Dark display

[m654321]

Continuing TC's theme that it's [possibly] a hardware problem and not a bug, try this solution - it might work / might not ...

See reply #4 in this link:
https://www.linuxliteos.com/forums/other.../#msg34977

[torreydale]

I don't think this is hardware related.  As I stated, I can go to a month old restore point and things work fine, just like they did last week.  The machines I'm talking about are business class laptops.  So the hardware used is very common.  If this were hardware related, I think it would have been an issue from the moment I installed LL 3.x. 


In my opinion, this is software related, and my hunch is it is due to an upstream upgrade, perhaps with the kernel.

[m654321]

I don't think this is hardware related.  As I stated, I can go to a month old restore point and things work fine, just like they did last week.  The machines I'm talking about are business class laptops.  So the hardware used is very common.  If this were hardware related, I think it would have been an issue from the moment I installed LL 3.x. 
In my opinion, this is software related, and my hunch is it is due to an upstream upgrade, perhaps with the kernel.

I'm no expert on this, but sometimes with newer kernels, or kernel upgrades, older hardware doesn't always appear to be supported: therefore a kernel update/upgrade could cause a malfunction where there was none previously.

This very problem presented itself, when I recently installed PCLinuxOS on a 10-year-old Toshiba Satellite A300. Instead of  a 'dark screen' issue it was an ACPI BIOS error bug, whenever the laptop booted with the 4.11 kernel that came pre-packaged with the PCLinuxOS version being used.  However, Toshiba is supported by older kernel versions and kernel 4.4 did the trick.

So clearly, just taking the Toshiba issue above as an example, both the software (kernel version) and the hardware (age, make/model or type) are both important. So in light of this, maybe it's unhelpful to consider the issue as one of just  "hardware" on the one hand [TC] or  "software" on the other [torreydale], as there seems to be hardware x software (kernel) interaction.

Though your laptops are business class, how old are they? It does seem strange that you were fine with kernel upgrade version #119, but not now, one month later, with #120. Maybe, in time, all machines hit a threshold with software (kernel) compatibility ... 

Excuse the ramble, torreydale & TC  - at this point I feel I'm just "shooting the air"

[torreydale]

Lenovo Thinkpad x250 (mine)
Lenovo Thinkpad x260 (friend/coworker)
Dell Latitude e6430 (mine)


All with Intel Integrated Graphics.  All working fine prior to last week.

[trinidad]

Respectfully as I am only moderately skilled in this area, I would reiterate that it is indeed hardware specific especially where the laptops are concerned, and even sometimes firmware specific, but I think it may also be praxis specific because it can involve systemd and work habits on certain machines, such as shutting down from hibernation or suspend, or hard resetting before an update, or after a failed update. It can involve all or several different hardware specifics which is why I posted the Arch page. I am certain the problem exhibits a variety and often even a combination of factors, including hardware specific issues,  BIOS ACPI issues, kernel updates, and so forth. I expect this to turn out to be an user instance specific bug with no specific uniform solution. I do not see an across the board solution, other than tuning specific hardware, firmware, software, and praxis to solve the issue on a user by user basis. I have six different boxes on the #120 kernel after this afternoon and none of them exhibits an issue. I expect this to keep coming up in laptops for a while, but at this point I honestly don't think the kernel is flawed. I can only add one instance, and it is not negative. When I updated to #120 on my oldest Dell laptop the screen brightness control keys which had never worked previously worked perfectly afterwards. If there's a fluke on some hardware new keyboard recognition sources may be the cause.

TC

[m654321]

Respectfully as I am only moderately skilled in this area, I would reiterate that it is indeed hardware specific especially where the laptops are concerned, and even sometimes firmware specific, but I think it may also be praxis specific because it can involve systemd and work habits on certain machines, such as shutting down from hibernation or suspend, or hard resetting before an update, or after a failed update...
TC compatibility issues can be.

I think you describe very well how complicated compatibility issues can be
Thankfully, I've never had any compatibility issues with LL on all four of our laptops (in sig) - luck of the draw I guess, as well as the way  LL has been crafted by Jerry and the team ...

[Valtam]

Does using one of our custom kernels affect the outcome?

[torreydale]

[size=1em][member=2]Jerry[/member],[/size]

[size=1em]I did try 4.10 and 4.13 to no avial.  I had a similar dark display problem with a friend's Toshiba laptop.  I mentioned it here: https://www.linuxliteos.com/forums/other.../#msg35028.  But in the case of that laptop, things were so dark I could barely see anything, and it was not responding to brightness keys at all.  Mysteriously, when I was about to do similar things suggested by [/size][member=5916]trinidad[/member] [size=1em]and [member=458]m654321[/member] [/size][size=1em]on that laptop, it got better on its own.  It did show the problem very early on after installing Linux Lite 3.6, however.  Like the same day I installed Linux Lite 3.6, I noticed the darkness and no response to brightness keys issue on that laptop.  [/size]

[size=1em]My Dell e6430 had been running Linux Lite 3.x for months--at least since April 2017--without this issue until last week.  The Thinkpad x250 that I have had been running Linux Lite 3.x for 5 weeks (as long as I've had it) without this issue until last week.  A friend/coworker noticed the same thing with his Thinkpad x260, which had been running Linux Lite 3.x for 2 months without this issue until last week.  [/size]

[size=1em]As a test I reverted the Dell e6430 to a restore point from last month, the Thinkpad x250 to a restore point from Sep 9, 2017, and the Thinkpad x260 to a restore point from a few weeks ago.  The problem was not evident in the restore point environments for either of those devices.  In the current update state for each device, it is.[/size]

[size=1em]I hope whatever mysteriously caused this inconvenience will go away as mysteriously.  I'd barely be willing to do what is listed in the links provided by [member=5916]trinidad[/member][/size] and [member=458]m654321[/member] for myself.  And I wouldn't even recommend Linux to anyone if the fix had to be as involved for the user as what is suggested in those links.  It's not son friendly trying to solve this remotely, and it isn't mother friendly at all.  Alas, my mother is still on Linux Lite 2.x.  Hopefully she is not seeing this issue.

[trinidad]

I can relate to your pain over you mother's situation. My mom is 85 and a 150 miles away, and my sister just bought her a new Windows 10 box. I expect some travel time in the very near future.

TC

[TheDead]

Could it be "stuck" on a brightness level thats too low?
Since they're all Intel chipset maybe trying the "Fix Brightness Control on Intel Chipsets" like I mentionned in the other thread :
https://itsfoss.com/fix-brightness-ubuntu-1310/

Just in case it's related, I also have the DELL e6430 at work right now. It's on Win7 x64 but it also has a Quadro card (two video cards). I didn't check if this is standard for the model...

Cheers!