Backlight and web camera issue on Acer Nitro AN515-58

Scinti
Scinti Member Posts: 2 New User
in Linux

Hi! I have a notebook Acer Nitro AN515-58 and I had installed Ubuntu on it instead of Win11.

It has 2 issues: 1) the web camera doesn't work; 2) the brightness control doesn't work.

I had tried to reinstall Ubuntu 20.04 / 22.04 multiple times, but that didn't help.

So, my current configuration: Ubuntu 22.04, kernel 5.19.0-35-generic, Nvidia-drivers version 530.30.02, nouveau blacklisted.

1)Web camera issue the same as in this post with the same outputs:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AcerNitro/comments/ys6k0o/acer_nitro_5_an51558_no_driver_linux_for_camera/

They say that there is a problem with drivers, but I have available Acer Nitro AN515-57 with the same camera and Ubuntu 20.04 and it has no issues. So, I would be grateful for a piece of advice on what I can check.

2)Brightness control doesn't work

Slider on the menu, fn+keys, xbacklight can't change my brightness. After logging out/suspending and reentering it also doesn't work.

I tried:

  • Different Nvidia drivers (515, 525, 530, all proprietary, not open)
  • Ubuntu 20/22
  • Adding Option “RegistryDwords” “EnableBrightnessControl=1” to Nvidia config (freezing during boot)
  • Deleting xorg.conf.new (nothing). Reinstalling xorg server
  • nvidia-xconfig (freezing during boot)
  • Adding acpi_backlight=.. (all combinations) to grub (nothing changed)
  • Adding "nvidia.NVreg_EnableBacklightHandler=1" to grub (nothing)
  • It also doesn't work without Nvidia drivers (xorg-xserver nouveau)

Please, help me)

Answers

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,885 Trailblazer

    What BIOS firmware version number do you have? Two recent updates released in the past month might affect part of your issues.

    Jack E/NJ

  • rpaco
    rpaco Member Posts: 3 New User

    Did you find a solution? I have the same problem with the background light control.

    I have also tried everything you mention.

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,206 Trailblazer

    The AN515-58 models have been out long enough now that the Linux kernel developers should have done support for them by now. Which distribution are you running?

    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • rpaco
    rpaco Member Posts: 3 New User
    https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1216899#Comment_1216899

    I am running Ubuntu 22.04.02 LTS with 6.2.0-26 generic.

  • wagnasla
    wagnasla Member Posts: 2 New User
    edited September 2023

    abcdefg124563

  • wagnasla
    wagnasla Member Posts: 2 New User 

    Hi! 😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊

    
I noticed that there wasn't an answer yet, but if anyone has the same problem with brightess, watch this video:

    
it solved my problem and the explanation is very detailed

    Click here!

    
However about the camera problem I am also facing so if anyone knows how to solve it it will be very useful.

  • rpaco
    rpaco Member Posts: 3 New User

    Backlight problem solved by the video as indicated by wagnasia above.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeMuvjgM2U0&t=3s&ab_channel=TechnoPhoenix

    In short having tried all the other suggested grub edits this one worked . As copied from the video

    GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DFAULT="quiet splash pcie_aspm=force acpi_acklight=native"

    BTW I am now using "Grub Customiser" to modify grub as it is much faster and automatically updates grub.

    ( https://itsfoss.com/install-grub-customizer-ubuntu/ )

    Many thanks to all those who tried to help.

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,885 Trailblazer

    Thanks for reports.

    Jack E/NJ

  • Scinti
    Scinti Member Posts: 2 New User

    Thank you all for the replies, sorry that I ghosted.

    I'm afraid of updating BIOS because I deleted Windows and installed Ubuntu, and then I discovered that BIOS should be updated only using Windows.

    So, I found some temporary solutions to these problems:

    1. Web camera

    - From Ubuntu Software & updates enable source code
    - fetch the source code with the following in terminal

    apt-get source linux-modules-extra-$(uname -r)

    - Then navigate to the /drivers/media/usb/uvc directory and rename the uvcdriver.c to uvcdriver.old, choose open directory in terminal then

    wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Giuliano69/uvc_driver-for-Quanta-HD-User-Facing-0x0408-0x4035-/main/uvc_driver.c

    make -j4 -C /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/build M=$(pwd) modules
    sudo cp uvcvideo.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/media/usb/uvc/

    Then the web camera works, but you should do it again after every Ubuntu update.

    2. Backlight

    I discovered this repo that contains scripts that modify the actual_backlight file to manage brightness. It also can be bonded to keys which is very convenient. However, this work only for kernels 5.15 - 5.19. With 6.2 it didn't work for me.

    GitHub - MasterDevX/linux-backlight-controller: A simple shell script to control brightness at hardware level 

    Download script 

    chmod 777 ./brightness.sh 

    Try to execute

    Bind to keys (Settings -> Keyboard shortcuts -> Custom shortcuts) 

    sudo /usr/bin/bash /path/to/script/backlight.sh + 5 

    sudo /usr/bin/bash /path/to/script/backlight.sh - 5 

    Add commands to sudoers 

    https://askubuntu.com/questions/159007/how-do-i-run-specific-sudo-commands-without-a-password

    sudo EDITOR=nano visudo -f /etc/sudoers.d/brightness 

    user_name ALL=(ALL:ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/bash  /path/to/script/backlight.sh * 

    reboot


    For convenience, I also created a separate script that shows the current brightness level as a notification, because Ubuntu still doesn't show this.

    It works a bit slowly but really modifies brightness, so, it worked for me.

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,885 Trailblazer
    edited September 2023

    I'm afraid of updating BIOS because I deleted Windows and installed
    Ubuntu, and then I discovered that BIOS should be updated only using
    Windows.

    Yes, good decision. Also a good decision to install Linux alongside a small or even medium size Windows partition —— to make BIOS updates and other system tweaks perhaps less stressful & frustrating when they seem to be needed. Storage media are so big, so fast & so cheap nowadays, there's little or no reason not to have multi-boot capability just in case. Thanks for your report and workarounds. 🙂

    Jack E/NJ

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,206 Trailblazer

    I believe you can also do BIOS updates from the Windows install command prompt environment…

    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.

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