brightness is broken on MSI WIND U100

I can confirm this

I've the exact same behavior on my MSI Wind U100 with up-to-date Karmic (Jaunty upgrade installation)

I observe the very same problem on MSI Wind U90x on the up to date Karmic UNR (2009-09-15) system.

Brightness changes back and forth for a while. If you wait, the flashing actually stops, when the battery icon appears, both in GDM screen and in the desktop as well. Combined with notify-osd it is very annoying.

The problem remains. MSI U100, daily build karmic-netbook-remix, 2009-09-22

I have the same on my MSI WIND U100, Karmic up-to-date

I have the same on my MSI WIND U100, arch up-to-day.
Found describe http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=79151. Fix problem rollback udev.

I have the same problem on up-to-date Karmic UNR and MSI Wind. For me the flickering doesn't go away. I have I run gnome-power-manager on the command line the flickering stops although it complains that the power manager is already running. after a while of inactivity it starts to flicker again and i need to run gnome-power-manager again for it to go away.

ok, if i kill gnome-power-manger the brightness stays the same. ah well, now i don't get notified when the battery runs out...

I am having the same problem with a brand new MSI Wind U123. One odd thing is that the behavior did not start occuring until I upgraded the ram of the laptop from 1GB DDR2 667 to 2GB DDR2 800. It may have been coincedence. If there is interest I can swap the old stick back in and see if the problem persists.

Stopping gnome-power-manager stop the flickering, but obviously this is not a good solution

Issuing:

xrandr --output LVDS --set BACKLIGHT_CONTROL combination

makes the flickering disappear.

When I issue the command:
  xrandr --output LVDS1 --set BACKLIGHT_CONTROL combination

I get the following error:

 X Error of failed request: BadName (named color or font does not exist)
  Major opcode of failed request: 149 (RANDR)
  Minor opcode of failed request: 11 (RRQueryOutputProperty)
  Serial number of failed request: 25
  Current serial number in output stream: 25

Any idea?

i figured out that if i kill gnome-power-manager and then restart it with the --no-daemon option the flickering goes away and I get to keep the power manager. very odd....

I confirm this, I have a MSI Wind U90.

People,
please stop posting "I confirm" or similar - this bug is ALREADY in status "Confirmed".

It's better to use link "This bug affects me too" (at the top of the page) if you really want to say you experience exactly the same issue.

Is there anybody working on fixing this nasty bug?

I killed gnome-power-manager and it stops the flickering. I restarted it with the --verbose option and got this output. Posting it here just in case it helps.

Here's the output I get when I adjust the brightness and the screen starts flickering.

The errors that get highlighted in red are:

 - using cache for value 62 (probably okay)

 - using cache for value 75 (probably okay)

It seems it's not okay.

I ran gnome-power-manager in a terminal while the screen was flickering, and I got the error (non-verbose mode):

(gnome-power-manager:3346): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: value "nan" of type `gdouble' is invalid or out of range for property `percentage' of type `gdouble'

and while it was flickering I ran

jon@fia:~$ cat /proc/acpi/video/IGD/LCD/brightness
levels: 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
current: 90
jon@fia:~$ cat /proc/acpi/video/IGD/LCD/brightness
levels: 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
current: 90
jon@fia:~$ cat /proc/acpi/video/IGD/LCD/brightness
levels: 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
current: 80
jon@fia:~$ cat /proc/acpi/video/IGD/LCD/brightness
levels: 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
current: 80

so it looks like the brightness is stuck between two levels, and that a percentage values that are not multiples of 10 cause the screen to flicker. If someone could just figure out a way to round up or round down the percentage values for brightness, that might fix it.

Hello

thanks for looking for a solution :-) - hope you may be successful.

I've this problem never seen using Ubuntu 9.04 but now with Ubuntu 9.10 Beta.

My hardware:

Netbook „MSI Wind U100-1616XP Luxury Edition 0011221-SKU201" (gekauft 31.3.09)

Best Regrads from Munich (Germany)

I finally understand what is going on.

