[Guide] Laptop backlight control using AppleBacklightFixup.kext

[RehabMan]

I regret not having been so expressive, or having seen it before, I was absent for a while.
The problem had been solved, in fact, I think having InjextKexts in "detect" was what made the difference. Also keep in mind that if I change that option, the sound stops working.
Anyway, the SSDT-PNLF.aml you gave me should be better than the one I was using because when I followed the guide I only found the SSDT-PNLF.dsl and had to recompile it on my own.
regards

The fix has already been made in the github SSDT-PNLF.dsl.
So, simply following the guide in post #1 should suffice.
And yes, correct kext configuration/installation is important (InjectKexts=Detect, all kexts you need installed to /L/E).

 

[timnan]

I have a TP 410s with i5-540m which is very similar to yours regarding to hardwares. The ACPI tables are almost the same names meaning no ssdt-1 but ssdt-1-tp-6u, it seems very different from most other people.
I have tried the acpibacklight, intelbacklights and applebacklightinjector but no lucky to have a brightness slider under 10.13.2 so far. I even don't have a perfect bright slider when using acpibacklight under Mavericks. However, the good thing is that the Fn keys always natively function very well under both Mavericks and High Sierra.
RehabMan mentioned the hot patch for the AppleIntelHDGraphicsFB. The vanilla kext is needed in order to be fully functional. So probably it is not possible to have the ddst-pnlf/applebacklight work for the 1st gen intel HD graphics with dual link display under either high sierra or sierra because there is no such hotpatch available for dual link/lvds graphic card under high sierra. The only thing available is the patched kext which is from the old patched AppleIntelHDgraphics.kext from 10.10.5. This version is fine when installed in HighSierra as I have qeci and I don't feel anything wrong with it. I am guessing you are using the same kext.
I will go back to El Capitan before a hot patch becomes available to this particular laptop.

Btw, I have another major issue: all devices on external USB ports lost after wake up from sleep, replug won't work. I need USB working because this laptop mostly will be used play music via a USB dac. Other than that I feel it is perfect.
Do you have the same issue? How do you fix it?

Hey,

Thank you for looking into this and providing some suggestions.
My laptop, as mentioned in my signature, is using a i5-540M CPU. The CPU is part of the Arrandale family and not Sandy Bridge. That's also the reason why I do not have a HD3000 graphics card.
Are you suggesting that the HD3000 plist will also work for my GPU?
I have followed this guide to get QE/CI to work: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/286092-guide-1st-generation-intel-hd-graphics-qeci/
The only way that I got it to work is by using a modified AppleIntelHDGraphicsFB.kext that is part of the guide.
With the vanilla kexts I got four squares. My research showed that this is an issue with single vs. dual link. As stated the modified kext appears to be the only solution in this case.

Also your guide indicates that for older CPUs than Sandy Bridge (like mine) it is recommended not to use a SSDT.aml. I have tried both and in my current setup, AppleLPC, AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement and AppleACPIPlatform are all loaded es expected.
HWMonitor also indicates that my CPU is throttling down. Doesn't that mean that power management is working?

kextstat | grep -y applelpc
  103    0 0xffffff7f82596000 0x3000     0x3000     com.apple.driver.AppleLPC (3.1) 7C24E741-BD4A-3917-83AC-E956A03ADC20 <90 12 5 4 3>

kextstat | grep -y appleintelcpu
   36    0 0xffffff7f82789000 0x2a000    0x2a000    com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement (220.0.0) 4BB49F48-7F77-3953-8E5D-681505368DF8 <7 6 5 4 3 1>
   48    0 0xffffff7f82784000 0x3000     0x3000     com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient (220.0.0) 931165F8-BA12-3CBF-9987-2DD9B5FF9AFA <7 6 5 4 3 1>

kextstat | grep -y acpiplat
   15    2 0xffffff7f82936000 0x9c000    0x9c000    com.apple.driver.AppleACPIPlatform (6.1) 1804645B-B360-305E-B1BE-916F5E3E1CC4 <14 13 12 11 7 6 5 4 3 1>

Thank you for the tip regarding my "SSDT-0-TP-6Q". I modified this SSDT because it contained references to "VID", which I changed to "IGPU".
I have attached a zip file that also contains the native ACPI data.

Thanks.

