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NiteiaTt

Member

Registered: 2012-04-15

Posts: 29

[SOLVED] Can't control laptop's brightness

For a week now, I haven't been able to control my laptop's brightness in any way. Pressing Fn + F2/F3 DOES show the brightness gizmo in the screen, but nothing happens. Doing so also changes /sys/class/samsung/brightness, but nothing happens.
I can modify the file manually and nothing happens.
I can try with setpci -s 00:01.1 FA.B=FF and nothing happens.
I'm not sure it's a DE issue, I tried in KDE, Gnome, Cinnamon and nothing happened.
I downgraded linux to a version 2-weeks prior to the day the issue started, and I don't know what's going on.
The only time brightness gets changed is when I suspend to RAM
It gets dimmer, but that's it, I cannot change it.

Something I noticed is that I can only modify /sys/class/samsung/brightness when I am running without X
I boot up in single user mode and I totally can change the brightness altering said file.
But then, again, log in normally and it's out of my hands.
That's a reason to suspect X, but I don't really know
I've tried booting with and without fglrx, no difference.
I don't really know what else to do

I really need help here

Last edited by NiteiaTt (2013-02-16 21:47:02)

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,671

Re: [SOLVED] Can't control laptop's brightness

Verify your session number using login ctl loginctl
Then look at the output of loginctl show-session 1   (Assuming your session number is 1.  Use your real session number)
Verify that Active=yes.  Do this both on the console before starting X and from inside of X from a terminal program.

If Active is not true for the X session version, we will be looking at how you start X.

Last edited by ewaller (2013-02-16 17:23:42)

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NiteiaTt

Member

Registered: 2012-04-15

Posts: 29

Re: [SOLVED] Can't control laptop's brightness

Sorry for my ignorance, but how do I use the login ctl command to check my session number?
oh, never mind, it shouldn't been split, ok
Let me check, now
Thanks for replying, by the way

Last edited by NiteiaTt (2013-02-16 17:21:53)

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,671

Re: [SOLVED] Can't control laptop's brightness

Sorry I had a typo.  The command is loginctl   with no parameters.

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Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
The shortest way to ruin a country is to give power to demagogues.— Dionysius of Halicarnassus
---
How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

NiteiaTt

Member

Registered: 2012-04-15

Posts: 29

Re: [SOLVED] Can't control laptop's brightness

Ok, with and without X, Active=True; state=Active
They're both active.
systemd starts X, not me
I used sytemctl enable graphical.service for it to start on boot

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,671

Re: [SOLVED] Can't control laptop's brightness

I had thought it might be a polkit problem.  It seems not to be.  Sorry, I am out of ideas.

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Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
The shortest way to ruin a country is to give power to demagogues.— Dionysius of Halicarnassus
---
How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

NiteiaTt

Member

Registered: 2012-04-15

Posts: 29

Re: [SOLVED] Can't control laptop's brightness

Thanks, anyway

NiteiaTt

Member

Registered: 2012-04-15

Posts: 29

Re: [SOLVED] Can't control laptop's brightness

Well, it seems it was fglrx's fault
I downgraded catalyst-generator and catalyst-utils to 13.1-1 from 13.2-1 and brightness works as it should