The kernel stuffs the keystrokes into the keyboard controller to change the brightness. I have not found this in the kernel source, but putting various numbers to /sys/devices/virtual/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness changes the brightness and makes the halevt -i report the keystrokes.
The gnome-power-manager receives these keystrokes and tries to change the brightness, and as the levels round incorrectly, we have an infinite loop.
There are two possible solutions then:
 - make the gnome-power-manager not attempt to change the brightness on receiving the keystrokes
 - use xrandr --output LVDS --set BACKLIGHT_CONTROL combination
   I have put this line in /etc/X11/Xsession.d/99setbacklittocombination. It works for me. I do not use KMS, for KMS you should put LVDS1 instead of LVDS

About you two solutions, but first... thanks

- gnome-power-manager also change the brightness after couple of minutes of inactivity. So it's not only the keys I think

-the xrandr --output LVDS --set BACKLIGHT_CONTROL combination is not working for me because there is no such option as BACKLIGHT_CONTROL (check with xrandr -v --verbose)

You get an error like
  X Error of failed request: BadName (named color or font does not exist)
  Major opcode of failed request: 149 (RANDR)
  Minor opcode of failed request: 11 (RRQueryOutputProperty)
  Serial number of failed request: 25
  Current serial number in output stream: 25

Hello, I have the same problem over my MSI Wind U100. I noticed, too, that when the desktop is loaded and the brightness box in top right is going crazy, if I press ALT-F1 and I write my login, in the password fields appears ^@^@^@^@^@^@ continuosly; the problem stops when the brightness starts to work properly. Maybe there's a connection between the problems (I.E. something related with the keyboard management that passes a key combination to the gnome-power-manager)?

The solution is:

xrandr --output LVDS --set BACKLIGHT combination

Not BACKLIGHT_CONTROL. And if KMS, use LVDS1 instead of LVDS

Im on a U100. And have what seems to be a quick and nasty work around. For me the problem occurs both on the log in screen and after log in to desktop. I can stop the screen flickering, and make the flickering brightness widget disappear, by pressing the "right click" mouse pad bar (after the desktop is fully up) and holding it for 5-10 seconds. I've no idea why it works, but it does. It is then necessary to delete the new empty folder created by the right click. Hope it works for others. :)

With a final release about 10-days away this would seem to be a major issue. Although several posters are offering "hack suggestions", I have not seen a post that is really addressing the bug. None of the other competing Operating Systems would be able survive the barrage of bad media this type of bug would generate. I am testing, the latest daily builds, of both Ubuntu Netbook Remix, and Kubuntu Netbook and these releases are far from "final release" form. This thread is really not the forum to get up on my soapbox, but it is aggravating to read all of these "hack" solutions. I really would like Ubuntu to gain more momentum, but when going head-to-head with competing OSes being released within 3-months of each other, Ubuntu is not putting is best face forward.

This happens in Kubuntu too, for what it's worth. There is no easy "pkill powerdevil" to stop it, but switching to a tty and back seems to stop the bouncing.

wrongly filled, marking INVALID

I think the solution is to add a hal rule to set laptop_panel.brightness_in_hardware = true for the MSI Wind U100.

Attaching output of "dmidecode -t system" as per request from debfx in #kubuntu-devel.

Felix Geyer,
How to do it?

My system presents itself in a sligthly different way:

# dmidecode 2.9
SMBIOS 2.4 present.

Handle 0x0001, DMI type 1, 27 bytes
System Information
        Manufacturer: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD
        Product Name: U90/U100
        Version: Ver.001
        Serial Number: FFFFFFFF
        UUID: 00020003-0004-0005-0006-000700080009
        Wake-up Type: Power Switch
        SKU Number: To be filled by O.E.M.
        Family: To be filled by O.E.M.

Handle 0x0023, DMI type 12, 5 bytes
System Configuration Options
        Option 1: To Be Filled By O.E.M.

