[SOLVED-GUIDE] 12th gen not sending XF86MonBrightnessUp / Down

Oh I figured it out! It is the last step in this guide: https://guides.frame.work/Guide/Fedora+36+Installation+on+the+Framework+Laptop/108

There is one known issue that is specific to systems with 12th Gen Intel Core. The ALS and the brightness up/down keys conflict on currently shipping kernels. You can disable the ALS to restore brightness up/down functionality with the following command (making sure you’ve first updated your packages to get the latest kernel available):

sudo grubby --update-kernel=ALL --args="module_blacklist=hid_sensor_hub"

After running the command, you need to restart the computer

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Thank you for the background, the technical details are super interesting.

Since it sounds like either the hotkeys will work or the ambient light sensor will work at the moment and not both, I’m going to keep the ambient light sensor functionality since I can still adjust it manually if needed.

But thanks for the workaround if others would rather have the hotkeys, and looking forward to when they both work!

So basically we need a driver? Is Framework Computer interested in investing money, making the driver?
If not, can this be solved at the EC level by modifying what it sends (or it would be incompatible with windows)?

For me, I never liked the ALS functions too much, so I will stick with it disabled on my 12th gen batch 2 (if by that time, Framework Computer hasn’t made a driver for it)

I was able to reproduce this issue on both Fedora 36 and Windows 11.
I upgraded from the 11th gen i7-1165G7 to the 12th gen i7-1260P and found that the brightness buttons don’t work.
The problem was resolved in Windows 11 after installing the driver bundle. No fix in Fedora 36 however.

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@Kieran_Levin I guess you meant (note the _ instead of -):

blacklist hid_sensor_hub

Update: on Ubuntu 22.04, I also had to run update-initramfs -u before the reboot for the changes to take effect.

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Unfortunately blacklisting the kernel module didn’t do the trick. It did get blacklisted, as evident by the output of lsmod, but the brightness keys aren’t detected by KDE Plasma and xinput on Arch Linux.

@ConfuSomu It’s working here on my Arch, did you forget to run mkinitcpio -p linux ?

Hi all,

Just to confirm black-listing the hid_sensor_hub as described above along with running the update-initramfs -u before the reboot fixed both screen brightness buttons and the airplane mode button on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.

Thanks everyone for the thread.No further issues on my 12gen Intel MOBO upgrade.everything seems to be working as far as I can tell since yesterday.

Baskin

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@ConfuSomu It’s working here on my Arch, did you forget to run mkinitcpio -p linux ?

I’m on Arch Linux as well and tried both

blacklist hid-sensor-hub

and

blacklist hid_sensor_hub

each followed by sudo mkinitcpio -p linux, shutting down the laptop and booting it up again. Unfortunately neither worked (I checked with sudo evtest /dev/input/event2 and verified that nothing happens when press the brightness up/down keys.)

I get a few warnings during sudo mkinitcpio -p linux about ‘Possibly missing firmware …’; could that have anything to do with the problem?

If your input devices are anything like mine where 2 is the keyboard then you’re testing the wrong device. The brightness buttons are on a different input device. On my machine it’s /dev/input/event4

I think I had to fix the permissions as well of the backlight device.
I’ve added my user to the video group and created the following udev rule to make it permanent:

SUBSYSTEM=="backlight", ACTION=="add", \
  RUN+="/bin/chgrp video /sys/class/backlight/%k/brightness", \
  RUN+="/bin/chmod g+w /sys/class/backlight/%k/brightness",

Probably not but depends what exactly is missing. On newer kernels it usually shows up for amdgpu but that doesn’t matter.

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Thanks @apol1o ! Worked like a charm.

Hi there,
As anyone sent a ticket to Framework for it to be corrected ?
For me it is anoying because in the morning I want to set it below 3% and I am afraid to set it to 0 and then to get a dark screen. Without a hardware key to set it back !

What’s the point of a ticket to Framework? Since @Kieran_Levin posted about it, Framework definitely knows about the problem and gave a simple to implement workaround.

If you want it to work OOTB you’re best off submitting a ticket to your distro since if you want a fix that works automatically you’d not only need to release an upstream kernel patch, but also would need to make sure your distro adopts it and rolls it out in an auto-update.

I’d suggest you just use the workaround as the easiest and fastest way to fix things, but in case you do get your backlight stuck at 0% you could also learn the shortcut to open a terminal and make sure you have a command line app like light to change the backlight (this of course can be done through SSH or sending a value to the proper sysfs device path as well. I’d suggest SSH is a better option than typing blind). I’ve also noticed that if the backlight is set to 0% and I suspend the laptop it tends to come back at 100%, but maybe that’s a peculiarity of how Arch does suspend/resume.

ADIT 13rd sept : updated the ubuntu 22 default kernel via update center… today and now nowit works on 5.15 ! (?)


EDIT: booting on kernel 5.15 instead of 5.18 reset the behaviour. Trying to do sudo update-initramfs -u again and reboot but it didn t work with htis kernel :frowning:


So it worked for me on Ubunru Mate 22.04 using kernel 5.18

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/framework-als-blacklist.conf
=> it creates an empty file.
Then add:
blacklist hid_sensor_hub
Then do :
sudo update-initramfs -u

What a joy to have a fully functionnal Framework laptop ! I tend to use brightness every 30 minutes especially in the morning.

OK, that worked form me as well (after the usual update-initramfs -u). I already had module_blacklist=hid_sensor_hub kernel parameter set, but that didn’t help despite the fact that the module was not actually loaded. Not sure why :slight_smile:

Is there a way to set the lowest brightnes lower ?
I mean to change the behaviour of the + / - brightness to increment in 1%.
Currentely on my Ubuntu mate when using the buttons it increments by 5% which is fine on the highest values, but in the morning I like to reach 1% 2% 3% gradually as the sun goes up . For now my work arround is to go in battery settings and move slider to 2%.
On my previous E590 the max brightness was less so the scale would benefit more to lower values, therefore this was not anoying in the morning.

Confirmed this worked for me on Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/framework-als-blacklist.conf
blacklist hid_sensor_hub

and

sudo update-initramfs -u

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I’m seeing this thread being shared around quite a bit when this question pops up elsewhere.

Having the workaround is great, but it’s still unfortunate to have to choose between either having the automatic light sensor or the brightness keys working. Is there any update on having both work at the same time without needing the workaround?

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I added module_blacklist=hid_sensor_hub to my grub file… not works
How do I know what is my device ? (EDIT: seems to be event2)
sudo evtest to list all…

Now its works…
I try add :
vim /etc/modprobe.d/framework-als-blacklist.conf
blacklist hid_sensor_hub

(not sure this help)

Thanks

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Is this something that’s actually being worked on? Anyone running Debian right now is going to encounter this problem and will think that key is broken until they find this forum post and figure out how to use vi. :wink:

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