From: Anghel Mihai-Alexandru <mih@ianghel.com>
To: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>,
Shuah Khan <skhan@linuxfoundation.org>,
Randy Dunlap <rdunlap@infradead.org>,
linux-doc@vger.kernel.org
Cc: Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <hmh@hmh.eng.br>,
Mark Pearson <mpearson-lenovo@squebb.ca>,
"Derek J . Clark" <derekjohn.clark@gmail.com>,
platform-driver-x86@vger.kernel.org,
linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
Anghel Mihai-Alexandru <mih@ianghel.com>
Subject: [PATCH] Documentation: thinkpad-acpi: fix backlight power attribute name
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 2026 14:46:42 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20261115124642.983197-1-mih@ianghel.com> (raw)
The sysfs notes called the thinkpad_screen attribute "power". The
generic backlight class names it "bl_power", so the docs now use that
name and describe its values (0 on, 4 off). The intro now points to
the backlight class documentation instead of saying it is poorly
documented.
AI-assisted: Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Claude Haiku 5.5.
Signed-off-by: Anghel Mihai-Alexandru <mih@ianghel.com>
---
.../admin-guide/laptops/thinkpad-acpi.rst | 29 ++++++++++++-------
1 file changed, 18 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)
diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/laptops/thinkpad-acpi.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/laptops/thinkpad-acpi.rst
index db4588af0278..f6377fad3aa0 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/laptops/thinkpad-acpi.rst
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/laptops/thinkpad-acpi.rst
@@ -1066,8 +1066,9 @@ The available commands are::
Sysfs notes
^^^^^^^^^^^
-The interface is implemented through the backlight sysfs class, which is
-poorly documented at this time.
+The interface is implemented through the backlight sysfs class. See
+Documentation/gpu/backlight.rst and
+Documentation/ABI/stable/sysfs-class-backlight for details.
Locate the thinkpad_screen device under /sys/class/backlight, and inside
it there will be the following attributes:
@@ -1082,17 +1083,23 @@ it there will be the following attributes:
brightness:
Writes request the driver to change brightness to the
given value. Reads will tell you what brightness the
- driver is trying to set the display to when "power" is set
- to zero and the display has not been dimmed by a kernel
+ driver is trying to set the display to when "bl_power" is
+ zero and the display has not been dimmed by a kernel
power management event.
- power:
- power management mode, where 0 is "display on", and 1 to 3
- will dim the display backlight to brightness level 0
- because thinkpad-acpi cannot really turn the backlight
- off. Kernel power management events can temporarily
- increase the current power management level, i.e. they can
- dim the display.
+ bl_power:
+ Backlight power management mode, provided by the generic
+ backlight class. 0 (BACKLIGHT_POWER_ON) turns the display
+ on, and 4 (BACKLIGHT_POWER_OFF) powers the display down;
+ the driver decides how to blank the output. 1
+ (BACKLIGHT_POWER_REDUCED) is deprecated. Any other
+ non-zero value is also treated as blank. Kernel power
+ management events can temporarily blank the display.
+
+ thinkpad-acpi gets its brightness from
+ backlight_get_brightness(), which yields zero while the
+ display is blank, so the backlight level is set to zero
+ in that case.
WARNING:
--
2.54.0
reply other threads:[~2026-11-15 12:46 UTC|newest]
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