Seems other events have stopped being processed as well - e.g. unplugging a/c and going to battery - laptop beeps - but screen no longer dims - Again - I can dim screen by hand by doing something like this: echo '11' > /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness This has been flaky a while but usually worked at least some of the time - now its just not working period. I wonder if udev responsible for this? Looks like I upgraded systemd at the end of last month to 189-4 ... seems unlikely it took me till last weekend to notice this .. but I can be slow at times :-) kde had a bunch of updates sep 4 (4.9.0 to 4.9.1).. again a week or so back If anyone has suggestions how to get these working again would be appreciated .. not fatal as I can do everything by hand but since things used to work be ncie to get them working again. gene