Bug#836939: gnome-settings-daemon: Screen brightness defaults to a very low value and can't be changed with Function Keys, Applet or in System Settings

[Tilo Villwock]

Package: gnome-settings-daemon
Version: 3.21.90-2
Severity: important

What led up to the situation?
A: booting and logging in

What exactly did you do (or not do) that was effective (or ineffective)?
A: using the function keys, the applet in the top bar and tried accessing
   the settings panel in System Settings

What was the outcome of this action?
A: nothing happened, but see logs

What outcome did you expect instead?
A: brightes adjusts as expected

---

This is on a Macbook Pro late 2010 with a GeForce 320m using the Nouveau driver.
The following log messages seem to be related:

...
Sep  7 12:54:05 yavin4 gnome-settings-[3260]: Failed to create GnomeRRScreen: Methode »GetResources« gab Typ »(ua(uxiiiiiuaua{sv})a(uxiausauaua{sv})a(uxuud)ii)« zurück, aber »(ua(uxiiiiiuaua{sv})a(uxiausauaua{sv})a(uxuudu)ii)« wurde erwartet
Sep  7 12:54:05 yavin4 gnome-settings-[3260]: failed to get screens: Methode »GetResources« gab Typ »(ua(uxiiiiiuaua{sv})a(uxiausauaua{sv})a(uxuud)ii)« zurück, aber »(ua(uxiiiiiuaua{sv})a(uxiausauaua{sv})a(uxuudu)ii)« wurde erwartet
Sep  7 12:54:06 yavin4 gnome-settings-[3260]: Failed to construct RR screen: Methode »GetResources« gab Typ »(ua(uxiiiiiuaua{sv})a(uxiausauaua{sv})a(uxuud)ii)« zurück, aber »(ua(uxiiiiiuaua{sv})a(uxiausauaua{sv})a(uxuudu)ii)« wurde erwartet
...
Sep  7 12:54:12 yavin4 gnome-shell[3137]: JS LOG: Could not set property Brightness on remote object /org/gnome/SettingsDaemon/Power: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Failed: Manager is starting or stopping
...

I was able to set the screen brightness directly by entering the following:

    echo 100 > /sys/class/backlight/nv_backlight/brightness

Let me know what else I can provide to track this down.


-- System Information:
Debian Release: stretch/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 4.6.0-1-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages gnome-settings-daemon depends on:
ii  dconf-gsettings-backend [gsettings-backend]  0.26.0-1
ii  gsettings-desktop-schemas                    3.21.4-2
ii  libasound2                                   1.1.2-1
ii  libc6                                        2.23-5
ii  libcairo2                                    1.14.6-1+b1
ii  libcanberra-gtk3-0                           0.30-3
ii  libcanberra0                                 0.30-3
ii  libcolord2                                   1.3.2-1
ii  libcups2                                     2.1.4-4
ii  libfontconfig1                               2.11.0-6.7
ii  libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0                           2.34.0-1
ii  libgeoclue-2-0                               2.4.3-1
ii  libgeocode-glib0                             3.20.1-1
ii  libglib2.0-0                                 2.49.6-1
ii  libgnome-desktop-3-12                        3.21.90-3
ii  libgtk-3-0                                   3.21.5-3
ii  libgudev-1.0-0                               230-3
ii  libgweather-3-6                              3.20.3-1
ii  liblcms2-2                                   2.7-1
ii  libnm0                                       1.2.4-2
ii  libnotify4                                   0.7.6-2
ii  libnspr4                                     2:4.12-2
ii  libnss3                                      2:3.25-1
ii  libpam-systemd                               231-4
ii  libpango-1.0-0                               1.40.2-1
ii  libpangocairo-1.0-0                          1.40.2-1
ii  libpolkit-gobject-1-0                        0.105-16
ii  libpulse-mainloop-glib0                      9.0-3
ii  libpulse0                                    9.0-3
ii  librsvg2-2                                   2.40.16-1
ii  libupower-glib3                              0.99.4-3
ii  libwacom2                                    0.19-1
ii  libwayland-client0                           1.11.0-2
ii  libx11-6                                     2:1.6.3-1
ii  libxext6                                     2:1.3.3-1
ii  libxi6                                       2:1.7.6-1
ii  libxtst6                                     2:1.2.2-1+b1
ii  nautilus-data                                3.20.3-1

Versions of packages gnome-settings-daemon recommends:
ii  iio-sensor-proxy  1.1-1
ii  pulseaudio        9.0-3

gnome-settings-daemon suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information