 

[RehabMan]

I have a TP 410s with i5-540m which is very similar to yours regarding to hardwares. The ACPI tables are almost the same names meaning no ssdt-1 but ssdt-1-tp-6u, it seems very different from most other people.
I have tried the acpibacklight, intelbacklights and applebacklightinjector but no lucky to have a brightness slider under 10.13.2 so far. I even don't have a perfect bright slider when using acpibacklight under Mavericks. However, the good thing is that the Fn keys always natively function very well under both Mavericks and High Sierra.
RehabMan mentioned the hot patch for the AppleIntelHDGraphicsFB. The vanilla kext is needed in order to be fully functional. So probably it is not possible to have the ddst-pnlf/applebacklight work for the 1st gen intel HD graphics with dual link display under either high sierra or sierra because there is no such hotpatch available for dual link/lvds graphic card under high sierra. The only thing available is the patched kext which is from the old patched AppleIntelHDgraphics.kext from 10.10.5. This version is fine when installed in HighSierra as I have qeci and I don't feel anything wrong with it. I am guessing you are using the same kext.
I will go back to El Capitan before a hot patch becomes available to this particular laptop.

Btw, I have another major issue: all devices on external USB ports lost after wake up from sleep, replug won't work. I need USB working because this laptop mostly will be used play music via a USB dac. Other than that I feel it is perfect.
Do you have the same issue? How do you fix it?

If the FB kext is patched to change the PWMMax, just make sure you set RMCF.LMAX to match.

 

[dithy]

Hi, I've followed all instruction for for enable backlight control to my dell laptop but there's no slider on Display Preferences. I Attach all required file's

 

[RehabMan]

Hi, I've followed all instruction for for enable backlight control to my dell laptop but there's no slider on Display Preferences. I Attach all required file's

Your kextcache output proves kexts are not installed correctly.
All kexts you need must be installed to the system volume.
Read post #2 of the Clover guide for details:
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/guide-booting-the-os-x-installer-on-laptops-with-clover.148093/

Also read post #1 regarding EDID product ID spoof.

 

[dithy]

Yay it's working now, idk but I think at the first try all kext didn't loaded correctly but after repair permission, rebuild cache, then reboot and it's working now. The only problem now is my audio alc255 I can't get this to works, I followed guide to patching AppleHDA (DSDT,Clover config) but still no luck. Can you point me where I can get some reference? Thanks for your help

 

[RehabMan]

YThe only problem now is my audio alc255 I can't get this to works

Off-topic. Read the laptop FAQ.
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/faq-read-first-laptop-frequent-questions.164990/

 

[mrzapadoodle]

Read post #1 regarding EDID.
Also, MacBookPro14,2 is a poor choice. Use MacBookPro14,1 instead.
Also, unrelated, but you have not implemented CPU PM.

Thanks for your feedback. I have now changed the SMBIOS to MacbookPro14,1 (I remembered, that I had used it before on 12.12.6) and I now inject the EDID productId provided in post #1 with Clover.

I still have no brightness controls with the .kext and KextPatch. Without .kext and KextPatch the brightness controls are present but have wrong levels (as expected)

Regarding PM: my laptop is not working with ssdtPrGen PM nor with XPCM (Kernel Panics with both variants). The only chance to get all native p-states working is Intel HWP. I am aware that my system looks like not having CPU PM, but as far as I can see, my CPU PM is working correctly.

I uploaded new problem reporting files.

Thanks again for your opinion!

 

[RehabMan]

Thanks for your feedback. I have now changed the SMBIOS to MacbookPro14,1 (I remembered, that I had used it before on 12.12.6) and I now inject the EDID productId provided in post #1 with Clover.

I still have no brightness controls with the .kext and KextPatch. Without .kext and KextPatch the brightness controls are present but have wrong levels (as expected)

Regarding PM: my laptop is not working with ssdtPrGen PM nor with XPCM (Kernel Panics with both variants). The only chance to get all native p-states working is Intel HWP. I am aware that my system looks like not having CPU PM, but as far as I can see, my CPU PM is working correctly.

I uploaded new problem reporting files.

Thanks again for your opinion!

Don't forget about rebuild cache, reboot.
Clover patches cannot take effect until the target kext is in cache.

 

[mrzapadoodle]

Don't forget about rebuild cache, reboot.
Clover patches cannot take effect until the target kext is in cache.

Thanks again for your effort!

I rebuilt it according to your guide on page 1: Installed .kext and KextPatch, rebooted, invalidated kextcache with

sudo kextcache -i /

, rebooted again. Not working.

I also tried to generate a custom EDID with the ruby script by tosbaha, but with that in place, my panel is not recognized correctly anymore (displaying crazy colors and identified only as "Color Display" in SystemPreferences). Injecting the MacbookPro EDID ProductId with Clover seems to work without problems (however, without any EDID patch/change my display and brightness levels worked flawlessly until 10.13.3), but doesn't help with the backlight levels.

I also rebuild the SSDT-PNLF.aml with the current master branch of the guide-repo and pulled latest changes of both repos, but there doesn’t seem to be any major changes on the backlight components. Then I tried a patched AppleBacklightInjector.kext from your probook-repo, not working too.

@ALL: are the backlight controls (via guide in post #1) working for anybody since 10.13.3?