The keyboard backlight no longer works on Solus Budgie 4.5 on Macbook Pro 6.2 (mid 2010) after Update

[grami-fr]

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Summary

On Macbook Pro 6.2 (mid 2010) , the keyboard backlight works with Solus Budgie 4.4 , but not with Solus 4.5. No light..., and the F5 and F6 keys don't swith on/off the backlight. The "popup setting "for the keyboard backlight is show, but remains inactive when press F5-F6.

Steps to reproduce

1 Solus budgie 4.4 installed : the keyboard Backlight work good 2 Update to 4.5 : the keyboard Backlight don't work Anymore , 3 On the live session Solus Budgie 4.5 from on a USB Key, the backlight keyboard Works!

Expected result

3 Reinstall Solus 4.5 on the SSD from ISO Solus Budgie 4.5 : the keyboard Backlight work on the live Session on the USB Key. 4 But does not work anymore after the install on the ssd .

Actual result

The keyboard backlight don't work with Solus Budgie 4.5. I managed to turn it on via : "cd /sys/class/leds/smc::kbd_backlight/" and : "cat max_brightness" in a terminal . But the backlight stay always on, no adjustment possible.

Environment

• [X] Is system up to date?

Repo

Shannon (stable)

Desktop Environment

Budgie

System details

System: Host: macbook62 Kernel: 6.6.20-279.current arch: x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Budgie v: 10.9.1 Distro: Solus 4.5 resilience Machine: Type: Laptop System: Apple product: MacBookPro6,2 v: 1.0 serial: Mobo: Apple model: Mac-F22586C8 v: MacBookPro6,2 serial: UEFI: Apple v: MBP61.88Z.0057.B0F.1112091028 date: 12/09/11 Battery: ID-1: BAT0 charge: 16.7 Wh (27.6%) condition: 60.4/75.2 Wh (80.3%) volts: 10.6 min: 10.9 CPU: Info: dual core Intel Core i5 M 540 [MT MCP] speed (MHz): avg: 1263 min/max: 1197/2528 Graphics: Device-1: Intel Core Processor Integrated Graphics driver: i915 v: kernel Device-2: NVIDIA GT216M [GeForce GT 330M] driver: nouveau v: kernel Device-3: Apple Built-in iSight driver: uvcvideo type: USB Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.11 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.4 driver: X: loaded: modesetting,nouveau unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: nouveau,crocus gpu: i915,nouveau resolution: 1: 1440x900~60Hz 2: 1440x900~60Hz API: OpenGL v: 3.3 compat-v: 2.1 vendor: mesa v: 24.0.2 renderer: NVA5 Network: Device-1: Broadcom NetXtreme BCM5764M Gigabit Ethernet PCIe driver: tg3 Device-2: Broadcom BCM43224 802.11a/b/g/n driver: bcma-pci-bridge Drives: Local Storage: total: 238.47 GiB used: 11.82 GiB (5.0%) Info: Memory: total: 8 GiB available: 7.69 GiB used: 2.03 GiB (26.3%) Processes: 271 Uptime: 26m Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.33 me@macbook62 ~ $

Other comments

No response

[UncleSlacky]

Same bug also present on the mid-2012 Macbook Pro (Macbook Pro 9,2).

[UncleSlacky]

Bug seems to have been resolved by the April 19th update (kernel 6.8?).

[grami-fr]

Hello, not for me. After the updates still not working (the April 19th update)... The keyboard backlighting still bugs (Macbook Pro 6.2 mid 2010).

[UncleSlacky]

Yes, after shutting down and rebooting today, the backlighting is now permanently on (which could be the last setting that I left it on before shutting down?) and the function key popup slider doesn't move from the zero/null position.

[tonyk94583]

I'm not sure what is different in my configuration - latest updated Solus Budgie - but keyboard backlight is working on my Macbook Pro 2012 (9,2) and Macbook Pro 2008? (4,1). One of the comments in the bug report has backlight issues with the same Macbook Pro 9,2, but mine is working. It didn't work after the first restart after the new kernel, but after shutting down and turning on, the f5 and f6 work correctly to decrease/increase the keyboard backlight.

[UncleSlacky]

Weird, that's the exact opposite of my experience with Budgie on my MBP 9,2 (keys worked on the first boot into the kernel from the April 19th update, but not since). The kernel update that's just come out (6.8.7-287.current) hasn't changed the behaviour, either. Does your 9,2 have an Nvidia GPU? Mine is Intel (13 inch screen), though I can't see how that might make a difference.

