Asus ux31a Backlight function keys

boogerlad · 2013-05-03 07:25:22

On the keyboard, the keys to control the screen and the keyboard backlight doesn't work. I saw the acpi_osi="!Windows 2012" kernel parameter, but that only worked for kernel 3.7.x. Does anyone know of a way to control is in the most recent kernel, or in software? xorg-xbacklight works for the screen, but I don't think it works for the keyboard.

madr · 2013-05-03 14:28:19

I don't know if you've tried this, but I'll quote the Wiki page for the UX31A just in case:

Install asus-kbd-backlight from AUR. To allow users to change the brightness, say:
# asus-kbd-backlight allowusers
If you use initscripts, put this into your /etc/rc.local:
# echo "asus-kbd-backlight allowusers" >> /etc/rc.local
Users of systemd can use the unit file included in the package.
# systemctl daemon-reload
# systemctl start asus-kbd-backlight.service
# systemctl enable asus-kbd-backlight.service
Now you can easily change keyboard backlight in terminal:
$ asus-kbd-backlight up
$ asus-kbd-backlight down
$ asus-kbd-backlight max
$ asus-kbd-backlight off
$ asus-kbd-backlight night
$ asus-kbd-backlight 2
$ asus-kbd-backlight show
And finally, add some convenient keyboard shortcuts by the method of your choice.

Last edited by madr (2013-05-03 14:29:13)

neubauten84 · 2013-05-03 20:31:40

Same problem here..I downgraded fron kernel 3.9-2 to 3.8.10-1 and everything works again.

boogerlad · 2013-05-04 06:30:14

Everything works again? Without workarounds and hacks? Teach me please if so.

neubauten84 · 2013-05-04 12:01:44

Here it is!
my kernel:

local/linux 3.8.10-1 (base)
    The linux kernel and modules

my grub_cmdline config in /etc/default/grub:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="add_efi_memmap i915.i915_enable_rc6=1 pcie_aspm=force drm.vblankoffdelay=1 i915.semaphores=1 acpi_osi= rootfstype=ext4 resume=/dev/sda5"

For Fn+F3 and Fn+F4 shortcuts I use udev scripts as written in UX31A wiki page.

That's all!!

boogerlad · 2013-05-05 02:55:31

Genius, that worked perfectly. Who would've thought an empty acpi_osi parameter would've been it?

Last edited by boogerlad (2013-05-05 02:55:50)

neubauten84 · 2013-05-05 08:45:53

I don't remember..I've always been using it!!

euoar · 2013-05-13 11:55:06

Same issue here with kernel 3.9 on my asus laptop. In fact none of the special keys work with it. With the previous kernel it worked perfectly. I downgraded and everything is working now again...

Last edited by euoar (2013-05-13 12:30:28)

varg04444 · 2013-05-13 20:09:30

I have the same issue, but i upgrade nvidia-bumblebee -> nvida (because nvidia-bumblebee don't exist anymore), then i can't downgrade from kernel 3.9 to 3.8.

euoar · 2013-05-13 22:18:22

I had also bumblebee installed, in case it helps, what I did was (in my /var/cache/pkg):

sudo pacman -U bbswitch-0.6-5-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz linux-3.8.11-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz nvidia-313.30-5-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz nvidia-utils-313.30-2-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz lib32-nvidia-utils-313.30-2-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz

Padfoot · 2013-05-14 07:58:13

I have found while I have a similar issue (wmi keys on asus g75v) my solutions appear different to others.

On the 3.8 kernel i firstly had to enable the keyboard backlight on boot with the following script:

#! /bin/bash

echo 0x00050021 > /sys/kernel/debug/asus-nb-wmi/dev_id
echo 0x82 > /sys/kernel/debug/asus-nb-wmi/ctrl_param

The kernel module asus-nb-wmi autoloaded giving me access to all the asus wmi keys (except for maybe 2 or 3).
The kernel module nvidiabl gave me access to the screen backlight.

Now on the 3.9 kernel, I no longer need the script to enable the keyboard backlight. It is already enabled in the new kernel.
I had to rebuild to nvidiabl module (from aur) so the backlight would work with the new kernel (reminds me I should notify the maintainer to do a package bump on kernel updates so this module will re-install).
But for some reason, the asus-nb-wmi module is failing on boot:
(journalctl extract)

May 14 17:22:01 Ethan kernel: ACPI Error: [IIA0] Namespace lookup failure, AE_ALREADY_EXISTS (20130117/dsfield-211)
May 14 17:22:01 Ethan kernel: ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.ATKD.WMNB] (Node ffff8804088b6a78), AE_ALREADY_EXISTS (20130117/psparse-537)
May 14 17:22:01 Ethan kernel: ACPI Error: [IIA0] Namespace lookup failure, AE_ALREADY_EXISTS (20130117/dsfield-211)
May 14 17:22:01 Ethan kernel: ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.ATKD.WMNB] (Node ffff8804088b6a78), AE_ALREADY_EXISTS (20130117/psparse-537)
May 14 17:22:01 Ethan kernel: ACPI: Marking method WMNB as Serialized because of AE_ALREADY_EXISTS error
May 14 17:22:01 Ethan kernel: asus-nb-wmi: probe of asus-nb-wmi failed with error -5

So with this error, my keyboard backlight and asus wmi keys are not working.
I can manually load the module (asus-nb-wmi) after boot and this brings back the keyboard backlight, but the asus wmi keys are still not working.

I have tried various kernel line parameters (using refind) such as:
acpi_osi=Linux (worked on 3.8 kernel, not on 3.9)
acpi_osi= (not working)
acpi_osi=""!Windows 2012"" (not working)
But I guess they are not working due to the asus-nb-wmi module failing.

