fn + arrow keys don't adjust actual brightness on an Acer Aspire 5740

Question

I have an Aspire 5740 with an Intel Core i3, and Fn + arrow keys still call up the brightness adjuster, but have no effect on actually changing the brightness. The slider moves, but the brightness remains at maximum. System settings also allow me to move the slider, but again, with no effect.

It's killing my battery - please tell me what to code in to fix this!

Solution

It's a known bug. You can view it here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/543294 Well someone posted a workaroudn like this:

1. Open a terminal (Program - Accessories - Terminal)
2. Type in "sudo gedit /etc/default/grub" (without the "")
3. Find the line that says: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="quiet splash"
4. Edit it so it says: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="quiet splash acpi_backlight=vendor"
5. Save and exit
6. Run the command "sudo update-grub" (again without quotes of course)
7. Reboot and enjoy!

and yeah, it worked for me

Comments

[Cerin]

Ubuntu 12.04 no longer seems to store its xorg.conf at /etc/X11/xorg.conf...

[John S Gruber]

It doesn't use much configuration anymore, xorg has been developed to give good defaults instead. You can put a config or part of a config in /etc/X11/xorg.conf even though there isn't one by default. It's also possible to add configuration information to a file in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d . That's what I do to set some touchpad attributes.

[jcomeau_ictx]

now I get dmesg "acer_wmi: Unknown function number - 4 - 0 (that final digit counted down to 0 from 4 with each hit of the Fn-leftarrow combination)

[jcomeau_ictx]

my problem is on a D270 though: bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=44451

[ashutosh]

acer-wmi is blacklisted in etc/blacklist.conf. removing it from there might fix the problem temporarily. Also here is one similar reported bug, the fix seems good to me. Especially the comment #7 and #10