Can't control brightness with nvidia

snoxu · 2012-11-13 01:45:48

I have dual graphics on a Vaio laptop.

With the Intel card turned on the brightness keys work fine

With the nvidia card turned on and nouveau drivers my system boots at a blinding max brightness and the function keys do nothing.

Any help is appreciated.

Last edited by snoxu (2012-11-25 20:38:52)

markoer · 2012-11-16 17:48:48

tray appending on kernel line acpi_backlight=vendor, you can change vendor to legacy or video, there is kernel parameter documentation on net for appending options you can take a look.

cfr · 2012-11-17 02:12:41

Can you control the brightness from the CLI? e.g. with xbacklight, for example?

What is in /sys/class/backlight/?

snoxu · 2012-11-18 03:31:56

markoer wrote:

tray appending on kernel line acpi_backlight=vendor, you can change vendor to legacy or video,

Did not work.

markoer wrote:

there is kernel parameter documentation on net for appending options you can take a look.

Will look into it

cfr wrote:

Can you control the brightness from the CLI? e.g. with xbacklight, for example?
What is in /sys/class/backlight/?

Tried xbacklight didn't seem to work

I have two folders:
acpi_video0
intel_backlight

cfr · 2012-11-18 03:40:58

So you get that even when using the nvidia card with nouveau rather than the intel?

You could *try* altering the values directly (under the acpi subdirectory) but I worry this will not work.

Is it possible to disable the intel graphics completely and boot with nouveau? If so, is that directory then empty? (If so, I suspect you are out of luck but if not, maybe it will work then.)

It seems weird to me that the intel directory should be there if that is not active but I know nothing about optimus...

snoxu · 2012-11-18 04:14:39

I'm booting the nvidia card with nouveau drivers, intel card turned off

BTW this is what happens with xbacklight

xbacklight -dec 10
No outputs have backlight property

cfr · 2012-11-18 19:52:41

Try echoing a value to /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness. cat the file first to get the current value and echo back a slightly lower one.

I don't know why you would get the intel interface if the intel card is turned off. But, as I say, I have no experience of optimus at all. What does lsmod | grep intel give you?

markoer · 2012-11-19 10:25:33

did you tray with offical nvidia pkg, after emerging it and if behavior is the same your other other option is to disable intel card for probing in kernel space, maybe they missbehave after cycling from intel to nvidia. You can tray pci=bios witch would in your scenario probe for active card and continue for insertion, so inactive wont get altered. tell us your results

cfr · 2012-11-19 22:25:54

I'm not sure you can emerge it on Arch!

snoxu · 2012-11-19 23:25:41

Thanks for the help guys I'm going to RMA my laptop for an unrelated issue (vertical lines on the LCD).

If I don't get to do any further testing. I'll probably continue next week.

Last edited by snoxu (2012-11-19 23:26:25)

markoer · 2012-11-20 11:52:27

'm not sure you can emerge it on Arch!

That's irrelevant, you know what i meant to say

snoxu · 2012-11-25 02:41:41

Nevermind post number 4. I may have been doing something wrong and I had both cards turned on.

Now I have only the nvidia card on with nouveau, booting with the acpi_backlight=vendor parameter

I have two backlight folders:
nv_backlight
sony

But I can only change brightness with:
echo x > /sys/class/backlight/nv_backlight/brightness

xbacklight -inc 10 doesn't work
Fn+Brightness keys in Gnome do not work

Only have to figure out how to solve this.

cfr · 2012-11-25 02:57:30

What happens without the acpi_backlight=vendor parameter?

snoxu · 2012-11-25 03:49:30

cfr wrote:

What happens without the acpi_backlight=vendor parameter?

I get acpi_video0 and echoing the brightness file does nothing.

BTW I think I'm gonna try the Nvidia proprietary driver. Apparently there's no Vdpau support for nouveau.

Last edited by snoxu (2012-11-25 03:51:05)

snoxu · 2012-11-25 20:36:24

Tried the Nvidia proprietary driver and I can't control the brightness with it,

There were two folders under /sys/class/blacklight
nvidia_backlight
sony

Echoing values doesn't work.

Tried nvidia wiki fixes, nvidiabl, nvidia-bl.

