Laptop backlight control regression with 465.24.02

Graphics / Linux Linux
23

Currently using 470.57.02.

The contents of /sys/class/backlight are:

> ls -l /sys/class/backlight
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 0 Aug  6 08:46 /sys/class/backlight/nvidia_0 -> ../../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.0/backlight/nvidia_0

> ls -l /sys/class/backlight/nvidia_0/
-r--r--r--. 1 root root 4096 Aug  6 08:53 actual_brightness
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 4096 Aug  6 08:53 bl_power
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 4096 Aug  6 08:46 brightness
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root    0 Aug  6 08:53 device -> ../../../0000:01:00.0
-r--r--r--. 1 root root 4096 Aug  6 08:46 max_brightness
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root    0 Aug  6 08:53 power
-r--r--r--. 1 root root 4096 Aug  6 08:53 scale
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root    0 Aug  6 08:46 subsystem -> ../../../../../../class/backlight
-r--r--r--. 1 root root 4096 Aug  6 08:46 type
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 4096 Aug  6 08:46 uevent

The backlight control still doesnā€™t work with nvidia-drm.modeset=1 removed from the boot parameters and the contents of /sys/class/backlight donā€™t change. A bug report without nvidia-drm-modeset=1 is attached.
nvidia-bug-report.log.gz (1.2 MB)

24

Still present in 470.63.01. No backlight controls for the laptop work. Everything in /sys/class/backlight change as expected, but it never gets to the hardware.

3 Likes
25

I finally decided to go back to 460.91.03, now I have control over my screen brightness. I hoop thereā€™s a fix soon. Itā€™s no fun to have to wear sunglasses for your laptop.

2 Likes
26

This thread describes the initial issue that weā€™re seeing here as a regression.

@aplattner explicitly mentioned that

I have a similar Clevo laptop that also has the brightness control problem. The good news is that one of my colleagues tracked it down to a new type of brightness control method used by these panels that wasnā€™t enabled in the Linux driver. Heā€™s working on a fix to wire that up properly.

(Yes, Iā€™ve previously mentioned it in this thread).

Can this ā€œnew type of brightness control methodā€ be fixed after half a year of non-working backlight control, please?

The sysfs entries are here, so itā€™s wired up to some degree, but for some reason not controlling the correct registers.

Is this information helpful?

1 Like
27

Can you please explain how did you install 460.91.03 Nvidia driver.
I tried by running: sudo apt install nvidia-driver-460 but I always get Nvidia 470.
I also tried downloading the driver from Nvidia website but it says that I have to unload current driver in order to install that one, but I donā€™t know how to do it.

1 Like
28

As a slightly ugly work around, you can do this with the broken drivers:

xrandr --output DP-0 --brightness 0.66

Replacing the DP-0 with the correct display name.

1 Like
29

I can confirm having the same issue, albeit with half the actual brightness showing as the max brightness. My laptopā€™s backlight is stuck that way no matter what I do (the brightness controls work but donā€™t affect the brightness at all). I can only modify it by tweaking the colour correction parameters in the nvidia X server settings application but it doesnā€™t affect the actual brightness and I still canā€™t see anything clearly.

This issue only manifests with NVIDIA 470 drivers, the 460 driver works but crashes the X server upon waking from suspend.

Iā€™ve tried everything from baking the nvidia-drm kernel modules into initramfs to purging every modified configuration file referencing nvidia on my system. Nothing works.

Here are my specs:
OS: Ubuntu 21.04 x86_64
Model: HP Omen 17-an000
CPU: IntelĀ® Coreā„¢ i7-8750H CPU @ 2.20GHz Ɨ 12
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile 6GB
Kernel: 5.11.0-31-generic
NVIDIA Driver Version: 470.57.02

Here are the contents of /sys/class/backlight/nvidia_0/device/backlight/nvidia_0:

drwxr-xr-x 3 root root     0 Aug 29 14:12 ./
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root     0 Aug 29 14:12 ../
-r--r--r-- 1 root root  4096 Aug 29 14:14 actual_brightness
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  4096 Aug 29 14:14 bl_power
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root video 4096 Aug 29 14:12 brightness
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root     0 Aug 29 14:14 device -> ../../../0000:01:00.0/
-r--r--r-- 1 root root  4096 Aug 29 14:12 max_brightness
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root     0 Aug 29 14:14 power/
-r--r--r-- 1 root root  4096 Aug 29 14:14 scale
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root     0 Aug 29 14:12 subsystem -> ../../../../../../class/backlight/
-r--r--r-- 1 root root  4096 Aug 29 14:12 type
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  4096 Aug 29 14:12 uevent

