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// Fixing not working backlight controls on Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid @ HP Compaq 615 notebook

Ubuntu generally works like a charm on the HP Compaq 615 low-budget notebook. I own one since ~1 year, using the proprietary ATI Radeon driver provided by Ubuntu's Hardware Driver Assistant for the on-board Radeon HD 3200 graphic card. Never had any problems with it.

However, since Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid the display background lighting controls/buttons do not work properly with the proprietary driver recommended by Ubuntu's Hardware Driver Assistant (System→Administration→Hardware Drivers). To fix this problem, simply upgrade to the newest ATI Radeon Driver provided by AMD:

  1. Deactivate the currently used proprietary ATI Radeon driver (System→Administration→Hardware Drivers) and reboot afterwards to be on the safe side.
  2. Download the newest driver from http://support.amd.com/: Download graphics drivers → Integrated Motherboard Graphics → Radeon HD 3xxx Series → Radeon HD 3200 Series → Linux x86_64 (for 64bit systems) or Linux x86 (for 32bit systems)
  3. Open a terminal, make the downloaded ati-driver-installer-<version>.run file executable and start it with superuser privileges:
    chmod a+rx /path/to/ati-driver-installer-<version>.run
    sudo /path/to/ati-sriver-installer-<version>.run
  4. An installation wizard will start → Install Driver → Automatic. After rebooting your system, everything should be fine. You may delete the downloaded file now.

Please note: you have to do this again after you are installing a kernel update. If the new driver is not compatible to your kernel, you can always switch back to the one shipped with Ubuntu.

Update 2010-11-03: backlight controls are working out of the box on Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick and the proprietary ATI driver provided by Ubuntu's additional driver wizard.

I'm no native speaker (English)
Please let me know if you find any errors (I want to improve my English skills). Thank you!
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