Screen Backlight Not Working After EOS Update on XFCE

General system Newbie
1

Hello everyone,

I’m encountering an issue that I’m finding hard to precisely describe. Following a recent general update of EOS, the backlight on my screen has stopped functioning.

I use XFCE as my desktop environment. When I press the brightness keys, a notification pops up indicating the level of brightness, but there’s no actual change in the brightness of my screen.

Can anyone assist in troubleshooting and resolving this issue?

sudo inxi -Fxxc0z

System:
  Kernel: 6.5.9-zen2-1-zen arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.2.1
    Desktop: Xfce v: 4.18.1 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.36 wm: xfwm dm: LightDM
    Distro: EndeavourOS base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 81SX v: Legion Y540-15IRH
    serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 10 v: Legion Y540-15IRH serial: <filter>
  Mobo: LENOVO model: LNVNB161216 v: NO DPK serial: <filter> UEFI: LENOVO
    v: BHCN45WW date: 05/24/2022
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 48.2 Wh (100.0%) condition: 48.2/57.0 Wh (84.5%)
    volts: 12.9 min: 11.5 model: SMP L17M3PG2 serial: <filter> status: full
CPU:
  Info: 6-core model: Intel Core i7-9750H bits: 64 type: MT MCP
    arch: Coffee Lake rev: A cache: L1: 384 KiB L2: 1.5 MiB L3: 12 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 824 high: 1097 min/max: 800/4500 cores: 1: 800 2: 1097
    3: 800 4: 800 5: 800 6: 800 7: 800 8: 800 9: 800 10: 800 11: 800 12: 800
    bogomips: 62399
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA TU106M [GeForce RTX 2060 Mobile] vendor: Lenovo
    driver: nvidia v: 545.29.02 arch: Turing pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16
    ports: active: none off: eDP-1 empty: DP-1,DP-2,HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 01:00.0
    chip-ID: 10de:1f11
  Device-2: Chicony Integrated Camera (1280x720@30) driver: uvcvideo
    type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-6:2 chip-ID: 04f2:b604
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.9 compositors: 1: xfwm v: 4.18.0
    2: Picom v: git-b700a driver: X: loaded: nvidia unloaded: modesetting
    alternate: fbdev,nouveau,nv,vesa gpu: nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch
    display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 mapped: DP-2 note: disabled model: LG Display 0x05cf
    res: 1920x1080 dpi: 142 diag: 395mm (15.5")
  API: EGL v: 1.5 platforms: device: 0 drv: nvidia device: 2 drv: swrast
    gbm: drv: nvidia surfaceless: drv: nvidia x11: drv: nvidia
    inactive: wayland,device-1
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: nvidia mesa v: 545.29.02
    glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060/PCIe/SSE2
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Cannon Lake PCH cAVS vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:a348
  Device-2: NVIDIA TU106 High Definition Audio vendor: Lenovo
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16
    bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:10f9
  API: ALSA v: k6.5.9-zen2-1-zen status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 0.3.84 status: n/a (root, process) with:
    1: pipewire-pulse status: active 2: wireplumber status: active
    3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
Network:
  Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
    vendor: Lenovo driver: ath10k_pci v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1
    bus-ID: 07:00.0 chip-ID: 168c:0042
  IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: Lenovo driver: N/A pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: 3000
    bus-ID: 08:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB rev: 2.0
    speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-14:4 chip-ID: 0cf3:e500
  Report: btmgmt ID: hci0 rfk-id: 2 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 4.2
    lmp-v: 8
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 1.38 TiB used: 99.28 GiB (7.0%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: SK Hynix model: HFM512GDHTNG-8310A
    size: 476.94 GiB speed: 15.8 Gb/s lanes: 2 serial: <filter> temp: 47.9 C
  ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST1000LM049-2GH172 size: 931.51 GiB
    speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter>
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 267.38 GiB used: 99.02 GiB (37.0%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p6
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 19.27 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p7
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 53.0 C pch: 60.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia
    temp: 51 C
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Info:
  Processes: 272 Uptime: 8m Memory: total: 16 GiB available: 15.53 GiB
  used: 2.4 GiB (15.4%) Init: systemd v: 254 default: graphical Compilers:
  gcc: 13.2.1 Packages: pm: pacman pkgs: 983 Shell: Sudo v: 1.9.14p3
  running-in: xfce4-terminal inxi: 3.3.31
2

Couple quick thoughts…

In XFCE’s settings, there is probably a setting on the keys with the commands that get run. Try finding those, and run them in a terminal. You may get some output

Other idea, you have the Zen kernel. Does this still happen in linux and/or linux-lts kernels?