[tonyk94583]

My MBP 9.2 is an i7 with an Intel HD Graphics 4000. Updated to the latest kernel (6.8.7-287) and keyboard backlight works fine and is adjustable with the f5/f6 keys. Put the computer to sleep, and keyboard backlight is still working properly after waking up. Also worked properly after rebooting the computer. After updating the kernel on my MPB 4,1 (to 6.8.7-287), the keyboard backlight adjustment via f5/f6 keys is not working. The MBP 4,1 has an old NVidia graphics card and uses the Nouveau drivers. The keyboard backlight was working fine on the previous kernel, so I will try rebooting a few more times and also boot to the previous kernel to see if it starts working.

[UncleSlacky]

OK, now this is really weird - after shutting down and rebooting, the F5/F6 keys are working now (MBP 9,2, mid-2012). So it seems that it's only the older models which still have problems?

Edit: after the next boot, it's not working again. I wonder if there is some interaction with something else I'm running, like TLP?

[tonyk94583]

Yes, strange. After upgrading the kernel yesterday, the f5/f6 keys didn't work to adjust keyboard backlight on my 2008 MacbookPro (4,1), but worked fine on the 2012 MacbookPro (9,2). Tried rebooting, turning off, reset PRAM and SMC and no change. Saw your message this morning on github and tried again, and f5/f6 keys work properly for keyboard backlight adjustment on the 2008 MBP as well. Argh. Running TLP on both Macbooks as well.

[ReillyBrogan]

There might be a kernel module that we're not building. Please do the following to generate a report of available kernel modules that I can compare with our kernel configuration:

• Download a recent version of Manjaro (https://manjaro.org/download/) (please use 23.1.4 based images). Doesn't matter which variant, though I'd probably go with GNOME or Plasma.
• Create a bootable USB or however you want to boot it on your hardware (I use Ventoy personally)
• Boot it
• Use all of the hardware that you can. Plug things into all of the different USB chips, use the speakers, etc. Different controllers, whatever you want to make sure works
• Run lsmod | sort and save the output to a file somewhere that persists between boots
• Boot back into Solus, specifically on the LTS kernel (kernel 6.6) or a slightly older version of linux-current on kernel 6.6
• Run lsmod | sort and save it somewhere as well.
• Upload both files to Pastebin/hastebin/whatever and give me the links. Make sure you label which one is Manjaro vs Solus

This uses Manjaro because they build every single available kernel module so it makes for a good comparison (we only build the ones that users likely need).

[UncleSlacky]

Thanks for your help, here are my files (Macbook Pro 9,2, mid-2012, Intel graphics): https://pastebin.com/yZ5ar7iy (Manjaro) https://pastebin.com/TZ54mUgF (Solus LTS 6.6)

This might be completely irrelevant, but I noticed that "mac_hid" is loaded by Manjaro but not Solus.

[ReillyBrogan]

I made a few config adjustments which will be in the next kernel builds for both linux-lts and linux-current. I don't know if they will help, but they might.

This might be completely irrelevant, but I noticed that "mac_hid" is loaded by Manjaro but not Solus.

That's because on Solus we build mac_hid as a built-in, which means that it's always loaded and doesn't show up in the list.

[UncleSlacky]

Thanks for the quick response! I suspect only a minor adjustment is needed, as the function works sometimes (usually when I boot first thing in the morning, for some reason) and not at others, and in any case the popup always works even if the slider doesn't.

[UncleSlacky]

@ReillyBrogan in case it helps, I captured the lsmod output during a session where the keyboard backlight decided to work for some reason, this is with kernel 6.8.7-287.current: https://pastebin.com/V7VEUq6T

[UncleSlacky]

Still not working with latest kernel (6.8.8-288.current).

[UncleSlacky]

Still not working with latest kernel (6.8.9-289.current).

[UncleSlacky]

Working on about every fifth boot or so now with kernel 6.8.10-291.current.

[UncleSlacky]

Weirdly, it worked the first couple of times I booted with the new kernel (6.8.11-292.current) but not on the third.

[UncleSlacky]

With the last couple of kernels (currently on 6.8.12-293.current), per boot, it works about 50% of the time, possibly more often when plugged in than when running on battery. Maybe there's some kind of race condition involved?

[UncleSlacky]

For whatever reason, for the last couple of kernels (currently on 6.9.12-297) the success rate per boot has deteriorated massively, to maybe 10% of the time at best.