Hello, i have been trying to figure out how to make my backlight go off when i close the lid of a dell 600m. I have tried adding different scripts to /etc/acpi/ and event, actions directory's. It doesn't seem to do anything when i close the lid or push the lid switch myself. the backlight will go out automatically after about 15 minutes which i think is the setterm working. I have 2.6.9 installed, wirless working, sound working, radeon working, and a usb mouse If i could just figure out how to get the backlight to turn off when the lid is closed and turn back on when the lid is open then that would kick ass. The only other thing i can think of that i may have changed is i did click on the button in the Klaptop that says "Setup helper Application". Thanks for the help everyone.

Do you have (ACPI_BUTTON) built-in your kernel?

yes, i have everything built in for acpi...

# Power management options (ACPI, APM)
#
CONFIG_PM=y
# CONFIG_PM_DEBUG is not set
CONFIG_SOFTWARE_SUSPEND=y
CONFIG_PM_STD_PARTITION="/dev/hda3"

#
# ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) Support
#
CONFIG_ACPI=y
CONFIG_ACPI_BOOT=y
CONFIG_ACPI_INTERPRETER=y
CONFIG_ACPI_SLEEP=y
CONFIG_ACPI_SLEEP_PROC_FS=y
CONFIG_ACPI_AC=y
CONFIG_ACPI_BATTERY=y
CONFIG_ACPI_BUTTON=y
CONFIG_ACPI_FAN=y
CONFIG_ACPI_PROCESSOR=y
CONFIG_ACPI_THERMAL=y# Power management options (ACPI, APM)
#
CONFIG_PM=y
# CONFIG_PM_DEBUG is not set
CONFIG_SOFTWARE_SUSPEND=y
CONFIG_PM_STD_PARTITION="/dev/hda3"

#
# ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) Support
#
CONFIG_ACPI=y
CONFIG_ACPI_BOOT=y
CONFIG_ACPI_INTERPRETER=y
CONFIG_ACPI_SLEEP=y
CONFIG_ACPI_SLEEP_PROC_FS=y
CONFIG_ACPI_AC=y
CONFIG_ACPI_BATTERY=y
CONFIG_ACPI_BUTTON=y
CONFIG_ACPI_FAN=y
CONFIG_ACPI_PROCESSOR=y
CONFIG_ACPI_THERMAL=y
# CONFIG_ACPI_ASUS is not set
# CONFIG_ACPI_TOSHIBA is not set
CONFIG_ACPI_BLACKLIST_YEAR=0
# CONFIG_ACPI_DEBUG is not set
CONFIG_ACPI_BUS=y
CONFIG_ACPI_EC=y
CONFIG_ACPI_POWER=y
CONFIG_ACPI_PCI=y
CONFIG_ACPI_SYSTEM=y
CONFIG_X86_PM_TIMER=y

#
# APM (Advanced Power Management) BIOS Support
#
# CONFIG_APM is not set

# CONFIG_ACPI_ASUS is not set
# CONFIG_ACPI_TOSHIBA is not set
CONFIG_ACPI_BLACKLIST_YEAR=0
# CONFIG_ACPI_DEBUG is not set
CONFIG_ACPI_BUS=y
CONFIG_ACPI_EC=y
CONFIG_ACPI_POWER=y
CONFIG_ACPI_PCI=y
CONFIG_ACPI_SYSTEM=y
CONFIG_X86_PM_TIMER=y

#
# APM (Advanced Power Management) BIOS Support
#
# CONFIG_APM is not set


the /proc/acpi/button/lid/LID/state also works, i can check it and it says open then push the lid button myself and check it again and it says closed.

Have you Googled to see if this is a bug in your specific laptop?
Or perhaps check the LKML archives to see if it's a bug in 2.6.9?
I'm running 2.6.12.2 on my Toshiba lappy. Though it won't reboot
with ACPI built in the kernel (halt only), the backlight shuts off
when I close the lid. And I just checked via ssh and found that
it does display right closed as well as it did open. I also have on
that box right now 2.4.31, 2.6.11.12, 2.6.12, and 2.6.12.1 and
they all work, also.

I don't know why you have 2 ACPI and 2 APM sections in your
kernel, either. I don't configure APM, also. Here's my 2.6.12.2

sorry, i think i accidently pasted it twice... and also i noticed that if i build the kernel with apm instead of acpi then the lid works fine but it doesn't monitor the battery. When i googled it brought me here and it has been more useful than the acpi page or anything else. Thanks a ton for the help. I think it runs its scripts from /proc/acpi and it had some defaut scripts in there i tried to rename them to default.old and whatever the other one was i renamed to old. the default was in events subdir I created the actions sub directory and checked file permissions and everything. even tried killing acpi and restarting it...

Thank you for the help

Sorry I can't really help you with this issue. You need to use Google like you
own it, and also search LKML. I have an issue with my Toshiba, and I've done
everything I've read on Google, plus received a lot of help from other Slackers,
but it just won't reboot with ACPI in the kernel. It will halt only, unless I remove
ACPI ... which I'm not going to do, because I want to see the CPU temp.

Here's some of what I found about your issue:

This guy says he can't get it to work, either.

This guy says you need the radeontool to black out your screen on lid close,
from info he read on this guys site.

I found those 2 from Linux-on-Laptops. There's more posts on that page, and you
should also search TuxMobil.

Thanks for the info, i have noticed that when running winblowz xb if you disable the atixx tsr then the screen wont blank. so maybe it is just something with the radeon card. acpi seems to work with everything else i even use powernowd for freq scaling and that works perfect. the only odd thing is i installed 10.1 and alone and the screen would never blank even with setterm. what i did this time is install 8.1 and upgrade all the way to 10.1. i have a large collection of slack discs and i worship them daily, just havent been able to sacrafice a mountain dew to it yet... LOL Thanks a lot for the help i'll try that radeon tool.

I see from other posts in LQ that you are Googling, and had already
found some of what I posted for you; and are helping others. I
wish there was something I could tell you, but I don't know. Also
checked the LQ HCL and found this which might at least
give you a couple guys to email who say everything works.

Thanks a ton for the help, i'll get it figured out and post the answer. Have a great day and a very happy forth of july

That did it, had to add the radeon tool and now the screen blanks like it should thanks a ton to Chinaman for the excelent help and to pocketace for getting my wirless figured out a long time ago