Brightness control not working- Ubuntu 12.04 LTS - Macbook pro 5,5

Question

I am new to Ubuntu and recently installed it on my Mac.

I have ran all of the update i.e.: (apt-get update), and have as well installed the proprietary nVidia driver (nvidia-current-updates).

After having installed that driver, the brightness control stopped working (which seems to be rather common).

I have tried to tackle this issue for a while now, but have been unable to fix it.

I have followed the instructions in this post but to no avail: Brightness controls doesn't work on a MacBook Pro 5.5 (ubuntu 12.04 LTS)

When I run this command: lspci -v | grep -i -A 15 vga

This is what I get:

Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: nvidia
Kernel modules: nvidia_current_updates, nouveau, nvidiafb

I have created and modified the xorg.conf file, and have added the lines mentioned in the other post, I have restarted the computer and pressed F1 and F2 but the brightness of the screen won't budge.

Any ideas what else I could do to solve this problem?

Thank you in advance for any suggestions!

EDIT: I have also tried all 6 steps in this link: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBookPro5-5/Precise#LCD_Brightness_Control as well as https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBookPro5-5/Precise#Keyboard (for the keyboard keys)

Solution 1

I have a MacBook Pro 7,1 (Mid2010) and have installed the "nvidia-current" drivers.

For me worked the following method:

Type in Terminal:

user@MacBookPro:~$ sudo nvidia-xconfig

I have done that, because the "/etc/X11/xorg.conf" file was missing. After that command it should have been created.

Then open the file:

user@MacBookPro:~$ sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Add in the 'Section "Device"' following line:

Option "RegistryDwords" "EnableBrightnessControl=1"

After that the Section should look like this:

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    Option "RegistryDwords" "EnableBrightnessControl=1"
EndSection

Then after a restart the brightness controls worked perfectly fine for me.

Hope this helped you.

Solution 2

This worked for me. After I was able to edit xorg.conf file. I was constantly denied permission to edit until I followed the commands here

How to change xorg.conf file with permission?

Then I did what was suggested on this post.

Just for reference i'm using a Macbookpro 7.1 running Snow Leopard 10.7

Thank you I was looking for a solution for two weeks.

Comments

[Cashew]

worked on my Macbook6,1 in 12.04... :D