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I'm unable to resume from 'Suspend to RAM'. It resumes properly, albeit with a very very dim screen (so dim I can barely make out the desktop). Trying to brighten the screen using the Fn keys doesn't work, and the only option is to switch the machine off and on.

I'm running Bodhi Linux 2.3 with onboard Intel graphics. I think the driver being used is i915, according to lsmod, but I could be wrong.

Output of uname -a and lsb-release -a:

Linux bodhiman 3.8.0-12-generic #21 SMP Tue Mar 12 17:39:30 CDT 2013 x86_64 86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Bodhi 2.3.0
Release: 12.04
Codename: precise

What can I do to diagnose this and fix it?

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5
  • Kernel version? There have been some issues with the more recent kernels and the backlight being set to zero on resume; not your issue, but possibly related.
    – jasonwryan
    Apr 18, 2013 at 21:38
  • Hello jasonwryan. I have updated the question to include that information.
    – Jay
    Apr 18, 2013 at 21:48
  • You could try appending acpi_osi='!Windows 2012' acpi_backlight=vendor splash to your kernel line...
    – jasonwryan
    Apr 19, 2013 at 0:28
  • I tried that and it did not work I'm afraid. There must be another way..
    – Jay
    Apr 19, 2013 at 6:40
  • I have the same problem with debian8 (kernel 3.16). I solved it running kernel 3.2
    – Riccardo
    Jan 31, 2016 at 15:13

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
2

I think I solved the problem.

@drs proposed I install xbacklight to make it work but after installing it, I kept getting an error message saying "No outputs have backlight property"

A little bit of googling the error led me to 2 files in the /sys/class/backlight directory. The 2 files were

/sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0 /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight

I tried,

echo 5 | /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness and nothing changed

And then I tried,

echo 5 | /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness and the screen went dark

So now I knew that I had to use the vendor driver (in this case intel) to change the brightness of the screen.

I opened /etc/default/grub and changed the line

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="splash quiet"

to

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="acpi_osi=Linux acpi_backlight=vendor splash quiet"

and then I ran the command

sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

and restarted the system.

Now my function keys to change the brightness are working and when I resume from 'suspend to RAM' it still resumes blank but now I can press the brightness keys just once to bring it back to pre-suspended brightness levels.

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2
  • 1
    It's a minor detail, but are you sure that was echo 5 | ... and not echo 5 > ...? My /sys/class/backlight is empty, but I find it hard to believe that those files would be executables, plus the normal approach is to write something to the kernel control files in /proc and /sys to change a setting.
    – user
    May 20, 2013 at 7:33
  • I don't have linux box with me right now otherwise I would test it. But I believe you are right. Although I think "echo 5 |" works as well, even though it is slightly unconventional I guess.
    – Jay
    May 22, 2013 at 3:10
1

You can use xbacklight to set the brightness of your screen and you can place scripts in /etc/pm/sleep.d/ so that they are executed when resuming. Try creating this in /etc/pm/sleep.d/99-set-backlight.sh

#!/bin/sh
case "$1" in 

    resume|thaw)

        export DISPLAY=:0
        xbacklight -set 60
esac

Make sure you have xbacklight installed and choose a comfortable brightness percentage for your screen.

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1
  • xbacklight quits with "No outputs have backlight property". But googling the error led me to a solution. : ) Thank you.
    – Jay
    Apr 19, 2013 at 17:18

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