find an option in gnome to prevent it from doing that, or setting it to "manually". In KDE you can choose if you want to dim or not on idle, probably in gnome too...

I already thought of that:

tidalwav1 wrote:

I think it's worth noting that in GNOME's power management preferences, I've unchecked all check boxes on all tabs dealing with dimming the display when idle or when on battery power. I also DO NOT use the GNOME brightness applet and usually control screen brightness using the Fn key combinations only.

I'm still seeing this issue. Any other ideas?

tidalwav1 · 2009-05-22 21:19:07

Update: Now I'm having a different issue, despite making no significant/relevant configuration changes besides doing standard package upgrades.

Instead of brightening randomly, the screen now shuts off randomly, and moving the mouse/touching the trackpad or keyboard turns it back on. This is even more annoying than the old brightening issue...at least with that issue, I could still read what was on the screen!

Again, I have all relevant screen dimming/brightness settings disabled or set to 'Never' in GNOME's power settings.

This is becoming extremely frustrating. Does anyone have any clue what could be causing this?

Arch Linux

#1 2009-05-01 01:32:41

Screen on EeePC 1000HE Randomly Brightens Itself

#2 2009-05-01 09:59:35

Re: Screen on EeePC 1000HE Randomly Brightens Itself

#3 2009-05-01 16:04:29

Re: Screen on EeePC 1000HE Randomly Brightens Itself

#4 2009-05-01 18:36:53

Re: Screen on EeePC 1000HE Randomly Brightens Itself

#5 2009-05-01 19:40:03

Re: Screen on EeePC 1000HE Randomly Brightens Itself

#6 2009-05-01 19:55:02

Re: Screen on EeePC 1000HE Randomly Brightens Itself

#7 2009-05-09 16:53:35

Re: Screen on EeePC 1000HE Randomly Brightens Itself

#8 2009-05-10 04:39:38

Re: Screen on EeePC 1000HE Randomly Brightens Itself

#9 2009-05-22 21:19:07

Re: Screen on EeePC 1000HE Randomly Brightens Itself

Board footer