2 Likes
3

I’m just heading out the door, so I’ll try a bit later.

However, I’ve noticed that when my computer wakes up from hibernation, the splash screen displays a message indicating it’s loading a kernel. This didn’t happen before. It seems like it might not be correctly loading the kernel or the Nvidia drivers. The issue may have arisen because, after updating, I forgot to reboot and instead put the computer into hibernation.

4

I tried it. The problem is that it does not load the kernel correctly.
I’m not sure where to look to troubleshoot this.

5

first thing to do is make sure nvidia Modules and initramfs images are all correctly working…
sudo pacman -S nvidia-dkms
sudo reinstall-kernels (if you are using systemd-boot)
sudo dracut-rebuild + sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg (when using grub)

6

Thanks.
I use systemd-boot.
And I have already done as you describe, and have done it again now.
It hasn’t helped.

When I restart the computer, there are some red fields on my splash screen, but it goes so fast that I can’t read it.

But I have used journalctl and below are the errors I can find.

kernel: x86/cpu: SGX disabled by BIOS.
ACPI BIOS Error (bug): Failure creating named object [\_SB.PCI0.XHC.RHUB.TPLD], AE_ALREADY_EXISTS (20230331/dswload2-326)
ACPI Error: AE_ALREADY_EXISTS, During name lookup/catalog (20230331/psobject-220)
ACPI BIOS Error (bug): Failure creating named object [\_SB.PCI0.XHC.RHUB.HS01._UPC], AE_ALREADY_EXISTS (20230331/dswload2-326)
ACPI Error: AE_ALREADY_EXISTS, During name lookup/catalog (20230331/psobject-220)
integrity: Problem loading X.509 certificate -65

nvidia: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel.
nvidia: module license 'NVIDIA' taints kernel.
Disabling lock debugging due to kernel taint
nvidia: module verification failed: signature and/or required key missing - tainting kernel
nvidia: module license taints kernel.

NVRM: loading NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module  545.29.02  Thu Oct 26 21:21:38 UTC 2023
nvidia_uvm: module uses symbols nvUvmInterfaceDisableAccessCntr from proprietary module nvidia, inheriting taint.

ACPI Warning: \_SB.PCI0.PEG0.PEGP._DSM: Argument #4 type mismatch - Found [Buffer], ACPI requires [Package] (20230331/nsarguments-61)

nvidia-modeset: WARNING: GPU:0: LG Display (DP-2): G-SYNC Compatible: EDID min refresh rate invalid, disabling G-SYNC Compatible.
nvidia-modeset: WARNING: GPU:0: LG Display (DP-2): G-SYNC Compatible: EDID min refresh rate invalid, disabling G-SYNC Compatible.



systemd-backlight[536]: nvidia_0: Failed to write system 'brightness' attribute: Invalid argument
systemd[1]: Condition check resulted in HFM512GDHTNG-8310A 7 being skipped.
systemd[1]: systemd-backlight@backlight:nvidia_0.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
systemd[1]: systemd-backlight@backlight:nvidia_0.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
systemd[1]: Failed to start Load/Save Screen Backlight Brightness of backlight:nvidia_0.

kernel: platform regulatory.0: Direct firmware load for regulatory.db failed with error -2

systemd-backlight[549]: nvidia_0: Failed to write system 'brightness' attribute: Invalid argument

systemd[1]: systemd-backlight@backlight:nvidia_0.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
systemd-backlight@backlight:nvidia_0.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
systemd[1]: Failed to start Load/Save Screen Backlight Brightness of backlight:nvidia_0.
systemd[1]: Finished Load/Save Screen Backlight Brightness of leds:platform::kbd_backlight.
systemd[1]: Reached target Swaps.
systemd[1]: tmp.mount: Directory /tmp to mount over is not empty, mounting anyway.

systemd-backlight[565]: nvidia_0: Failed to write system 'brightness' attribute: Invalid argument
systemd[1]: Finished File System Check on /dev/disk/by-uuid/3E4E-89BF.
systemd[1]: Started Load/Save RF Kill Switch Status.
systemd[1]: systemd-backlight@backlight:nvidia_0.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
systemd[1]: systemd-backlight@backlight:nvidia_0.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
systemd[1]: Failed to start Load/Save Screen Backlight Brightness of backlight:nvidia_0.

systemd-backlight[578]: nvidia_0: Failed to write system 'brightness' attribute: Invalid argument
systemd[1]: systemd-backlight@backlight:nvidia_0.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
systemd[1]: systemd-backlight@backlight:nvidia_0.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
systemd[1]: Failed to start Load/Save Screen Backlight Brightness of backlight:nvidia_0.

