brightness control with geforce go 6200 and sony laptop

[gianpaoloc]

Hi,
I own a sony vaio s3xp (geforce go 6200 tc) and apparently the only way t control lcd brightness (thus increasing battery time) is through the video drivers. At least, this is what happens in Windows XP.

Unfortunately, as far as I know the same control (called smart dimmer or something similar) is not available for linux.

Anyone knows how to have it or if there are plans to add LCD brightness (I mean intensity of the backlight) control in Linux drivers?

Thanks for your help

Cheers
G.

[tuxianer]

Hi,

I think it has nothing to do with the nvidia driver. We must hope, that the developer e.g. from

http://popies.net/sonypi/

could add the support for this in this tool. I'm waiting for it for my FS215 as well.

Regards,
Michael

[gianpaoloc]

Originally Posted by tuxianer

Hi,

I think it has nothing to do with the nvidia driver. We must hope, that the developer e.g. from

http://popies.net/sonypi/

could add the support for this in this tool. I'm waiting for it for my FS215 as well.

Regards,
Michael

I am not sure you are right. Even in windows you do not obtain brightness control until you install the nvidia driver. Also, the windows nvidia driver has a smart-dimmer feature (I hope to remember the name correctly), which automatically and "smootly" decreases brightness after some idle time. This shows, IMHO, that the nvidia guys perfectly know how to control lcd brightness through the video driver.

BTW, do not expect much from sonypi. I was in contact with the developer in the last couple of weeks. We also do some experiments together with no success. Finally, he had to admit that he cannot do much more, since he does not own the notebook and has not received any support from sony.

Cheers
G.

[gianpaoloc]

Really no one may help?

Please, I am sure several users are interested. Is there someone from nvidia reading? May you help (even with just a release plan :-)

Cheers
G.

[viper|style]

Hi,

this issue might be connected to the DDCCI-functionality rather than ACPI, as both sonypi and sony_acpi, even in a modified form, refuse to work.

Additionally, the author of sonypi has no chance to integrate support without direct access to a gf6200go-notebook - if it this is possible at all for this driver to support setting the brightness.

I've found this project today, which focusses on brightness-settings on external display-devices (controlled without buttons); subscribed to their mailing-list a couple of minutes ago, maybe they have a solution.

Regards

viper|style

[knefas]

I have a S4 laptop and the same problem. So...up this 3d!

[tuxianer]

Hi,

please have a look at the following site:

http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t...ight-vaio.html

It's for Sony Vaio FS series but perhaps it could work for you. If not you can contact the developer of sony_acpi and/or sonyfn.

For me the module and sonyfn works for Sound and Brightness.

Regards,
Michael

[erikw]

Correct me if im wrong. Newer VAIO models (with the nvidia card instead of the ATI) have methods in the ACPI bios to adjust the backlighting of the display which simply does not work. My guess is that the where to lazy to remove these methods and just left them. The solution to this problem is in the nvidia card. I wrote a small tool (which uses nvclocks libbackend) that can be used to adjust this setting under Linux. Ive had people reporting that it works with Sony VAIO models VGN-S3XP, VGN-S3HP, VGN-S460 and VGN-S480.

Check this thread for a link to the adjustment tool:
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/show...ht=smartdimmer



Sincerly,
Erik Waling

[knefas]

erikw, thanks a lot for your tool, it really saved me. I've added it to my small howto for s4, so probabily more people will see it. Thanks again!