Asus ux32A xbacklight was working, stopped at some point

thenextdon13 · 2013-01-28 05:14:26

Possibly following X update.

Have an Asus ux32A.
Set up xbacklight a week or so ago, maybe more. Backlight adjustments worked perfectly using xbacklight -set xx.

A couple of days ago, xbacklight stopped working. Not exactly sure when, but there was and xorg update a couple of days ago it may have coincided with

Kernel:

[root@zenbook log]# uname -a
Linux zenbook 3.7.4-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Mon Jan 21 23:05:29 CET 2013 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Xorg version:

[root@zenbook log]# head -2 /var/log/Xorg.0.log   
[     5.960] 
X.Org X Server 1.13.2
[root@zenbook log]#

Currently, the /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0 exists:

[root@zenbook log]# ls /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0
actual_brightness  bl_power  brightness  device  max_brightness  power	subsystem  type  uevent

the xbacklight command does actually change the files in this directory:

[root@zenbook log]# cat /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness 
80
[root@zenbook log]# sudo xbacklight -set 20
[root@zenbook log]# cat /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness 
20

yet the backlight does not adjust. It stays (retina-burningly) bright.

Here you can see the X and backlight stuff that has happened since I installed xbacklight:

[root@zenbook log]# grep -i -e backlight -e xorg -e kernel pacman.log  | tail -18
[2013-01-14 22:39] installed xorg-xbacklight (1.2.0-1)
[2013-01-15 13:56] Running 'pacman -S xorg-xev'
[2013-01-15 13:56] installed xorg-xev (1.2.0-1)
[2013-01-16 17:57] Running 'pacman -U asus-kbd-backlight-1.0-2-any.pkg.tar.xz'
[2013-01-16 17:57] By default, only root may use the asus-kbd-backlight command.
[2013-01-16 17:57] Run "asus-kbd-backlight allowusers" to change this, or let
[2013-01-16 17:57] 	systemctl enable asus-kbd-backlight.service
[2013-01-16 17:57] installed asus-kbd-backlight (1.0-2)
[2013-01-17 21:52] installed xorg-xlsfonts (1.0.4-1)
[2013-01-17 22:00] removed xorg-xlsfonts (1.0.4-1)
[2013-01-17 22:01] installed xorg-xmessage (1.0.4-1)
[2013-01-17 23:12] upgraded xorg-bdftopcf (1.0.3-2 -> 1.0.4-1)
[2013-01-17 23:19] installed xorg-xrandr (1.3.5-1)
[2013-01-22 23:21] installed xorg-iceauth (1.0.5-1)
[2013-01-22 23:21] installed xorg-xauth (1.0.7-1)
[2013-01-22 23:21] installed xorg-xinit (1.3.2-3)
[2013-01-26 19:17] upgraded xorg-server-common (1.13.1-1 -> 1.13.2-1)
[2013-01-26 19:17] upgraded xorg-server (1.13.1-1 -> 1.13.2-1)

I am not using anything special regarding acpi or backlight on the kernel command line:

[root@zenbook log]# cat /proc/cmdline 
BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=3aefb1c6-c861-44f2-bba0-f2b3275ca492 ro i915.i915_enable_rc6=1 pcie_aspm=force drm.vblankoffdelay=1 i915.semaphores=1

asus_wmi claims that the backlight is being controlled by the ACPI video driver, there are otherwise no errors in dmesg:

[root@zenbook log]# dmesg | grep -i backl
[    2.524111] Registered led device: asus::kbd_backlight
[    2.529104] asus_wmi: Backlight controlled by ACPI video driver
[  420.691244] video LNXVIDEO:00: Restoring backlight state
[  483.470931] video LNXVIDEO:00: Restoring backlight state
[ 5375.454846] video LNXVIDEO:00: Restoring backlight state
[ 6360.890650] video LNXVIDEO:00: Restoring backlight state

and similarly the joural doesn't show anything particularly interesting:

