Brightness + power control (F10, 64bit, Samsung Q310)

[theriel]

Hello,
I have quite a simple problem - power control on my Samsung Q310 and Fedora 10 64bit does not work properly.

I use kpowercontrol.

Generally:
-It does correctly report whether AC is plugged in or not. So something works.

Issues:
1.Setting up brightness/dim in "battery saving" mode does not work. After I unplug the cabel, the brightness does not change. I can set up my brightness using nvidia control panel and it responds without any problems.
2.While unplugged, it reports that the battery status is "-1%". Another program - Guidance Power Manager (that's the title of this icon, I dunno what it exactly is) - does not report the battery level at all. What is interesting, the simple widget, "Battery Monitor" reports the value correctly as 97% (at that moment).

I would be grateful for help.

Best regards,
Theriel

[theriel]

I tried setting up the brightness from the console but I cannot find the command which would work...

My devices:
a)lshal | grep laptop_panel

  info.capabilities = {'laptop_panel'} (string list)
  info.category = 'laptop_panel'  (string)
  laptop_panel.access_method = 'general'  (string)
  laptop_panel.num_levels = 6  (0x6)  (int)

b)lshal | grep backlight

udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer_backlight'
  info.addons = {'hald-addon-generic-backlight'} (string list)
  info.subsystem = 'backlight'  (string)
  info.udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer_backlight'  (string)
  linux.subsystem = 'backlight'  (string)
  linux.sysfs_path = '/sys/devices/virtual/backlight/acpi_video0'  (string)

I am not sure if there should be in either of these the value "laptop_panel.brightness_in_hardware (bool)" (set as true or false).

Doing as root:
a)echo 7 > /sys/devices/virtual/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness
-bash: echo: write error: Invalid argument
(I tried also echo 1,2,3,100 etc.)

b)echo 3 > /proc/acpi/video/GFX0/DD02/brightness
-bash: echo: write error: Invalid argument
(I tried also at DD01, DD02, DD03, DD04, DD05)

However, drivers are fine, because I can change brightness using Nvidia Display Settings -> X Screen 0 -> X Server Color Correction -> Brightness. I don't know, however, what the low level command is that this gui application uses.

I would be grateful for help. Once I find the command to set up the brightness I will be (hopefully) able to match the command with keycodes.

[theriel]

I feel a little bit strange writing to myself but...

The issue can be overcome in case of Q310 and also MANY OTHER NOTEBOOKS
You need to install nvclock - if rpm doesn't support your graphic card, install from CVS (which has much wider support added).

To get it, type:

yum install cvs
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@nvclock.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/nvclock login
[click enter, there is no password]
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@nvclock.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/nvclock co -P nvclock
cd nvclock
./autogen.sh
./configure
make
sudo make install

Then, use:
nvclock -S +10 - increases brightness by 10%
nvclock -S -10 - decreases brightness by 10%
nvclock -S 50 - sets brightness at 50%

All the credit and big thanks to Thunderbird from nvidia forum.

Now, maybe somebody knows how to link this command to Gnome Power Manager? ;D

[TheLK]

isnt nvclock only for nvidia cards?
im having a problem with fedora 10 reconizing that this is a labtop, and the screen brightness goes crazy