So pressing the fn home/end for brightness alters : /proc/acpi/video/VID/LCD0/brightness doing an: echo '100' >/proc/acpi/video/VID/LCD0/brightness My .config for the kernel is set to: CONFIG_THINKPAD_ACPI_VIDEO=y CONFIG_VIDEO_OUTPUT_CONTROL=m CONFIG_ACPI_VIDEO=m lsmod shows: thinkpad_acpi 70316 0 rfkill 11444 4 iwl3945,thinkpad_acpi led_class 4344 3 iwl3945,sdhci,thinkpad_acpi nvram 7868 1 thinkpad_acpi dmesg shows: thinkpad_acpi: ThinkPad ACPI Extras v0.22 thinkpad_acpi: http://ibm-acpi.sf.net/ thinkpad_acpi: ThinkPad BIOS 7LETA7WW (2.07 ), EC 7KHT24WW-1.08 thinkpad_acpi: Lenovo ThinkPad T61, model 6464Y1E thinkpad_acpi: ACPI backlight control delay disabled thinkpad_acpi: radio switch found; radios are enabled thinkpad_acpi: This ThinkPad has standard ACPI backlight brightness control, supported by the ACPI video driver thinkpad_acpi: Disabling thinkpad-acpi brightness events by default... thinkpad_acpi: Standard ACPI backlight interface available, not loading native one. kernel is 2.6.29-ARCH anyone know why the brightness still refuses to work? -- ( adam stokes ) || ( adam.stokes@gmail.com )