[root@zenbook log]# dmesg | grep -i backl
[    2.524111] Registered led device: asus::kbd_backlight
[    2.529104] asus_wmi: Backlight controlled by ACPI video driver
[  420.691244] video LNXVIDEO:00: Restoring backlight state
[  483.470931] video LNXVIDEO:00: Restoring backlight state
[ 5375.454846] video LNXVIDEO:00: Restoring backlight state
[ 6360.890650] video LNXVIDEO:00: Restoring backlight state
[root@zenbook log]# journalctl -b | grep -i backl
Jan 26 22:43:53 zenbook kernel: Registered led device: asus::kbd_backlight
Jan 26 22:43:53 zenbook kernel: asus_wmi: Backlight controlled by ACPI video driver
Jan 26 22:43:56 zenbook sudo[955]: root : TTY=unknown ; PWD=/ ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/chgrp users /sys/class/leds/asus::kbd_backlight/brightness
Jan 26 22:43:56 zenbook sudo[1076]: root : TTY=unknown ; PWD=/ ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/chmod g+w /sys/class/leds/asus::kbd_backlight/brightness
Jan 26 22:43:56 zenbook systemd[1]: Started Allow user access to keyboard backlight.
Jan 26 22:45:43 zenbook sudo[1686]: dylan : TTY=pts/0 ; PWD=/home/dylan ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/xbacklight -set 10
Jan 26 22:45:48 zenbook sudo[1690]: dylan : TTY=pts/0 ; PWD=/home/dylan ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/xbacklight
Jan 26 22:50:54 zenbook kernel: video LNXVIDEO:00: Restoring backlight state
Jan 27 15:54:50 zenbook kernel: video LNXVIDEO:00: Restoring backlight state
Jan 27 17:08:53 zenbook pkexec[3978]: dylan: Executing command [USER=root] [TTY=unknown] [CWD=/] [COMMAND=/usr/sbin/xfpm-power-backlight-helper --set-brightness 20]
Jan 27 17:11:33 zenbook pkexec[3982]: dylan: Executing command [USER=root] [TTY=unknown] [CWD=/] [COMMAND=/usr/sbin/xfpm-power-backlight-helper --set-brightness 100]
Jan 27 17:22:08 zenbook kernel: video LNXVIDEO:00: Restoring backlight state
Jan 27 20:26:15 zenbook kernel: video LNXVIDEO:00: Restoring backlight state
Jan 27 20:30:48 zenbook pkexec[5557]: dylan: Executing command [USER=root] [TTY=unknown] [CWD=/] [COMMAND=/usr/sbin/xfpm-power-backlight-helper --set-brightness 20]
Jan 27 20:30:52 zenbook pkexec[5560]: dylan: Executing command [USER=root] [TTY=unknown] [CWD=/] [COMMAND=/usr/sbin/xfpm-power-backlight-helper --set-brightness 100]
Jan 27 20:38:54 zenbook sudo[5913]: dylan : TTY=pts/0 ; PWD=/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/backlight/acpi_video0 ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/bin/su
Jan 27 20:47:17 zenbook sudo[5950]: root : TTY=pts/0 ; PWD=/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/backlight ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/xbacklight -set 50
Jan 27 20:47:29 zenbook sudo[5968]: root : TTY=pts/0 ; PWD=/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/backlight ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/xbacklight -set 80
Jan 27 21:03:40 zenbook sudo[6263]: root : TTY=pts/0 ; PWD=/var/log ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/xbacklight -set 20

Is there any incompatibility with the new xorg?

thenextdon13 · 2013-01-28 05:45:12

asus-screen-brightness seems to work after being installed, even thought xorg-xbacklight had stopped working (and after xorg-xbacklight had been uninstalled)

/sys/class/backlight now looks like this:

[dylan@zenbook aur]$ ls -l /sys/class/backlight/
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Jan 27 21:34 acpi_video0 -> ../../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/backlight/acpi_video0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Jan 27 21:35 intel_backlight -> ../../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/drm/card0/card0-eDP-1/intel_backlight

Arch Linux

#1 2013-01-28 05:14:26

Asus ux32A xbacklight was working, stopped at some point

#2 2013-01-28 05:45:12

Re: Asus ux32A xbacklight was working, stopped at some point

Board footer