Handle 0x002B, DMI type 32, 20 bytes
System Boot Information
        Status: No errors detected

Issuing:

xrandr --output LVDS1 --set BACKLIGHT combination

doesn't seem to do anything at all. The BACKLIGHT values are listed as (0,8), and I can set the backlight by running

xrandr --output LVDS1 --set BACKLIGHT 5

or something, but neither of these commands stops the flickering. So far, the only thing that stops this loop is either (a) killing gnome-power-manager, or (b) clicking on a drop-down menu and holding the mouse button for around 5 seconds. (this works with a context menu too, i.e. right click, as indicated in one of the comments above)

Could you please post the output of this command on the WIND U100:
lshal | grep sysfs_path | grep acpi_video

  linux.sysfs_path = '/sys/devices/virtual/backlight/acpi_video0' (string)

Applying this patch should fix the problem on karmic with gnome-power-manager.

cd /
sudo patch -p0 < /path/to/msi_u100_brightness_in_hardware.patch

Sorry, it does not work.

I quote the fragment of lshal output below, it seems that the property is set, but the screen flashes when I close the lid and then open it again, when BACKLIGHT_CONTROL=kernel

udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer_backlight'
  info.addons = {'hald-addon-generic-backlight'} (string list)
  info.capabilities = {'laptop_panel'} (string list)
  info.category = 'laptop_panel' (string)
  info.interfaces = {'org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.LaptopPanel'} (string list)
  info.parent = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer' (string)
  info.product = 'Generic Backlight Device' (string)
  info.subsystem = 'backlight' (string)
  info.udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer_backlight' (string)
  laptop_panel.access_method = 'general' (string)
  laptop_panel.brightness_in_hardware = true (bool)
  laptop_panel.num_levels = 9 (0x9) (int)
  linux.hotplug_type = 2 (0x2) (int)
  linux.subsystem = 'backlight' (string)
  linux.sysfs_path = '/sys/devices/virtual/backlight/acpi_video0' (string)

Isn't it a kernel issue?

I can confirm the patch above doesn't help. Backlight still flickers after patch has been applied.

I noticed that when the backlight flickers there is no gnome-power-manager icon in the panel. Restarting g-p-m a number of times until it stops flickering also make the icon appear.

I'm not sure why my patch doesn't fix the issue with gnome-power-manager but it seems to work with KDE powerdevil (once a patch to respect the brightness_in_hardware property has been uploaded).

The MSI Wind seems to send brightness up/down key events on every brightness change and that's exactly what brightness_in_hardware=true indicates.

In the gnome-power-manager this property is used in gpm-brightness-hal.c, but not in gpm-brightness-xrandr.c. I am not sure how it works - are there two ways to set brigthness, one using hal and another one using xrandr? My system uses the functions in gpm-brightness-xrandr.c

I'm marking this bug as fixed for kdebase-workspace (4:4.3.2-0ubuntu7) though it won't actually work until hal-info has been patched.

Felix, wrt comment #37, wouldn't it be that if brightness changes send key events, the brightness would either go all the way to the max or tho the min when one changes it, rather than oscillating between two values?

Stephen Warren [2010-02-09 16:06 -0000]:
> Martin, that explanation makes sense, but can you explain why upgrading
> the BIOS to 10G is also solving the problem for many people? Do you know
> what the BIOS changed w.r.t. brightness handling?

Not really, I'm afraid. It's well possible that the updated BIOS
changes how the "fake" synthesized keypresses were handled, or drops
that behaviour entirely. But I can really just guess here.

I've flashed the bios and now flickering effect has gone... but usb port has
gone too....
I'm seriously thinking of downgrade to 9.04 or migrate to moblin.

