Hi,
I have a Toshiba M100-179 (with ATI X1400 graphics card) and everything works ok with Kubuntu 11.10 but i have one problem:
- Saving energy does not regulate the LCD brightness.

I can't change brightness with the slider in the settings to save energy.
Changing the brightness works only with the key Fn + F6 / Fn + F7.

Sorry for my english and please help me.

Can you check in System Settings, Shortcuts and Gestures, Global Keyboard Shortcuts if the shortcuts for Increase and Decrease brightness ("KDE Daemon" component) are set?

It may be possible that the F9 keys in question are "hardware" keys, meaning the action of decreasing the screen brightness is taken care of at the BIOS level. This is supported by the slider in settings not functioning.

I guess the slider the battery widget provides when clicked on will not work either.

Which version of KDE are you using? I do recall that some changes were made to KDE Power Management to accommodate a larger range of possible methods to change the brightness of the computer screen.

einar wrote:Can you check in System Settings, Shortcuts and Gestures, Global Keyboard Shortcuts if the shortcuts for Increase and Decrease brightness ("KDE Daemon" component) are set?

Setting global keyboard shortcuts are set to default but Increase/Decrease bightness with the key Fn+F6 / Fn+F7 works fine.
When I changed the default keyboard shortcuts, and set it to Alt+F7/Alt+F6 it did not work. Works only default: Fn+F6 / Fn+F7.

Adjusting the brightness does not work just by using the slider on the battery icon and in the settings saving energy.
The slider is always on the left (darkest). I can move the slider but it does not change the screen brightness.

bcooksley wrote:It may be possible that the F9 keys in question are "hardware" keys, meaning the action of decreasing the screen brightness is taken care of at the BIOS level. This is supported by the slider in settings not functioning.

I guess the slider the battery widget provides when clicked on will not work either.

Which version of KDE are you using? I do recall that some changes were made to KDE Power Management to accommodate a larger range of possible methods to change the brightness of the computer screen.

Currently I am using kde 4.8
Previously I was using 4.7.4 and I had the same problem.

Whilst the original post of viewtopic.php?f=22&t=98983 has a NVidia card, it seems you both use the same distribution and version of KDE. I'll check with the developers to see what methods KDE Power Management uses to change the screen brightness however.

I had the same problem, but managed to fix it by adding the line:

Code: Select all

<allow_any>yes</allow_any>

in the file:
/usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.kde.powerdevil.backlighthelper.policy
after the line:

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<allow_active>yes</allow_active>

This should be done in both sections:
<action id="org.kde.powerdevil.backlighthelper.brightness" >
<action id="org.kde.powerdevil.backlighthelper.setbrightness" >

The file might be in another location depending on your distribution.

In your case, it seems that ConsoleKit/Systemd cannot verify that you are the current - active - user of the system console - so is therefore denying the action.

Please verify your ConsoleKit setup. Systemd is not required - but may have an influence if installed.

rthomsen wrote:I had the same problem, but managed to fix it by adding the line:

Code: Select all

<allow_any>yes</allow_any>

in the file:
/usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.kde.powerdevil.backlighthelper.policy
after the line:

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<allow_active>yes</allow_active>

This should be done in both sections:
<action id="org.kde.powerdevil.backlighthelper.brightness" >
<action id="org.kde.powerdevil.backlighthelper.setbrightness" >

The file might be in another location depending on your distribution.

Unfortunately, it does not work

bcooksley wrote:In your case, it seems that ConsoleKit/Systemd cannot verify that you are the current - active - user of the system console - so is therefore denying the action.

Please verify your ConsoleKit setup. Systemd is not required - but may have an influence if installed.

how? I am a novice when it comes to linux.

Code: Select all

mariusz@mariusz-SATELLITE-M100:~$ ck-list-sessions
Session1:
        unix-user = '1000'
        realname = 'Mariusz L'
        seat = 'Seat1'
        session-type = ''
        active = TRUE
        x11-display = ':0'
        x11-display-device = '/dev/tty7'
        display-device = ''
        remote-host-name = ''
        is-local = TRUE
        on-since = '2012-02-20T22:04:41.735975Z'
        login-session-id = ''


in /etc/dbus-1/system.d/ConsoleKit.conf I have something like that:

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<!DOCTYPE busconfig PUBLIC
 "-//freedesktop//DTD D-BUS Bus Configuration 1.0//EN"
 "http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/dbus/1.0/busconfig.dtd">
<busconfig>