Contents:

$ cat /sys/class/backlight/nvidia_0/device/backlight/nvidia_0/max_brightness
100
$ cat /sys/class/backlight/nvidia_0/device/backlight/nvidia_0/brightness
100
$ cat /sys/class/backlight/nvidia_0/device/backlight/nvidia_0/actual_brightness
100
$ cat /sys/class/backlight/nvidia_0/device/backlight/nvidia_0/scale
unknown
$ cat /sys/class/backlight/nvidia_0/device/backlight/nvidia_0/type
raw
$ cat /sys/class/backlight/nvidia_0/device/backlight/nvidia_0/bl_power
0
2 Likes
30

Same issue. No brightness control even when modifying sys files directly.

Laptop: Alienware 17 R4
OS: Fedora 34
Kernel: 5.13.16
Kernel args: rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau modprobe.blacklist=nouveau rhgb quiet
GPU: GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile
Driver Version: 470.63.01 (rpmfusion-nonfree akmod package)

nvidia-bug-report.log.gz (145.0 KB)

31

Still an issue with 470.74

1 Like
32

Hi, I have a similar laptop.
In kubuntu 21.04 with 470 driver doesnā€™t work but with 460 driver does. ( kernel 5.11 )

Yesterday I upgrade to kubuntu 21.10. Big mistake. It comes with kernel 5.13.0-19 and forced 470 driver.
Actually as @alenn.masic mencioned nvidia-driver-460 now is a transitional package to 470.
So I am stuck waiting a magical update.

I tried booting a kubuntu 21.10 live iso , that use the nouveau driver and doesnā€™t change backlight either.
In another laptop, Legion Y740 with intel i7-9750H and GeForce 2060 6GB works perfect.

About problems waking from suspend, if you installed 470 and then downgrade to 460, you need purge all nvidia packages first: https://www.reddit.com/r/Kubuntu/comments/ooa6fh/nvidiadriver470_in_repositories_backlight/
this worked for me when I had 21.04 and downgrade to driver 460.

Here are my specs:
OS: Kubuntu 21.10 x86_64
Model: HP Omen 17
CPU: IntelĀ® Coreā„¢ i7-7700HQ CPU
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile 6GB
Kernel: 5.13.0-19-generic
NVIDIA Driver Version: 470.74

1 Like
33

This is still broken in 495.29.05.

1 Like
34

With kernel version 5.13.0-20-generic it doesnā€™t work either.

35

The 495.44 driver finally fixes this regression on my laptop. Finally, backlight control again.

1 Like
36

Best news I got today. 495.44 fixed it for me as well.

1 Like
37

Can anyone affected confirm if 470.82.00 fix this as well? It shares a few changes with 495.44 looking at the open source kernel bits.

38

I was waiting for new versions updates in this ppa:

https://launchpad.net/~graphics-drivers/+archive/ubuntu/ppa

I tried updating from 470.74 to 470.82 and doesnā€™t fix the problem.

Then I updated to 495.44 and finally works!!

39

Thanks for checking 470.xx, hope the fix is backported eventually given 470.xx will be around for a while for Kepler.

Good to know 495.44 is fine meanwhile anyhow.

40

I guess Iā€™m in the minority, but 495.44 did not fix my backlight issues on this HP Omen. Still an ongoing issue.

41

As per @danito8905ā€™s reply, you should purge the old NVIDIA packages before trying to install the new driver.

On my system, I purged all the old packages with the following command before I installed the new drivers: (you can remove the 470* from the command below to go for the nuclear option)

apt purge '*nvidia*470*' '*nvidia*470*:i386' nvidia-settings

Once your system is completely cleaned (a.k.a. youā€™re running the default nouveau driver), try installing the 490 drivers again from scratch.

I hope this works for your system as it did for mine. This issue was a real pain to deal with.

42

With upgrade to Fedora 35, NVIDIA 495.44 the issue was resolved at my HP Omen 2017 (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q).