2010/2/9 Stephen Warren <email address hidden>

> Martin, that explanation makes sense, but can you explain why upgrading
> the BIOS to 10G is also solving the problem for many people? Do you know
> what the BIOS changed w.r.t. brightness handling? Thanks.
>
> --
> brightness is broken on MSI WIND U100
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/415023
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of a duplicate bug.
>
> Status in Gnome Powermanager: Unknown
> Status in KDE Base Workspace: Invalid
> Status in Ubuntu Release Notes: Fix Released
> Status in “hal-info” package in Ubuntu: Fix Released
> Status in “kdebase-workspace” package in Ubuntu: Fix Released
> Status in “udev” package in Ubuntu: Fix Committed
> Status in “xfce4-power-manager” package in Ubuntu: Invalid
> Status in “hal-info” source package in Lucid: Fix Released
> Status in “kdebase-workspace” source package in Lucid: Fix Released
> Status in “udev” source package in Lucid: Fix Committed
> Status in “xfce4-power-manager” source package in Lucid: Invalid
> Status in Fedora: New
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: gnome-power-manager
>
> Versions : karmic up to date (08-17-09) with gnome-power-manager version
> 2.27.5-0ubuntu2
>
> What should happen : brightness should not flash.
>
> What happens :
>
> Brightness changing seems broken on my MSI wind U 100.
>
> First in GDM it starts flashing for a good 30 seconds and then the same
> problem happened when the Gnome session begins.
>
> Whenever I try to manually change the brightness a bit too fast (using
> the sliders or the keyboard) it start flashing again.
>
>
>
> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/gnome-power/+bug/415023/+subscribe
>

--
-- Giuseppe

This bug was fixed in the package udev - 151-1

---------------
udev (151-1) lucid; urgency=low

  * New upstream release:
    - Support for systems with SYSFS_DEPRECATED=y officially dropped.
    - Bug fixes.
    - Rules updates. LP: #492657, #316215, #259244, #250732.

  * Merge additional fixes from GIT master:
    - Rules updates. LP: #581496, #415023.
    - Fix firmware error reporting.
 -- Scott James Remnant <email address hidden> Wed, 10 Feb 2010 11:50:56 +0000

Can anyone confirm this bug was fixed so I can upgrade to Karmic?

About the last 50 posts were about the fix, how it works, what it does, and what it takes to get it... so yeah, it's fixed...

It is not fixed!
I have just checked the update manager from the administration menu and it doesn't show any updates with regard to this problem. I don't think that an end-user friendly distribution should expect users to enable repositories containing proposed software. I certainly didn't enable anything and I'm still waiting patiently for the fix.

Please, refrain putting comments and comments. It's really confusing now.
This is not yet fixed.
If you use Gnome, the easiest workaround is to install guidance-power-manager (from KDE) and than create a symlink:
$ cd /usr/bin
$ mv gnome-power-manager gnome-power-manager.save
$ ln -sf /usr/share/kde4/apps/guidance-power-manager/guidance-power-manager.py gnome-power-manager

U're wrong. The easiest is to adjust the brightness of
gnome-power-preference to 0%.
By the way, bios update solves the problem.

On Sat, Feb 27, 2010 at 12:32 PM, maxadamo <email address hidden> wrote:

> Please, refrain putting comments and comments. It's really confusing now.
> This is not yet fixed.
> If you use Gnome, the easiest workaround is to install
> guidance-power-manager (from KDE) and than create a symlink:
> $ cd /usr/bin
> $ mv gnome-power-manager gnome-power-manager.save
> $ ln -sf
> /usr/share/kde4/apps/guidance-power-manager/guidance-power-manager.py
> gnome-power-manager
>
> --
> brightness is broken on MSI WIND U100
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/415023
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in Gnome Powermanager: Unknown
> Status in KDE Base Workspace: Invalid
> Status in Ubuntu Release Notes: Fix Released
> Status in “hal-info” package in Ubuntu: Fix Released
> Status in “kdebase-workspace” package in Ubuntu: Fix Released
> Status in “udev” package in Ubuntu: Fix Released
> Status in “xfce4-power-manager” package in Ubuntu: Invalid
> Status in “hal-info” source package in Lucid: Fix Released
> Status in “kdebase-workspace” source package in Lucid: Fix Released
> Status in “udev” source package in Lucid: Fix Released
> Status in “xfce4-power-manager” source package in Lucid: Invalid
> Status in Fedora: New
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: gnome-power-manager
>
> Versions : karmic up to date (08-17-09) with gnome-power-manager version
> 2.27.5-0ubuntu2
>
> What should happen : brightness should not flash.
>
> What happens :
>
> Brightness changing seems broken on my MSI wind U 100.
>
> First in GDM it starts flashing for a good 30 seconds and then the same
> problem happened when the Gnome session begins.
>
> Whenever I try to manually change the brightness a bit too fast (using
> the sliders or the keyboard) it start flashing again.
>
>
>
> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/gnome-power/+bug/415023/+subscribe
>

Hi all,

If I'm wrong, correct me.
For the Ubuntu users, they should wait for above patched are developed, and apply them in updater, before that, we can just use the work around, right?