  <!-- Only root can own the service -->
  <policy user="root">
    <allow own="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"/>

    <!-- Allow all methods on interfaces -->
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"/>
  </policy>

  <!-- Deny all and then allow some methods on interfaces -->
  <policy context="default">
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.DBus.Introspectable"/>
    <deny send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
          send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Manager"/>
    <deny send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
          send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Seat"/>
    <deny send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
          send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session"/>
    <deny send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
          send_interface="org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties" />

    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Manager"
           send_member="Restart"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Manager"
           send_member="CanRestart"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Manager"
           send_member="Stop"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Manager"
           send_member="CanStop"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Manager"
           send_member="OpenSession"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Manager"
           send_member="CloseSession"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Manager"
           send_member="GetSeats"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Manager"
           send_member="GetSessions"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Manager"
           send_member="GetSessionForCookie"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Manager"
           send_member="GetSessionForUnixProcess"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Manager"
           send_member="GetCurrentSession"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Manager"
           send_member="GetSessionsForUnixUser"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Manager"
           send_member="GetSessionsForUser"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Manager"
           send_member="GetSystemIdleHint"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Manager"
           send_member="GetSystemIdleSinceHint"/>

    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Seat"
           send_member="GetId"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Seat"
           send_member="GetSessions"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Seat"
           send_member="GetDevices"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Seat"
           send_member="GetActiveSession"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Seat"
           send_member="CanActivateSessions"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Seat"
           send_member="ActivateSession"/>

    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session"
           send_member="GetId"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session"
           send_member="GetSeatId"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session"
           send_member="GetLoginSessionId"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session"
           send_member="GetSessionType"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session"
           send_member="GetUser"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session"
           send_member="GetUnixUser"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session"
           send_member="GetX11Display"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session"
           send_member="GetX11DisplayDevice"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session"
           send_member="GetDisplayDevice"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session"
           send_member="GetRemoteHostName"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session"
           send_member="IsActive"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session"
           send_member="IsLocal"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session"
           send_member="GetCreationTime"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session"
           send_member="Activate"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session"
           send_member="GetIdleHint"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session"
           send_member="SetIdleHint"/>
    <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit"
           send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session"
           send_member="GetIdleSinceHint"/>
    <allow send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session"
           send_member="SetIdleHint"/>
  </policy>

</busconfig>

I noticed one more thing:
When I click the battery icon, the brightness slider is always on the left.
When I move it to the middle and then plug or unplug the AC adapter, the slider returns to the left (darkest) but the brightness does not change.

With regards to the slider - it seems that KDE Power Management is failing to read the current brightness level.

As for ConsoleKit - it seems that it is determining that you are the active user correctly. It seems you are experiencing a bug/issue with Polkit / Consolekit. You should continue with your current workaround, and possibly report it to your distribution.

bcooksley wrote:With regards to the slider - it seems that KDE Power Management is failing to read the current brightness level.

As for ConsoleKit - it seems that it is determining that you are the active user correctly. It seems you are experiencing a bug/issue with Polkit / Consolekit. You should continue with your current workaround, and possibly report it to your distribution.

I tested different distributions. Ubuntu 11.04, Mint 12 KDE, Fedora 16 and now Kubuntu 11.10. In any case, having the same problem
Thank you for your help.

Interesting. Can I ask you to please file a bug report at bugs.kde.org so that the developers of the Brightness helper can look into this? The permissions granted seem correct to me, but they could be incorrect... Product to report to is "Solid", component "powermanagement".

bcooksley wrote:In your case, it seems that ConsoleKit/Systemd cannot verify that you are the current - active - user of the system console - so is therefore denying the action.

Please verify your ConsoleKit setup. Systemd is not required - but may have an influence if installed.

So how do I verify my ConsoleKit setup? I do not have systemd installed.
My ck-list-sessions output:

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Session1:
        unix-user = '1000'
        realname = 'Ragnar Thomsen'
        seat = 'Seat2'
        session-type = ''
        active = FALSE
        x11-display = ':0'
        x11-display-device = '/dev/tty5'
        display-device = '/dev/tty1'
        remote-host-name = ''
        is-local = FALSE
        on-since = '2012-02-28T18:19:15.134868Z'
        login-session-id = ''


You were right, ConsoleKit doesn't consider me the active user. Any idea how to fix this?

Unfortunately I do not know much about Consolekit - but it could be that "ck-launch-session" is not being run as part of your login procedure.