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authorFrancis Rowe <info@gluglug.org.uk>2014-07-11 08:53:00 +0000
committerMichał Masłowski <mtjm@mtjm.eu>2014-08-22 19:01:19 +0200
commitcee90ae0fce6d6aee8d78969b60c952c8890abd6 (patch)
tree6cbca259e213f5ffbc3927121e662c0377938cce /docs/i945_backlight.html
Libreboot release 6 beta 1.
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+<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html lang="en">
+<head>
+ <meta charset="utf-8">
+ <title>i945 backlight in libreboot</title>
+
+ <style type="text/css">
+ body {
+ font-family: sans-serif;
+ font-size: 1em;
+ background: #fff;
+ color: #000;
+ }
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+ </style>
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+ <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
+ <meta name="author" content="glugman">
+ <meta name="description" content="tutorials for libreboot, the reboot library.">
+ <meta name="robots" content="all">
+</head>
+
+<body>
+
+ <header>
+ <h1 id="pagetop">i945 backlight controls on X60/T60</h1>
+ </header>
+
+ <p>
+ <a href="index.html">back to index</a>
+ </p>
+
+<hr/>
+
+ <h2>Contents</h2>
+ <ul>
+ <li><a href="#x60_native_notes">X60 native graphics initialization (backlight controls)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#t60_native_notes">T60 native graphics initialization (backlight controls)</a></li>
+ </ul>
+
+<hr/>
+
+ <h1 id="x60_native_notes">X60 native graphics initialization (with backlight controls)</h1>
+ <p>
+ <b>The fix below was done on 5320/6 (review.coreboot.org) under src/mainboard/lenovo/x60/devicetree.cb</b>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Works on the ThinkPad X60, X60s and X60 Tablet. This change is also included by default in libreboot 6th release.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <b>Add backlight controls:</b> in <i>src/mainboard/lenovo/x60/devicetree.cb</i>, change <b>gpu_backlight</b> to <b>0x879F879E</b>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ That's all! <b>This was also backported into libreboot 5th release (line 1233 in src/mainboard/lenovo/x60/i915io.c)</b>. GNUtoo (Denis Carikli)
+ told me about the register <b>BLC_PWM_CTL</b> and that you could set it to control backlight. I read that address using devmem2 while running the VBIOS:<br/>
+ <b># devmem2 0xe4361254 w</b>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ When doing this, it gave back that value. The same trick was used to get backlight controls for T60 (see <a href="#t60_native_notes">#t60_native_notes</a>).
+ </p>
+
+ <h2>Further notes (as of 6th libreboot release, initial revision)</h2>
+ <p>
+ Reading <b>0xe4361254</b> (address) in Lenovo BIOS always yields FFFFFFFF, even when writing to it (and writing to it doesn't affect brightness controls).
+ 'mtjm' on IRC found that the buttons (Fn keys) control /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0 which has no affect on 61254 (BLC_PWM_CTL). He says
+ intel_backlight has different values and uses the register. devmem2 works, needs checking <b>lspci -vv</b> for where the memory is mapped,
+ which is different than on coreboot; mtjm found that it was 0xec061254 on his machine (X60 Tablet), and the register value is different too.
+ <b>This is relevant, because we still don't know how backlight controls are actually handled. We got it working by accident. We need to know more.</b>.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Intel-gpu-tools may prove useful for further debugging: <a href="http://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/app/intel-gpu-tools/">http://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/app/intel-gpu-tools/</a>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ mtjm says 0xe4300000 is an MMIO region of the gpu (lspci -vv shows it), 0x61254 (BLC_PWM_CTL) is a documented register. Searching the kernel driver for backlight
+ shows that in intel_panel.c this register is used (there is an XXX comment about finding the right value, where recent kernels get it from.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ What we want to do is calculate a good value, instead of setting it in devicetree.cb. mtjm says about backlight physics:
+ it has a light source , uses pulse width modulation (PWM) to turn it on/off, dimming is done by spending less time on.
+ <b>Note: this may not be correct; he says his understanding is based on how the Lenote yeeloong works</b>.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ mtjm goes on to say, that the register specifies the frequency used for PWM in its depending on the GPU core frequency, so it
+ might be possible to calculate it without hardcoded laptop-specific values. Therefore, I am supposed to find out the 'display core frequency'
+ (mtjm says there might be a register for it; also, it might be in 5320 or the replay code) and the PWM modulation frequency.
+ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backlight#Flicker_due_to_backlight_dimming
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ phcoder (Vladimir Serbinenko) who is author of 5320 (review.coreboot.org) talks about 'duty cycle limit' and 'flickering frequency'.
+ </p>
+
+ <p><a href="#pagetop">Back to top of page</a></p>
+
+<hr/>
+
+ <h1 id="t60_native_notes">T60 native graphics initialization (with backlight controls)</h1>
+ <p>
+ <b>The fix below was done on an earlier version of 5345 (review.coreboot.org) cherry-picked on top of 5320 checkout, but also works on the current version.</b>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ This change is also included by default in libreboot 6th release.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <b>Add backlight controls:</b> in <i>src/mainboard/lenovo/t60/devicetree.cb</i>, change <b>gpu_backlight</b> to <b>0x58BF58BE</b>
+ </p>
+
+ <p><a href="#pagetop">Back to top of page</a></p>
+
+<hr/>
+
+ <p>
+ Copyright &copy; 2014 Francis Rowe, All Rights Reserved.<br/>
+ See <a href="license.html">license.html</a> for license conditions.
+ </p>
+
+</body>
+</html>
+