Nothing works
Oh well

Last edited by snoxu (2012-11-25 20:39:23)

10PinkPanther · 2012-11-25 20:39:17

Did you try to disable nvidia and leave only intel?Or you don't want to?I've seen some post about it where people choose to disable one card.It's just my thinking.

snoxu · 2012-11-25 20:42:03

Yes I have static switching on my Vaio enabled, meaning I can boot with only one card enabled.

With the Intel card brightness functions work fine.

With the nvidia card I can't get things to work properly.

runny6play · 2012-11-25 20:45:07

my personal suggestion would be to switch to the nvidia driver. and if possible disable the intell chip in the bios if possible (look for opitmus options ) the open-source drivers have a lot of catching up to do when it comes to nvida. you can also add blacklight controll in the x.org file to allow the nvidia driver to controll the brightness. also if your just using a wm you will manually have to set up the brightness hot keys.

10PinkPanther · 2012-11-25 20:45:57

I have only Intel on my laptop and there's no problem,only adding nomodeset to kernel line.I don't know how to help you.But if you want both cards you will have to search more.Sorry.

snoxu · 2012-11-25 20:55:15

runny6play: I did all that. Read post 15

I only managed to control brightness with the nouveau driver by echoing /sys/class/backlight/xxxx.

It doesn't work with the nvidia driver.

cfr · 2012-11-25 23:26:57

So go back to the vendor parameter which at least let you echo directly to the file. You should then be able to set up the hot keys etc. Do you use a DE/WM? Which?

snoxu · 2012-11-26 00:01:27

With nvidia I tried:
acpi_osi=Linux
acpi_backlight=vendor

echoing the brightness file did not work.

Only worked with the nouveau.

Unless I did something wrong I don't have an explanation for it.

markoer · 2012-11-26 10:50:12

did you tray what i mentioned in earler posts, plus appendig pci=bios. with both nouveau and nvidia, As workaround, for your working solution you can create small bash script with +inc, -decr values and map them as XF86_Brightness key raise/lower.
One info, which nvidia card you have?

snoxu · 2012-11-27 02:24:38

It's a Geforce GT 330M

pci=bios.
Just tried it still no brightness control. While booting I get some message about it not being a valid option

acpi_backlight=vendor,legacy,video
Still no brightness control

markoer · 2012-11-27 11:01:22

no it can't be invalid option, you are doing something wrong for shure.

Arch Linux

#1 2012-11-13 01:45:48

Can't control brightness with nvidia

#2 2012-11-16 17:48:48

Re: Can't control brightness with nvidia

#3 2012-11-17 02:12:41

Re: Can't control brightness with nvidia

#4 2012-11-18 03:31:56

Re: Can't control brightness with nvidia

#5 2012-11-18 03:40:58

Re: Can't control brightness with nvidia

#6 2012-11-18 04:14:39

Re: Can't control brightness with nvidia

#7 2012-11-18 19:52:41

Re: Can't control brightness with nvidia

#8 2012-11-19 10:25:33

Re: Can't control brightness with nvidia

#9 2012-11-19 22:25:54

Re: Can't control brightness with nvidia

#10 2012-11-19 23:25:41

Re: Can't control brightness with nvidia

#11 2012-11-20 11:52:27

Re: Can't control brightness with nvidia

#12 2012-11-25 02:41:41

Re: Can't control brightness with nvidia

#13 2012-11-25 02:57:30

Re: Can't control brightness with nvidia

#14 2012-11-25 03:49:30

Re: Can't control brightness with nvidia

#15 2012-11-25 20:36:24

Re: Can't control brightness with nvidia

#16 2012-11-25 20:39:17

Re: Can't control brightness with nvidia

#17 2012-11-25 20:42:03

Re: Can't control brightness with nvidia

#18 2012-11-25 20:45:07

Re: Can't control brightness with nvidia

#19 2012-11-25 20:45:57

Re: Can't control brightness with nvidia

#20 2012-11-25 20:55:15

Re: Can't control brightness with nvidia

#21 2012-11-25 23:26:57

Re: Can't control brightness with nvidia

#22 2012-11-26 00:01:27

Re: Can't control brightness with nvidia

#23 2012-11-26 10:50:12

Re: Can't control brightness with nvidia

#24 2012-11-27 02:24:38

Re: Can't control brightness with nvidia

#25 2012-11-27 11:01:22

Re: Can't control brightness with nvidia

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