The solution:

[quote]Martin Pitt wrote on 2010-02-09: #312

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/hotplug/udev.git;a=commit;h=d7e2d38c1f0ead2239808dd117577a99a3ad3cde[/quote]

Where I upgraded gnome-power-manager:

http://linux.bitbaro.hu/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/gnome-power-manager_2.28.1-0ubuntu1-U100_i386.deb

Worked in my MSI Wind U100x without necessity to change BIOS.

Regards

Andre Uebe

Thanks! Andre

It works for my U100Plus.
This problem has been nagging me for a time.

Thanks, Andre! The fix works with 8 levels of brightness through softkeys.
Y

Thanks a lot Andre!!
@ all:
don't even try to change the BIOS (at least: don't do it to fix this issue).
I have the very last version of the BIOS and the screen was flickering.
That's why I was asking the other to refrain tu put confusing information.

Read de old posts: not all the upgrade methods work. One of the method
seems to upgrade (new version is reported at boot) but the firmware is
not (fully?) upgraded. The other method works.

I cannot remember the details. You will have to read the old posts.

Regards.

2010/3/20 maxadamo <email address hidden>:
> Thanks a lot Andre!!
> @ all:
> don't even try to change the BIOS (at least: don't do it to fix this issue).
> I have the very last version of the BIOS and the screen was flickering.
> That's why I was asking the other to refrain tu put confusing information.
>
> --
> brightness is broken on MSI WIND U100
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/415023
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of a duplicate bug.
>

--
Jorge Juan

Thanks Andre!!! It works on my VR420.

Hi,

First, Sorry for my poor English. I installed debian squeeze and I have the same problem. The gnome-system-manager is version 2.28.3.

My solution: I installed xfce and the xcfe-power manager (version 0.8.5) and completely remove gnome-system-manager. This also removes these paqs:

gnome
gnome-accesibility
gnome-core
gnome-desktop-environment

The problem is solved and, by the way, I'm working with xfce that is very fast and easy to use.

It's a partial solution but hope will be helpful for somebody else.

BIOS upgrade to 10G (see #265, #269) fixed it for me too :-)
As others, I can access just 5 levels by hotkeys (seems like 9 levels jumping by 2 each press, hard to prove).
However, after running:

xrandr --output LVDS --set BACKLIGHT_CONTROL combination # no KMS, YMMV

I can access all 9 levels by hotkeys!
What's strange, it keeps working for all BACKLIGHT_CONTROL values, even when I set it back to the original "kernel" value!
So I'm now unable to reproduce the 5 levels situation (will experiment more next time I reboot).

Of the possible BACKLIGHT_CONTROL modes, "kernel" seems best because it allows to read and set the brightness through xrandr:

xrandr -v --verbose | grep -A1 BACKLIGHT
xrandr --output LVDS --set BACKLIGHT 5 # 0..8 inclusive

(again, I'm running with nomodeset => KMS off; xrandr interface details seem to depend on this so YMMV.)

However, with all BACKLIGHT_CONTROL modes, I can read and set the brightness through:

cat /proc/acpi/video/IGD/LCD/brightness
echo 70 | sudo tee /proc/acpi/video/IGD/LCD/brightness # 20..100 inclusive, in steps of 10

The brightness applet is also independent of BACKLIGHT_CONTROL - for all modes, can access all 9 levels but can't read the current level (sometimes its icon says it knows it can't read it, sometimes doesn't - but anyway its level never reflects changes made by hotkeys).

