LCD Brightness, sony_acpi from aur won't build

Question

I'm using a Sony VAIO vgn-sz430n, and the Fn keys won't work to change the brightness. I'm not so concerned about the Fn keys, for I've seen tons of documentation to get those working with xbindkeys, xmonad, openbox, etc. and I will worry about that later.
Most importantly, I cannot change the screen brightness. Xbacklight does not do anything, laptop-mode-tools and gnome/xfce4-power-manager do nothing. The screen brightness is always at the maximum.
I have an nvidia Geforce Go 7400 card with the proprietary nvidia driver
I read that I need the sony_acpi module, and I've been trying to install it from the AUR, but I get errors and I don't know what to do. I've tried with yaourt and manually. Here are the results from yaourt:
==> Building and installing package
==> Making package: sony_acpi 1-1 i686 (Sun Jun 14 14:56:12 CDT 2009)
==> Checking Runtime Dependencies...
==> Checking Buildtime Dependencies...
==> Retrieving Sources...
-> Found sony_acpi.tar.gz in build dir
==> Validating source files with md5sums...
sony_acpi.tar.gz ... Passed
==> Extracting Sources...
-> bsdtar -x -f sony_acpi.tar.gz
==> Removing existing pkg/ directory...
==> Entering fakeroot environment...
==> Starting build()...
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.29-ARCH/build SUBDIRS=/tmp/yaourt-tmp-agi/aur-sony_acpi/sony_acpi/src/sony_acpi modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.29-ARCH'
CC [M] /tmp/yaourt-tmp-agi/aur-sony_acpi/sony_acpi/src/sony_acpi/sony_acpi.o
/tmp/yaourt-tmp-agi/aur-sony_acpi/sony_acpi/src/sony_acpi/sony_acpi.c:55: warning: initialization from incompatible pointer type
/tmp/yaourt-tmp-agi/aur-sony_acpi/sony_acpi/src/sony_acpi/sony_acpi.c: In function 'sony_walk_callback':
/tmp/yaourt-tmp-agi/aur-sony_acpi/sony_acpi/src/sony_acpi/sony_acpi.c:253: error: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type
/tmp/yaourt-tmp-agi/aur-sony_acpi/sony_acpi/src/sony_acpi/sony_acpi.c:255: error: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type
/tmp/yaourt-tmp-agi/aur-sony_acpi/sony_acpi/src/sony_acpi/sony_acpi.c:256: error: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type
/tmp/yaourt-tmp-agi/aur-sony_acpi/sony_acpi/src/sony_acpi/sony_acpi.c: In function 'sony_acpi_add':
/tmp/yaourt-tmp-agi/aur-sony_acpi/sony_acpi/src/sony_acpi/sony_acpi.c:269: error: lvalue required as left operand of assignment
make[2]: *** [/tmp/yaourt-tmp-agi/aur-sony_acpi/sony_acpi/src/sony_acpi/sony_acpi.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [_module_/tmp/yaourt-tmp-agi/aur-sony_acpi/sony_acpi/src/sony_acpi] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.29-ARCH'
make: *** [default] Error 2
==> ERROR: Build Failed.
Aborting...
Error: Makepkg was unable to build sony_acpi package.
The strange thing is this works in other distributions, such as Ubuntu. If I fired up a live cd and tested out my Fn keys, the brightness would change and there would be an on screen display for feedback.
What is Ubuntu doing, specifically, that Arch is not doing? Is there any way I could load an ubuntu live cd and then find what files/programs/modules/whatever are in place that allow brightness changes? Does anyone know this offhand?
Help!

Answer 1

I have Sony Vaio VGN-FZ38M with Nvidia 8400M GT. I used package 'nvclock' (it is in repo) to control lcd brightness, here site with more info: NVClock.  Some time ago I also configured Fn keys to work with it (on Ubuntu), but on Arch I didn't  manged but I didn't try hard (in general i don't need, my laptop is stationary all the time). Solution I've found somwehere in Ubuntu forums.
edit: typo in address
edit2:
here's the solution from Ubuntu: http://newyork.ubuntuforums.org/showthr … ?t=1004568
Last edited by folletto (2009-06-14 20:58:56)