Reduce brightness on HP Pavilion dv5-1020ep (Ubuntu 8.10 64 bits)

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 22:37:00 +0000

My brightness function keys always worked, but suddenly they stopped working as well as the “Reduce backlight brightness” option in Power Management Preferences :( Every time I unplugged my power cord the monitor dimmed automatically. Now not even with the function keys I get my brightness down.

This happened in my HP Pavilion dv5-1020ep running Ubuntu 8.10 64 bits.

Here some additional info after searching in the Ubuntu forums and Google:

HP Pavilion dv5-1020ep (Ubuntu 64 bits)

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 21:49:00 +0100

My old laptop’s battery is dying, and I used that as an excuse to buy myself a new on :-)

I had a HP Pavilion zt3240EA, and have been very happy with it. Nice machine. Still, age weights on every one.

I’m gonna be installing Ubuntu 8.04.1 LTS Desktop Edition, 64 bits version, on my new HP Pavilion dv5-1020ep.

Download and Burn a CD

Go to Ubuntu Download Page and download Ubuntu.
Check the downloaded file hash. The output must be the same as you see in the Ubuntu Hashes Page.

1md5sum ubuntu-8.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso

Burn a cd (you can use Brasero, for example, if you already use Ubuntu).

Running the live cd

Boot from the cd.
After booting it’s important to check the integrity of the cd. Burning cds also fails.

Hardware to check (during the live cd session)

Graphics (only 1024x768, but check)
Sound (check)
Media buttons (check)
Cable network (check)
Wireless network (the proprietary Atheros wireless card was found, not tested)
HP media command (not working)
Integrated Webcam (check)

Hard Drive Partition Layout

1/dev/sda
2 /dev/sda1 ntfs Vista 		36002 MB
3 /dev/sda ntfs Vista Recover 8450 MB
4 /dev/sda3 ext3 / 	 10240 MB
5 /dev/sda5 ext3 /home 	10240 MB
6 /dev/sda6 ext3 /storage 	94072 MB
7 /dev/sda7 swap 1028 MB

Post-install: Graphics Card

I installed EnvyNG using the Synaptic Package Manager (look for envyng-gtk) and just had to run it (Applications > System Tools > EnvyNG), after closing Synaptic (important), and choose to “Install the ATI driver (Automatic Hardware Detection)” option.

New laptop

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 18:50:00 +0100

Just bought a new HP Pavilion dv5-1020ep.

Downloading 64 bits Ubuntu and almost ready to install it. I’ll write a post about it.

HP Pavilion Dv5-1020ep on paapereira.xyz