All this leads me to guess the 5-levels issue is still some kind of keystroke-stuffing-triggering-double-adjustment, unrelated to the xrandr interface - but somehow using that xrandr interface once kills this interaction...

Has it anybody tested with Lucid Lynx and can tell if it works?

tested and seems to work

On Mon, Apr 26, 2010 at 16:52, Fruchtpfote <email address hidden> wrote:
> Has it anybody tested with Lucid Lynx and can tell if it works?
>
> --
> brightness is broken on MSI WIND U100
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/415023
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

Concerning the U120: this works perfectly with upgraded BIOS. Using the stock BIOS however will render your netbook useless due to even faster flickering than in Karmic.

Ubuntu 10.04 keeps having the same error. All started with 9.04 I think , a year ago now...

The actual solutions that I know are:

- Disable gnome-power-manager (work for me).
- Updating BIOS (don't want).
- Disable brightness settings of gnome-power-manager, you will be able to change brightness with hot-keys, but only decrease, increasing make the flickering come back for me (don't make any sense, but it happens).

Really, I think it's about time to solve this issue. Ok, perhaps the origin of the problem is something nasty that MSI have done, but I'm sure that there is a software solution. If you need testing or feedback, only ask.

Related: http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=299194

I upgraded to 10.04, I upgraded the bios of my MSI Wind, and the problem has gone.

I installed Lubuntu 10.04 LTS on my U100 with flashed BIOS (flashed with DOS) and what can i say!?
It just works fine! No flickering and now i am able to set brightness in all levels!

Problem still seems to exist on my Wind U-120 and not just Ubuntu but seems to also effect every distro based on Ubuntu. My problem appeared after upgrading from Mint 7 to Mint 8, still no luck with MInt 9 or the newest Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat.

it exist on my VR420 too, hope somebody (like Andre) will try to fix it in ubuntu 10

Guys,

There are no other options. If you want to cure the problem then you will
need to perform a flash upgrade of the BIOS on your MSI Wind. Believe me it
is worth the (minimal) hassle.

On Wed, Jul 7, 2010 at 15:02, kuciy <email address hidden> wrote:

> it exist on my VR420 too, hope somebody (like Andre) will try to fix it
> in ubuntu 10
>
> --
> brightness is broken on MSI WIND U100
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/415023
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of a duplicate bug.
>
> Status in Gnome Powermanager: New
> Status in KDE Base Workspace: Invalid
> Status in Ubuntu Release Notes: Fix Released
> Status in “hal-info” package in Ubuntu: Fix Released
> Status in “kdebase-workspace” package in Ubuntu: Fix Released
> Status in “udev” package in Ubuntu: Fix Released
> Status in “xfce4-power-manager” package in Ubuntu: Invalid
> Status in “hal-info” source package in Lucid: Fix Released
> Status in “kdebase-workspace” source package in Lucid: Fix Released
> Status in “udev” source package in Lucid: Fix Released
> Status in “xfce4-power-manager” source package in Lucid: Invalid
> Status in Fedora: New
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: gnome-power-manager
>
> Versions : karmic up to date (08-17-09) with gnome-power-manager version
> 2.27.5-0ubuntu2
>
> What should happen : brightness should not flash.
>
> What happens :
>
> Brightness changing seems broken on my MSI wind U 100.
>
> First in GDM it starts flashing for a good 30 seconds and then the same
> problem happened when the Gnome session begins.
>
> Whenever I try to manually change the brightness a bit too fast (using
> the sliders or the keyboard) it start flashing again.
>
>
>
> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/gnome-power/+bug/415023/+subscribe
>

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The fix that was introduced here is just simple ignoring of Fn+Brightness keys in hal or lately in udev rules.

But it is not fully close the problem:

 1. When brightness is adjusted by keys it is go up or down 2 steps from one keypressing.
 2. Everytime brightness is adjusted 'Unknown key pressed' messeges is logged.

 And since this bug not only related to WSI Wind but clones too, upgrading the BIOS is not the solution for everyone.