Anyone have any ideas on why this module is now failing?

Cheeers.

gauthma · 2013-05-15 12:11:49

neubauten84 wrote:

Here it is!
my kernel:
local/linux 3.8.10-1 (base)
    The linux kernel and modules
my grub_cmdline config in /etc/default/grub:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="add_efi_memmap i915.i915_enable_rc6=1 pcie_aspm=force drm.vblankoffdelay=1 i915.semaphores=1 acpi_osi= rootfstype=ext4 resume=/dev/sda5"
For Fn+F3 and Fn+F4 shortcuts I use udev scripts as written in UX31A wiki page.
That's all!!

I can confirm this as well: downgrading to 3.8.10-1 got everything to work automagically, except Fn+{F3, F4}. Do note however, that my grub line does NOT have the "acpi_osi=" option -- it just has what's in the UX31A wiki entry.

Padfoot · 2013-05-16 11:05:32

Ok, further to my pervious post above, in kernel 3.9.2 I have done the following:

added asus-nb-wmi to the modules array in mkinitcpio.conf

# mkinitcpio -p linux

now I still get the same module error on boot, however, this time the module stays loaded and my wmi keys all work again.

Cheers.

shugoshin · 2013-05-17 13:15:00

Thank you, this solution solved my backlight function key problem on kernel 3.9.2 too. I don't see asus-nb-wmi error in dmesg anymore:

 dmesg | grep asus

returns:

[    0.497919] asus_wmi: ASUS WMI generic driver loaded
[    0.498252] asus_wmi: Initialization: 0x1
[    0.498347] asus_wmi: BIOS WMI version: 7.9
[    0.498449] asus_wmi: SFUN value: 0x4a2877
[    0.499861] input: Asus WMI hotkeys as /devices/platform/asus-nb-wmi/input/input1
[    0.608306] asus_wmi: Backlight controlled by ACPI video driver

Padfoot wrote:

Ok, further to my pervious post above, in kernel 3.9.2 I have done the following:
added asus-nb-wmi to the modules array in mkinitcpio.conf
# mkinitcpio -p linux
now I still get the same module error on boot, however, this time the module stays loaded and my wmi keys all work again.
Cheers.

clkmsc · 2013-05-17 14:59:09

The way I experienced this what that after booting sometimes the keys would work and sometimes they only sort-of would, meaning in the latter case there was no OSD and response was very slow if they worked at all.

I did what Padfoot recommended and as far as I can tell the keys/backlight are working with every boot.

gen2arch · 2013-05-17 20:12:54

Thanks padfoot!

Including the asus_nb_wmi module in in the initial ramdisk also solved my problem with disfunctional function keys in 3.9.2; I do get the same error messages while booting, but seemingly with no harm.

varg04444 · 2013-05-17 21:02:21

Padfoot wrote:

Ok, further to my pervious post above, in kernel 3.9.2 I have done the following:
added asus-nb-wmi to the modules array in mkinitcpio.conf
# mkinitcpio -p linux
now I still get the same module error on boot, however, this time the module stays loaded and my wmi keys all work again.
Cheers.

This worked for me. I added asus-nb-wmi to /etc/mkinitcpio.conf modules list, then i ran "mkinitcpio -p linux" and restarted. Now all works fine.

Padfoot · 2013-05-17 22:08:09

It's funny, after adding asus-nb-wmi to the initial ramdisk, i only get the error intermittently, but suffer no ill effects either way.

I wasn't sure if it was a packaging bug with the way Arch packages the kernel or an upstream regression, so I raised a bug report with the Arch devs. It seems they have passed it on to upstream, indicating it's not an Arch kernel config issue.

So hopefully it will be resolved in a new kernel soon. But either way, it's good to see everyone getting their wmi key functions back.

Cheers.

psadac · 2013-06-12 19:24:30

Using Fedora with kernel 3.9.4 there is only one thing to add the grub command line :

acpi_backlight=intel

It should also work with Arch.

Arch Linux

#1 2013-05-03 07:25:22

Asus ux31a Backlight function keys

#2 2013-05-03 14:28:19

Re: Asus ux31a Backlight function keys

#3 2013-05-03 20:31:40

Re: Asus ux31a Backlight function keys

#4 2013-05-04 06:30:14

Re: Asus ux31a Backlight function keys

#5 2013-05-04 12:01:44

Re: Asus ux31a Backlight function keys

#6 2013-05-05 02:55:31

Re: Asus ux31a Backlight function keys

#7 2013-05-05 08:45:53

Re: Asus ux31a Backlight function keys

#8 2013-05-13 11:55:06

Re: Asus ux31a Backlight function keys

#9 2013-05-13 20:09:30

Re: Asus ux31a Backlight function keys

#10 2013-05-13 22:18:22

Re: Asus ux31a Backlight function keys

#11 2013-05-14 07:58:13

Re: Asus ux31a Backlight function keys

#12 2013-05-15 12:11:49

Re: Asus ux31a Backlight function keys

#13 2013-05-16 11:05:32

Re: Asus ux31a Backlight function keys

#14 2013-05-17 13:15:00

Re: Asus ux31a Backlight function keys

#15 2013-05-17 14:59:09

Re: Asus ux31a Backlight function keys

#16 2013-05-17 20:12:54

Re: Asus ux31a Backlight function keys

#17 2013-05-17 21:02:21

Re: Asus ux31a Backlight function keys

#18 2013-05-17 22:08:09

Re: Asus ux31a Backlight function keys

#19 2013-06-12 19:24:30

Re: Asus ux31a Backlight function keys

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