systemd-backlight[588]: nvidia_0: Failed to write system 'brightness' attribute: Invalid argument

systemd[1]: systemd-backlight@backlight:nvidia_0.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
systemd[1]: systemd-backlight@backlight:nvidia_0.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
bootctl[589]: ! Mount point '/efi' which backs the random seed file is world accessible, which is a security hole! !
bootctl[589]: ! Random seed file '/efi/loader/random-seed' is world accessible, which is a security hole! !
systemd[1]: Failed to start Load/Save Screen Backlight Brightness of backlight:nvidia_0.
systemd[1]: systemd-backlight@backlight:nvidia_0.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
systemd[1]: systemd-backlight@backlight:nvidia_0.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

systemd[1]: Failed to start Load/Save Screen Backlight Brightness of backlight:nvidia_0

kernel: nvidia-gpu 0000:01:00.3: i2c timeout error e0000000
kernel: ucsi_ccg 6-0008: i2c_transfer failed -110
kernel: ucsi_ccg 6-0008: ucsi_ccg_init failed - -110
kernel: ucsi_ccg: probe of 6-0008 failed with error -110

kernel: nvidia-modeset: WARNING: GPU:0: LG Display (DP-2): G-SYNC Compatible: EDID min refresh rate invalid, disabling G-SYNC Compatible.

kernel: nvidia-modeset: WARNING: GPU:0: LG Display (DP-2): G-SYNC Compatible: EDID min refresh rate invalid, disabling G-SYNC Compatible.

systemd-backlight[1807]: nvidia_0: Failed to write system 'brightness' attribute: Invalid argument
systemd[1]: systemd-backlight@backlight:nvidia_0.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
systemd[1]: systemd-backlight@backlight:nvidia_0.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
systemd[1]: Failed to start Load/Save Screen Backlight Brightness of backlight:nvidia_0.
systemd[1]: Starting Load/Save Screen Backlight Brightness of backlight:nvidia_0...
systemd-backlight[1810]: nvidia_0: Failed to write system 'brightness' attribute: Invalid argument
systemd[1]: systemd-backlight@backlight:nvidia_0.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
systemd[1]: systemd-backlight@backlight:nvidia_0.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
systemd[1]: Failed to start Load/Save Screen Backlight Brightness of backlight:nvidia_0.
systemd[1]: Starting Load/Save Screen Backlight Brightness of backlight:nvidia_0...
systemd-backlight[1812]: nvidia_0: Failed to write system 'brightness' attribute: Invalid argument
systemd[1]: systemd-backlight@backlight:nvidia_0.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
systemd[1]: systemd-backlight@backlight:nvidia_0.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
systemd[1]: Failed to start Load/Save Screen Backlight Brightness of backlight:nvidia_0.
systemd[1]: Starting Load/Save Screen Backlight Brightness of backlight:nvidia_0...
systemd-backlight[1814]: nvidia_0: Failed to write system 'brightness' attribute: Invalid argument
systemd[1]: systemd-backlight@backlight:nvidia_0.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
systemd[1]: systemd-backlight@backlight:nvidia_0.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
systemd[1]: Failed to start Load/Save Screen Backlight Brightness of backlight:nvidia_0.
systemd[1]: Starting Load/Save Screen Backlight Brightness of backlight:nvidia_0...
systemd-backlight[1817]: nvidia_0: Failed to write system 'brightness' attribute: Invalid argument
systemd[1]: systemd-backlight@backlight:nvidia_0.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
systemd[1]: systemd-backlight@backlight:nvidia_0.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
systemd[1]: Failed to start Load/Save Screen Backlight Brightness of backlight:nvidia_0.
systemd[1]: systemd-backlight@backlight:nvidia_0.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
systemd[1]: systemd-backlight@backlight:nvidia_0.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
systemd[1]: Failed to start Load/Save Screen Backlight Brightness of backlight:nvidia_0.

