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+ <title>Petter Reinholdtsen: Fixing the Linux black screen of death on machines with Intel HD video</title>
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+ <h1>
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
+
+ </h1>
+
+</div>
+
+
+ <div class="entry">
+ <div class="title">Fixing the Linux black screen of death on machines with Intel HD video</div>
+ <div class="date">11th June 2013</div>
+ <div class="body"><p>When installing RedHat, Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu on some machines,
+the screen just turn black when Linux boot, either during installation
+or on first boot from the hard disk. I've seen it once in a while the
+last few years, but only recently understood the cause. I've seen it
+on HP laptops, and on my latest acquaintance the Packard Bell laptop.
+The reason seem to be in the wiring of some laptops. The system to
+control the screen background light is inverted, so when Linux try to
+turn the brightness fully on, it end up turning it off instead. I do
+not know which Linux drivers are affected, but this post is about the
+i915 driver used by the
+<a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
+EasyNote LV</a>, Thinkpad X40 and many other laptops.</p>
+
+<p>The problem can be worked around two ways. Either by adding
+i915.invert_brightness=1 as a kernel option, or by adding a file in
+/etc/modprobe.d/ to tell modprobe to add the invert_brightness=1
+option when it load the i915 kernel module. On Debian and Ubuntu, it
+can be done by running these commands as root:</p>
+
+<pre>
+echo options i915 invert_brightness=1 | tee /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
+update-initramfs -u -k all
+</pre>
+
+<p>Since March 2012 there is
+<a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=4dca20efb1a9c2efefc28ad2867e5d6c3f5e1955">a
+mechanism in the Linux kernel</a> to tell the i915 driver which
+hardware have this problem, and get the driver to invert the
+brightness setting automatically. To use it, one need to add a row in
+<a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c">the
+intel_quirks array</a> in the driver source
+<tt>drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c</tt> (look for "<tt>static
+struct intel_quirk intel_quirks</tt>"), specifying the PCI device
+number (vendor number 8086 is assumed) and subdevice vendor and device
+number.</p>
+
+<p>My Packard Bell EasyNote LV got this output from <tt>lspci
+-vvnn</tt> for the video card in question:</p>
+
+<p><pre>
+00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation \
+ 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0156] \
+ (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
+ Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0688]
+ Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- \
+ ParErr- Stepping- SE RR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
+ Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- \
+ <TAbort- <MAbort->SERR- <PERR- INTx-
+ Latency: 0
+ Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 42
+ Region 0: Memory at c2000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
+ Region 2: Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
+ Region 4: I/O ports at 4000 [size=64]
+ Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
+ Capabilities: <access denied>
+ Kernel driver in use: i915
+</pre></p>
+
+<p>The resulting intel_quirks entry would then look like this:</p>
+
+<p><pre>
+struct intel_quirk intel_quirks[] = {
+ ...
+ /* Packard Bell EasyNote LV11HC needs invert brightness quirk */
+ { 0x0156, 0x1025, 0x0688, quirk_invert_brightness },
+ ...
+}
+</pre></p>
+
+<p>According to the kernel module instructions (as seen using
+<tt>modinfo i915</tt>), information about hardware needing the
+invert_brightness flag should be sent to the
+<a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/dri-devel">dri-devel
+(at) lists.freedesktop.org</a> mailing list to reach the kernel
+developers. But my email about the laptop sent 2013-06-03 have not
+yet shown up in
+<a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2013-June/thread.html">the
+web archive for the mailing list</a>, so I suspect they do not accept
+emails from non-subscribers. Because of this, I sent my patch also to
+the Debian bug tracking system instead as
+<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/710938">BTS report #710938</a>, to make
+sure the patch is not lost.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately, it is not enough to fix the kernel to get Laptops
+with this problem working properly with Linux. If you use Gnome, your
+worries should be over at this point. But if you use KDE, there is
+something in KDE ignoring the invert_brightness setting and turning on
+the screen during login. I've reported it to Debian as
+<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/711237">BTS report #711237</a>, and
+have no idea yet how to figure out exactly what subsystem is doing
+this. Perhaps you can help? Perhaps you know what the Gnome
+developers did to handle this, and this can give a clue to the KDE
+developers? Or you know where in KDE the screen brightness is changed
+during login? If so, please update the BTS report (or get in touch if
+you do not know how to update BTS).</p>
+</div>
+
+ <div class="tags">Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.</div>
+
+
+ </div>
+
+
+
+
+ <div id="sidebar">
+
+
+
+<h2>Archive</h2>
+<ul>
+
+<li>2013
+<ul>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (6)</a></li>
+
+</ul></li>
+
+<li>2012
+<ul>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
+
+</ul></li>
+
+<li>2011
+<ul>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
+
+</ul></li>
+
+<li>2010
+<ul>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
+
+</ul></li>
+
+<li>2009
+<ul>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
+
+</ul></li>
+
+<li>2008
+<ul>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
+
+</ul></li>
+
+</ul>
+
+
+
+<h2>Tags</h2>
+<ul>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
+
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+
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+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (7)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (12)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (77)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (132)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (9)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (199)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (21)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (11)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (11)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (35)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (6)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (18)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (8)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (6)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (25)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (234)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (152)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (8)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (44)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (65)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (2)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (7)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (29)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (4)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (43)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (3)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (7)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (15)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (1)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (7)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (38)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
+
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (26)</a></li>
+
+</ul>
+
+
+ </div>
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