 The patch from 527157 is fixed this and others my issues with brightness (on LG X110)

Using MSI Wind U120. Was facing the flickering display / brightness problem.
Updating the BIOS to 1.0I solved the problem.

Since many people didn't want to(read 'were scared') to update the BIOS, I thought it would be a good idea to write down the simple steps. It took a total of 5 minutes for me in all. This is how I did it:

1. Install 'unetbootin' from synaptic/terminal($sudo apt-get install unetbootin)
2. Insert a USB Drive
3. Launch UNetbootin. It should be in Applications>System
4. Choose Distribution as 'FreeDos'. Select your USB Drive and click OK. It will automatically download and install FreeDOS on your USB.
5. Download BIOS update from:
http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=downloaddetail&type=bios&maincat_no=135&prod_no=1697
and extract the contents into the USB Drive.
6. Boot from the drive, choose 'default' from the main menu, and 'FreeDOS Safe Mode' from the submenu.
7. 'cd' to your USB Drive, where you copied the BIOS files. (It was drive c: for me)
7. Run 'FLASH'. After BIOS update completes, disconnect power & remove battery, and then re-insert it.
8. Start up. The issue is no more.

Long time I did not upgrade from Ubuntu 10.10 because of the workaround of this bug I used was simple: To click on "Applications" icon in the Gnome panel when the screen flickering occurs. But this workaround does not work on the Ubuntu 11.04 or higher. But the reliable Ubuntu 10.10 is not supported now so the upgrade is necessary.

So now when upgrading to Ubuntu 12.04 the flickering continues and I didn't find another workaround to fix it. Even if I choose the old Gnome environment and not Unity.

I have the Czech netbook "Mivvy m310" which is the clone (branch) of the MSI Wind U100 but its HW and also BIOS is not fully identical to the original MSI netbook and the manufacturer of the Mivvy strongly not recomends the BIOS upgrade using the original MSI BIOS.

What should I do? Most workarounds in this thread are obsolete and not working for Ubuntu 12.04. So from my point of view this bug is not fixed yet.

Probably this bug occurs now not in the gnome-power-manager but in gnome-settings-daemon. The only workaround I found is to find the ID of this process and kill it:

ps aux | grep /usr/lib/gnome-settings-daemon/gnome-settings-daemon
kill -HUP id

The flickering vanishes, the daemon restarts itself but sometimes some other parts of the GNOME environment are injured (for example some icons on the panel, the background color etc.) But in all cases there is no way to control the brightness of the LCD – it remains the same i.e. low. So the netbook is usable in the darkness only.

I attach the screenshot: see the flickered brightness icon on the right upper corner. The icon on the top of the left panel shows that the load of processor goes to the maximum. And the icon of the CPU1 frequency (the 3-rd from the top on the left panel) vanishes.

I think this bug should be again reopened.

This bug is still present at Mivvy M310 in 12.04. I am not sure which of the packages should be re-opened. I confirm that the workaround in #344 fixes the issue temporarily.

Hi,
I've an athec lug netbook ("a MSI clone") and also have the blinking brightness problem after upgrade my Ubuntu 10.04 LTS to 12.04 LTS.
Here you have a workaround that is working fine for me:

sudo chmod u-w /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness

And then I can adjust the brightness by keyborad (Fn+...)

Mau

This bug is still present at MSI PR320 (with Kubuntu 12.04.1)

There are some improvements in this area in the upstream 3.9-rc1 and 3.8.2 kernels - see https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=c11ac2aa520b4777e5b063f8d8e99ce00337dcd9 and https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=da8506288fc4b2cc62d0ba477c2fe2a16f8891b0

While not directly related to this bug, you might also be interested in another patch which is also in the upstream 3.9-rc1 and 3.8.2 kernels - https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=0de6575ad0a8f19ccf91d6e783b2a1bba0edb7a5

My apologies. The above patches are not in the upstream 3.8.2 kernel. They are only in 3.9-rc1.

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

lucid has seen the end of its life and is no longer receiving any updates. Marking the lucid task for this ticket as "Won't Fix".