Arch Linux

shadyabhi

Member

From: Bangalore

Registered: 2010-05-23

Posts: 262

Website

Cannot set netbook's(Samsung n210) LCD brightness

I have Samsung N210 netbook and I am unable to set brightness of my laptop using Fn keys.
When I use Fn keys, I get the progress bar in KDE for changing brightness but it doesnt get changed. After looking at my acpi directory, I found that it even doesnt contain /proc/acpi/video directory.

For now, the only solution for me is using this command:-

setpci -s 00:02.0 f4.b=ff

to get full brightness or I can change that hexadecimal value.

xev output:-

KeyRelease event, serial 31, synthetic NO, window 0x4200001,
    root 0xaa, subw 0x0, time 17171671, (397,-133), root:(401,172),
    state 0x0, keycode 233 (keysym 0x1008ff02, XF86MonBrightnessUp), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

That means atleast my key is detected by X.

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My blog:-
http://blog.abhijeetr.com

cirkit

Member

From: San Francisco

Registered: 2008-01-29

Posts: 80

Website

Re: Cannot set netbook's(Samsung n210) LCD brightness

Do you have the 'acpi' package installed?

shadyabhi

Member

From: Bangalore

Registered: 2010-05-23

Posts: 262

Website

Re: Cannot set netbook's(Samsung n210) LCD brightness

Do you have the 'acpi' package installed?

Yes, of coarse I have that installed/

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My blog:-
http://blog.abhijeetr.com

[crt]

Member

Registered: 2010-10-02

Posts: 2

Re: Cannot set netbook's(Samsung n210) LCD brightness

maybe its a problem with KDE?

Last edited by [crt] (2010-11-12 06:20:54)

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"Unix is user-friendly. It's just very selective about who its friends are."

cirkit

Member

From: San Francisco

Registered: 2008-01-29

Posts: 80

Website

Re: Cannot set netbook's(Samsung n210) LCD brightness

Are you using a custom kernel? If so, it may be some ACPI options are not set.

Please paste the results of

 cat /var/log/messages.log | grep ACPI 

...and

 dmesg | grep ACPI 

Last edited by cirkit (2010-11-12 06:41:55)

shadyabhi

Member

From: Bangalore

Registered: 2010-05-23

Posts: 262

Website

Re: Cannot set netbook's(Samsung n210) LCD brightness

/var/log/messages.log

 http://sprunge.us/LXIA

dmesg

 http://sprunge.us/XNNc

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My blog:-
http://blog.abhijeetr.com

cirkit

Member

From: San Francisco

Registered: 2008-01-29

Posts: 80

Website

Re: Cannot set netbook's(Samsung n210) LCD brightness

Lots of ...

 Nov 12 12:20:40 archlinux-N210 kernel: ACPI Error (psargs-0359): [\_SB_.VDRV] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND
Nov 12 12:20:40 archlinux-N210 kernel: ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.PCI0.LPC0.H_EC._Q52] (Node ffff88007f01e520), AE_NOT_FOUND
Nov 12 12:20:40 archlinux-N210 logger: ACPI group/action undefined: processor / CPU1

Append

 acpi=force 

to the end of your bootloader's kernel line.
This should create your /proc/acpi entries. If this does not work for you, I would then look into updating the BIOS on your Samsung netbook. I had a problem with bluetooth not getting registered at all on my ASUS netbook, that is until I updated the BIOS ROM. Not sure if this may be the case with your issue, but it may be worth looking into as a last resort.

tjbp

Member

Registered: 2010-11-06

Posts: 43

Re: Cannot set netbook's(Samsung n210) LCD brightness

I also have this exact problem with my Samsung N210. I have tried the suggestions here, and incidentally am very late to post because I haven't had time to try updating the BIOS (Samsung only have a Windows exe available for BIOS updating, so I had to temp install W7). Now the BIOS is updated to the latest version, it unfortunately hasn't solved the problem:

$ ls /proc/acpi/
ac_adapter  battery  button  event  wakeup

I'm also using KDE (4)

Last edited by tjbp (2011-05-23 13:02:06)

Meyithi

Member

From: Wirral, UK

Registered: 2009-06-21

Posts: 550

Website

Re: Cannot set netbook's(Samsung n210) LCD brightness

Wiki is your friend, sure it's for the 150 but everything in there works for my 220 (as mentioned in the article).

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Samsung_N150

EDIT/ 2.6.39 is supposed to address issues with Samsung laptops as far as kernel support goes, we'll have to wait and see, maybe I can retire some of the scripts found in the wiki from my system.

Last edited by Meyithi (2011-05-23 15:01:42)

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tjbp

Member

Registered: 2010-11-06

Posts: 43

Re: Cannot set netbook's(Samsung n210) LCD brightness

Wiki is your friend, sure it's for the 150 but everything in there works for my 220 (as mentioned in the article).

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Samsung_N150

EDIT/ 2.6.39 is supposed to address issues with Samsung laptops as far as kernel support goes, we'll have to wait and see, maybe I can retire some of the scripts found in the wiki from my system.

Thanks, forgot to check there first. The script there works fine - linked it up to KDE power management profiles and it works as needed. Though would be great to get that kernel support going so the Fn keys work out of the box - fingers crossed.