Has any older version of intel driver ever worked for you?

I tried today, but it seems like I cannot boot from USB devices or MMC Cards and I don't want to rip my running distribution after the heavy PXE work ;-)

After going for some time with the vesa driver I tried back the "intel" module, the flickering in kde4 is still there, but maybe it's a problem IN QT/KDE or in working of both together - With the Suse ICEWM or XFCE it disapeared :)

I push this one to somebody @ kde, maybe they have to figure out whats wrong

thx

(In reply to comment #2)
> I tried today, but it seems like I cannot boot from USB devices or MMC Cards
> and I don't want to rip my running distribution after the heavy PXE work ;-)
> 
> After going for some time with the vesa driver I tried back the "intel" module,
> the flickering in kde4 is still there, but maybe it's a problem IN QT/KDE or in
> working of both together - With the Suse ICEWM or XFCE it disapeared :)
> 
> I push this one to somebody @ kde, maybe they have to figure out whats wrong
> 
> thx
> 

you might want to check if any setting in any KDE gadget for power preference has any impact to this. I'm not a KDE user, so can't tell exact name, but usually it can be accessed via the tool with a battery or plug icon, depending if you have AC plug in.... 

anyway, sounds not our bug.. thanks..

To report backlight issue, please attach xrandr --verbose output, X log with ModeDebug option on, and dmesg when you see wrong backlight behavior.

Hi,
the "xrandr --verbose" stuff is here:
-> http://phpfi.com/392319

Please tell me how to switch the debug mode on, I'm not handy with the xserver itself.

in /etc/X11/xorg.conf (Device Section)

Option "ModeDebug" "on"

And then restart xserver. The /var/log/Xorg.0.log will have debug information for developer to check what happens.

thx @qwang13


Here my additional information:

dmesg:    http://phpfi.com/392459
xorg.log  http://phpfi.com/392460

I hope it is usefull, thanx

Hi,
as I played with some more things, it seems that maybe the bug is although on the driver.

In generally, KDE3 works for me, but when starting some (I think) SDL Apps, the flicker of the backlight come back.
I tried with zsnes (the emulator) and of course with dosbox and with both, the intensity-changes are there.

Also, I noticed that Suspend to Ram does not work reliable, while working 2-3 times, it then stays with the Console screen on and can only be shut off with the ATX 7 sec move. I did not check that back with an other distro, but maybe can do that next week with a usb-cdrom.

In the hope to be helpfull,
Manuel

Please try more recent release like 2.5.1. Does /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0 work in its own way? Try to play with it by echo some brightness value. Or is there other object under /sys/class/backlight/?

This one sounds pretty weird... Does the flickering go away if you change the backlight control method using xrandr?  E.g.
  $ xrandr --output LVDS --set BACKLIGHT_CONTROL native
or one of the other available settings.  It sounds like some of your apps may be fighting over the backlight value perhaps...

@Wang Zhenyu

The following Objects are within the folder:
# ls /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/ -1
actual_brightness
bl_power
brightness
max_brightness
power
subsystem
uevent

#cat max_brightness
15

echoing a value between 0-15 to "brightness" changes the backlight immidiatly, within this process no strange behaviours noticed

I test the other thing in a new comment, because I killed my first report with some suspend-trouble and don't want to start over another time ;)

Unfortunatly i did not check the origin value, but after i entered your command
$ xrandr --output LVDS --set BACKLIGHT_CONTROL native
I got the right syntax for xrandr and had the following output
 
$xrandr --prop
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1024 x 600, maximum 2048 x 1200
VGA disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
LVDS connected 1024x600+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 195mm x 113mm
        EDID_DATA:
                00ffffffffffff000daf090200000000
                1f12010390150c780ab985955c599527
                1b505400000001010101010101010101
                010101010101db13002841582a205136
                5700c3710000001a3d0d002841582a20
                51365700c3710000001a000000fe004b
                38363248814e3038394c360a00000000
                00000000000000000001010a202000a5
        PANEL_FITTING: full
                supported: center       full_aspect  full
        BACKLIGHT_CONTROL: native
                supported: native       legacy       combination  kernel
        BACKLIGHT: 31250 (0x00007a12) range:  (0,31250)
   1024x600       60.0*+
   800x600        60.3     56.2
   640x480        59.9

So I think I have to check for:
native
legacy
combination
kernel

Now working in native mode, i fired up zsnes and played 3 level of supermario 3. While playing I could not notice any problems or flickering, even with the brightness changed by me once with the hardwarekeys.

Next thing, is to check the other modes and of course the whole kde4 thing.

zsnes with 
- legacy also seems to work
- combination works
- kernel works

that leaves me with ?? over the head, i will start kde4 now and try again, and maybe also restart the machine completly for another test

i started kde4 after the logout and even within the loading the backlight changes 3 or 4 times. I checked back and the backlight stayed in the last mode I used : "kernel"

I changed it to "native" and fire up some apps simulation normal work. For now everything seems alright. I will try to logout and relogin with the new mode set.

I seems that i fooled myself the last time, after restarting X, the mode is back to kernel, so  this is the default. With the mode, the random changes are back, so it seems to be a problem within the "kernel" mode of the backlight control.

But with this knowledge I'm also able to kick the problem with setting the mode after each login :)

Anything else needed? Thanx for the guidance

What version of the Dell BIOS are you using?  

There's an interesting thread here:
http://mydellmini.com/forum/bios-a02-brightness-problem-in-ubuntu,-anyone--t1321.html-st=0&sk=t&sd=a

that seems to indicate that BIOS ver A02 was causing similar problems with screen brightness for people using Dell's Ubuntu.

I'm also using a dell mini w/ opensuse 11.1, and I have not had this problem, but I'm using BIOS A03.

Well, thanks for the hint. I found the Bios Upgrade to A04 in this installer:
- http://stashbox.org/v/350291/flashBIOSv1.4.exe
Within Windows it creates a Bootable USBstick with all necessary Files on it, it took me minutes to get the A04 working.

I started openSUSE after that in runlevel 3, removed the "xrandr" line from .xinitrc and from this point now, I did not see any more flickering.
Some Apps (like the ZSNES) still reset the brightness to a highe value at start, but only __once__, so it seems to be fine also in kernel mode now.

I think with the fix from Dell I can close this bug. Thx for all advices.