pkexec[1820]: gun: Executing command [USER=root] [TTY=unknown] [CWD=/home/gun] [COMMAND=/usr/bin/xfpm-power-backlight-helper --set-brightness 30]
systemd[1]: systemd-backlight@backlight:nvidia_0.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
systemd[1]: systemd-backlight@backlight:nvidia_0.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
systemd[1]: Failed to start Load/Save Screen Backlight Brightness of backlight:nvidia_0.
pkexec[1827]: pam_unix(polkit-1:session): session opened for user root(uid=0) by gun(uid=1000)
pkexec[1827]: gun: Executing command [USER=root] [TTY=unknown] [CWD=/home/gun] [COMMAND=/usr/bin/xfpm-power-backlight-helper --set-brightness 25]
systemd[1]: systemd-backlight@backlight:nvidia_0.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
systemd[1]: systemd-backlight@backlight:nvidia_0.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
systemd[1]: Failed to start Load/Save Screen Backlight Brightness of backlight:nvidia_0.
pkexec[1835]: pam_unix(polkit-1:session): session opened for user root(uid=0) by gun(uid=1000)
 pkexec[1835]: gun: Executing command [USER=root] [TTY=unknown] [CWD=/home/gun] [COMMAND=/usr/bin/xfpm-power-backlight-helper --set-brightness 20]
systemd[1]: systemd-backlight@backlight:nvidia_0.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
systemd[1]: systemd-backlight@backlight:nvidia_0.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
systemd[1]: Failed to start Load/Save Screen Backlight Brightness of backlight:nvidia_0.
pkexec[1846]: pam_unix(polkit-1:session): session opened for user root(uid=0) by gun(uid=1000)

I think it has something to do with nvidia_0 being set to something else, somewhere in the system, but I’m not sure.

7

another try would be to install the non dkms nvidia package…
sudo pacman -S nvidia

8
9

ok, so the solution was to roll back to an older version?

or try another driver such as non dkms version or maybe the open version?

10

There are a few apps that can control display brightness. And brightness control is very much hardware / driver dependent, so you may need to try more than one alternative app.

If none of them work, and you are using x11 instead of wayland, then program xrandr can also change brightness. That’s worth trying too.

In your case it seems some update (maybe kernel?) caused the issue, but I assume it will be fixed in a later update (especially if the devs get a proper bug report).

11

this is part of systemd https://man.archlinux.org/man/systemd-backlight@.service.8.en
could be some change in Nvidia is needed that is still not applied there…

12

xrandr doesn’t work on my system.
I will try with light, backlight or something else.

But if I have to roll back my nvidia drivers, do I also have to roll back my kernel?

13

Not if you use nvidia-dkms (it should rebuild the driver automatically). Otherwise yes.

14

I have now downgraded my kernel to the previous version which was 6.5.8.
And the light still doesn’t work.

Are there other ways to troubleshoot?

15

I’d do a full system update first, then try the available apps that handle screen brightness.
If that doesn’t help, then look for Arch wiki about backlight or brightness.
They may have tips for your hardware.

16

I’ve been using this setup since August, and everything was functioning well until the recent update.

I don’t believe the issue is related to the kernel itself. Rather, it seems more likely that the kernel is not loading correctly.

Normally, when waking the system from hibernation, it only displays [2.588469]. However, since the update, it now shows two entries:

[2.588469]
[2.637853] NVRM: loading NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module 545.29.02 Thu Oct 26 21:21:38 UTC 2023

I’ve attached a photo to illustrate this.

I wonder if the system might have entered some sort of hibernation loop. After updating, I forgot to restart the computer and instead put it into hibernation. That’s when the additional line appeared, and I also
began experiencing issues with the screen brightness.

I believe the numbers are meant to indicate how much swap memory has been utilized for hibernation.

10
10788×206 17.4 KB

17

Hard to tell the actual reason, but if you dual boot with Windows, boot into it and make sure Windows fast boot is disabled (and secure boot is also disabled, which likely is).

Are you using systemd-boot or grub?
On systemd-boot you could try running

sudo reinstall-kernels

On grub (and if you are using mkinitcpio) try

mkinitcpio -P

Alternatively, run eos-nvidia-fix (from package nvidia-hook).

If these don’t help, please show which kernel parameters you are using, for example

cat /proc/cmdline
18

I’ve tried those steps, but they didn’t work. The only change I made was adding the resume line, which specifies what the swap partition is.

Here is:

cat /proc/cmdline

initrd=\f409e6ec402a4d6495e6828dc6ccdaa0\6.5.9-zen2-1-zen\initrd nvidia-drm.modeset=1 nvme_load=YES nowatchdog rw root=UUID=3d03e897-6bf0-4063-b681-cbac7e9e3ccf resume=UUID=0a30e8fb-f0b9-4a9a-a0b3-736c894653e2 systemd.machine_id=f409e6ec402a4d6495e6828dc6ccdaa0

I’m considering that it might be simpler to just reinstall everything. I’ll make one more effort to identify the problem, but if that doesn’t work, I plan to reinstall everything this weekend.

19

By the way, linux kernel just was updated to 6.6.1.
Maybe that helps?

20

I’ve noticed that. However, it doesn’t seem to help. I believe it might be some kind of swap boot loop or something similar. This is because it clearly displays two swap memory entries.
I believe it is swap memories.