Sony Vaio VCPF1290X blank screen when switching away from X and back: X1.7.7 Nv256.52

[pete4nv]

Update 2: On looking closely at the X screen on returning from suspend or pressing the Display Off button, the screen backlight is at minimal setting. I can faintly observe the X screen elements, but not enough to find the brightness slider. Still, brightness must be set to maximum for screen brightness to hold. Then, further adjustments can be made lower. I like 75%. Sonys are wickedly bright.

Update: Attached nvidia-bug-report.log for native X nv driver. NV Driver allows for terminal switching with no blank screen. However, resume from Suspend results in blank screen. Also, I was incorrect, sony Brightness keys do not work with NV driver (Fn-F5/F6). Began with NO xorg.conf file and let X decide all defaults.
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XServer Version 1.7.7
NVidia Driver Version 256.52 64 bit no compat

(note, some of the backlight issues mentioned do not occur if brightness is set to maximum at time of screen switch or power suspend)

X starts fine and brightness adjustment via power manager works fine.
Sony native keys for increasing or decreasing brightness (Fn-F5/F6) do not work
Sony native keys for increasing or decreasing audio (Fn-F3/F4) do work
Sony native key for audio mute (Fn-F2) works
Sony Native Display On/Off key does not work. After blanking display, it takes quite a bit of switching to get the display to restore. This feature worked fine with 256.44.
Alt-F1/2/3/4/5/6 switching results in a blank screen but active keyboard. However, backlight is off on returning to X. Takes much switching back and forth to restore backlight. Backlight issue was not a problem when returning to X with 256.44.
Power-suspend to ram works, but backllight is off and it takes much switching on and off of the display to get brightness back to normal otherwise screen blanks after a second.
After exiting X, screen is blank, keyboard works and it is possible to log out.

Using the X-nv drivers, keyboard brightness adjustments worked fine. Terminal switching worked fine. However, power suspend did not work and on resuming, backlight was off.

SO for now, 256.52 works less well than .44. Resuming from suspend means no backlight and it is tricky to tweak it back.

Again, if brightness is set to maximum, backlight is restored on return to X. However, terminal switching is not usable other than keyboard.

[pete4nv]

It's 10 months and I thought I would post another message. The issue with the blank VT screens continue. Apparently, switching away from X causes the problem. The Backlight turns off and nothing, not even the Sony Display button restores it. Once returning to X, pressing Display plus Fn-F6 to up the brightness restores the screen.

nvidia-bug-report.log file attached. X parameters included in report duplicated here.

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    Option         "RegistryDwords" "EnableBrightnessControl=1" 
    Option "NoLogo" "1"
    Option "OnDemandVBlankInterrupts" "true"
    Option "EnableACPIHotkeys" "1"
    Option "EnableACPIBrightnessHotkeys" "1"
EndSection

[XjCook]

I had similar problem (GF330M), then I discovered Uvesafb framebuffer. With uvesafb switching is working fine.

[pete4nv]

Originally Posted by XjCook

I had similar problem (GF330M), then I discovered Uvesafb framebuffer. With uvesafb switching is working fine.

Odd, because I also tried uvesafb and it did not change the problem. Please mention any other settings you used.

[pete4nv]

Originally Posted by XjCook

I had similar problem (GF330M), then I discovered Uvesafb framebuffer. With uvesafb switching is working fine.

Disabled VESA in kernel, loaded uvesafb. Same problem. What steps?

[pete4nv]

Originally Posted by XjCook

I had similar problem (GF330M), then I discovered Uvesafb framebuffer. With uvesafb switching is working fine.

Slap me. Once compiling the v86d package the switching works fine. I also disabled VESA in kernel config. Thank you. One year!

[XjCook]

Great, sorry for my late answer, all information about graphics settings and other things I have from http://code.google.com/p/vaio-f11-linux. Maybe this site will be helpful for you