Arch Linux

kgas

Member

From: Qatar

Registered: 2008-11-08

Posts: 718

Sony Laptop Brightness

This is a bit long post

Laptop Details

Model         : VPCCW26FA/B
Processor : Intel Core i5-520M / 2.40 GHz
Graphics  : NVIDIA GeForece GT 330M GPU
Display    : 14" / 1600 x 900

After a decent search and joining the bits I got a working xorg.conf

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig:  version 1.0  (buildmeister@builder58)  Fri Mar 12 02:12:40 PST 2010

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Unknown"
    HorizSync       28.0 - 33.0
    VertRefresh     43.0 - 72.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    Option         "ConnectedMonitor" "DFP-0" 
    Option         "CustomEDID" "DFP-0: /proc/acpi/video/NGFX/LCD/EDID" 
    Option         "RegistryDwords" "EnableBrightnessControl=1" 
    Option  "ModeValidation" "NoTotalSizeCheck"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection

Output of /proc/acpi/video/NGFX/LCD

> cat brightness
<not supported>

>cat info
device_id:    0x0110
type:         UNKNOWN
known by bios: no
>cat state

state:     0x1f
query:     0x01

>lspci | grep VGA
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Device 0a2b (rev a2)

>lsmod | grep -i sony
sony_laptop            25543  0 
rfkill                 15214  3 sony_laptop,cfg80211,bluetooth

I did try more than three methods to make the brightness adjustment working but of no avail.

If any of you have solution or link pl post here

Thanks

litemotiv

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2008-08-01

Posts: 5,026

Re: Sony Laptop Brightness

do you have anything under /sys/class/backlight/ ?

if not, for native backlight support you will need a custom dsdt (which is a lot of hassle) or wait for the kernel to support it (usually takes about 2-3 kernel revisions for sony laptops).

however, since you have an nvidia card you might be lucky with the 'smartdimmer' utility in the meantime, you can find it in the Aur.

---

ᶘ ᵒᴥᵒᶅ

kgas

Member

From: Qatar

Registered: 2008-11-08

Posts: 718

Re: Sony Laptop Brightness

nothing is under /sys/class/backlight/
As mentioned shortly I will try the smartdimmer and post the result here
Note: this one did not work in this laptop
Thanks

Last edited by kgas (2010-04-30 17:13:29)

kgas

Member

From: Qatar

Registered: 2008-11-08

Posts: 718

Re: Sony Laptop Brightness

with the nvidia_bl module now brightness is varying but as mentioned by teme not perfectly

Profjim

Member

From: NYC

Registered: 2008-03-24

Posts: 658

Re: Sony Laptop Brightness

What about /proc/acpi/**/brightness? See http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=96345.

kgas

Member

From: Qatar

Registered: 2008-11-08

Posts: 718

Re: Sony Laptop Brightness

ProfJim, I did post about that, more over I mentioned more than three methods I tried  and one was xbacklight.
>xbacklight -set 65
No outputs have backlight property
Only the nvidia_bl is doing something tho' not producing good result.

teme

Member

Registered: 2010-05-05

Posts: 4

Re: Sony Laptop Brightness

On my laptop, sony vaio vpcs11v9e, with nvidia 310M, i have another problem:
I can't switch from X to bash (ctrl,alt,F1) and when I logout from kde, the screen is black.
Do you have some problem with nvidia driver?

Fingel

Member

Registered: 2009-02-28

Posts: 98

Re: Sony Laptop Brightness

I have the same problem with a Dell 1558. xbkaclight -set returns "no outputs have blacklight property"
Someone mentioned creating a custom dsdt? How much of a pain is that?
Or I guess we can just wait for new kernels to come out...

Profjim

Member

From: NYC

Registered: 2008-03-24

Posts: 658

Re: Sony Laptop Brightness

ProfJim, I did post about that,...

Sorry, I see that now, easily missed in the original post.

"Sony laptops" have a variety of different graphics setups. Mine has Intel GMA, no parallel issues.

Last edited by Profjim (2010-05-05 22:56:56)

kgas

Member

From: Qatar

Registered: 2008-11-08

Posts: 718

Re: Sony Laptop Brightness

teme, yes I do have that issue. One thing sure is boot to an workable environment is much faster than the legacy OS

combuster

Member

From: Serbia

Registered: 2008-09-30

Posts: 711

Website

Re: Sony Laptop Brightness

I have the same problem with a Dell 1558. xbkaclight -set returns "no outputs have blacklight property"
Someone mentioned creating a custom dsdt? How much of a pain is that?
Or I guess we can just wait for new kernels to come out...

It's a pain beyond belief.

You could try with acpi_os_name="Windows 2006" and try to force the kernel to trick the DSDT posing as Vista

Last edited by combuster (2010-05-06 15:12:11)