GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 337580
New preference: "Dim display when computer has been inactive for x minutes"
Last modified: 2006-04-21 16:05:28 UTC
It would be great if gpm had an option to dim the monitor to its lowest brightness setting after a certain time. This would allow the user to, for example, dim the brightness right down after 1 min of inactivity before turning the display off completely after 10. I was playing with an Apple laptop and was really impressed by the feature as it provides a good compromise for people who are not actually using the machine but like to see what it going on. I often leave my machine to downloading and installing updates, for example, but like to see the progress when I walk into the room or look up from what I am reading. From a more empirical viewpoint, I have been watching in my lectures this week and have noticed that all the people that have their monitor blank completely or have a screensaver come on move something to get their display back. Those on the Apple machines that dim left them dimmed until they started typing again. Given that the blanking after a certain amount of time already works, and dimming is already supported, I don't see that this feature would be hard to implement.
(From: https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/gnome-power-manager/+bug/38531 )
>Given that the blanking after a certain amount of time already works, and >dimming is already supported, I don't see that this feature would be hard to >implement. Lol, I implimented this feature about 3 month ago. Great minds think alike. :-) What should happen is the lcd dims to 30% (changeable in gconf) when g-s-s marks the session idle. Moving the mouse restores the previous brightness. You would be amazed at how much power this saves -- I can save 5W of power going from 100% to 30% when at idle. Are you sure you have /apps/gnome-power-manager/dim_on_idle enabled? You can change this in the general tab of gnome-power-preferences. Richard.
Created attachment 62907 [details] My General Tab This is my general tab - I can't see the option that you are talking about. I have 2.14.0 (the most current in Dapper). Has it been released since then?
Thanks Richard - always great to hear that a feature request is done before the request!!! I just checked in GConf and dim_on_idle is there and enabled. My screensaver idle is set to 1 minute and my screen off is set to 5 (+1) mins. Does this mean that I should get 4 minutes at 30% (if so, I don't)? Thanks again to all involved, you guys have done an amazing job with GPM.
What does "lshal | grep laptop" say? It's hardware brightness, so you'll need the laptop_panel capacity. If not, can you give the output of gnome-power-preferences --verbose please?
$ lshal | grep laptop system.formfactor = 'laptop' (string) $ gnome-power-preferences --verbose [gpm_debug_init] gpm-debug.c:130 (18:05:58): Verbose debugging enabled (gnome-power-preferences:6774): Gtk-WARNING **: Can't set a parent on a toplevel widget [gpm_hal_num_devices_of_capability_with_value] gpm-hal.c:534 (18:05:59): 2 devices of capability battery where battery.type is primary [gpm_hal_num_devices_of_capability_with_value] gpm-hal.c:534 (18:05:59): 1 devices of capability button where button.type is lid [gpm_hal_num_devices_of_capability_with_value] gpm-hal.c:534 (18:06:00): 2 devices of capability battery where battery.type is primary [gpm_hal_num_devices_of_capability] gpm-hal.c:499 (18:06:00): 0 devices of capability laptop_panel [gpm_hal_num_devices_of_capability_with_value] gpm-hal.c:534 (18:06:00): 2 devices of capability battery where battery.type is primary [gpm_hal_num_devices_of_capability_with_value] gpm-hal.c:534 (18:06:00): 1 devices of capability button where button.type is lid [gpm_hal_num_devices_of_capability_with_value] gpm-hal.c:534 (18:06:00): 2 devices of capability battery where battery.type is primary [gpm_hal_num_devices_of_capability] gpm-hal.c:499 (18:06:00): 0 devices of capability laptop_panel [gpm_hal_num_devices_of_capability] gpm-hal.c:499 (18:06:00): 0 devices of capability laptop_panel [gpm_hal_num_devices_of_capability_with_value] gpm-hal.c:534 (18:06:00): 2 devices of capability battery where battery.type is primary As you can tell, I ran that with the other instance enabled - if you need me to remove it first, just let me know :).
>[gpm_hal_num_devices_of_capability] gpm-hal.c:499 (18:06:00): 0 devices of >capability laptop_panel So I'm guessing you don't get the brightness sliders in g-p-p also... What laptop make model do you have? What version of HAL are you using? Thanks, Richard.
I am using a Dell Inspiron 510m. More info (my LaptopTesting Page for Ubuntu) can be found here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LaptopTestingTeam/DellInspiron510m I have no brightness sliders but I can change the brightness with hotkeys. The hotkeys work whether I am on battery or AC and the states are remembered separately (so if I set the brightness to 70% on battery and 100% on AC it changes depending on whether I have it plugged in). $ /usr/sbin/hald --daemon=no --verbose=yes 00:30:57.872 [I] hald.c:469: hal 0.5.7 00:30:57.872 [I] hald.c:534: Will not daemonize 00:30:57.873 [I] hald_dbus.c:3236: local server is listening at unix:abstract=/tmp/hald-local/dbus-YvLzLv8KTI,guid=01ad37444ddbd7b5e1789b043c8f4800 Runner started - allowed paths are '/usr/lib/hal:/usr/share/hal/scripts' 00:30:57.876 [I] hald_runner.c:115: Runner has pid 6372 00:30:57.878 [E] hald.c:275: drop_privileges: could not set group id $ gconftool-2 -R /apps/gnome-power-manager ac_sleep_display = 300 check_type_cpu = true can_hibernate = true battery_brightness = 70 action_button_power = interactive lock_on_hibernate = true battery_sleep_computer = 1800 action_ac_button_lid = blank lock_on_suspend = true dim_on_idle = true lock_on_blank_screen = true notify_hal_error = true ac_brightness = 100 display_icon_policy = always use_time_for_policy = true notify_fully_charged = true action_button_suspend = suspend action_sleep_type = suspend policy_suppression_timeout = 5 battery_sleep_display = 60 notify_ac_adapter = true ac_sleep_computer = 0 action_battery_button_lid = blank can_suspend = true action_button_hibernate = hibernate action_battery_critical = shutdown suppress_suspend_warning = false check_type_net = true lock_use_screensaver_settings = true
What does: for i in /proc/acpi/battery/*/*; do echo $i; cat $i; done print?
Sorry, make that: for i in /proc/acpi/*/*/*; do echo $i; cat $i; done
Created attachment 63019 [details] proc_acpi output Here is the output you requested :).
ACPI seems not to know about yout laptop panel, it would appear that the brightness changing (that works for you) is just hardware dimming, i.e. ACPI is kept outside the loop. It might be worth googling to see if anyone else with a DELL laptop can change the brightness using acpi as I do remember someone talking about dells (could be mjg59, can't rememeber).
Hi Richard, I'm really sorry, I can't find any reference to ACPI brightness controls working on Dells. Do I need to file a bug upstream? You seem to know a lot more about what my problem is than I do; is there any chance that you could file a bug in ACPI and let me know what the number is? I am more than happy to give outputs or information, but I don't really know enough about my problem to file a bug. Thanks a lot!
Some code needs to be written to do this - there's no ACPI method to do it, but it can be done via an SMBios call from userspace.
Cheers Matthew. Ultimatly, does this belong in user-space or kernel-space? Got any links to code or docs, and I'll have a look about if it should be in the lcd-brightness bits of HAL. Thanks again, Richard.
I'll close this NOTGNOME (as it's not a g-p-m problem) and move the discussion to the mailing list if required.