[Q] Automatic brightness not working after installing CM11

Hi,

After I installed KitKat with Cyanogenmod 11 on my Samsung S3 Mini the Automatic Brightness function stopped working.

I read all the posts regarding light sensor on this issue (for S3 Mini) and found opinions vary between "no light sensor at all", "light sensor combined with proximity sensor", "light sensor exists but obscured by hardware", "light sensor disabled in kernel"...

My questions:

Did anyone manage to activate the light sensor on CM11? Is there some change I can do in the kernel to activate it?

I also tried to test for the light sensor with *#7353#, but all I get is a message saying "MMI complete" but it didn't work. Does that work only on the custom ROM? Is there a way to do this test on CM11 ROM?

If there is no light sensor then how did the Automatic Brightness function work on the custom ROM? (and I think I remember noticing the brightness changing automatically at different light levels, but I'm not 100% sure).

Many thanks!

soralz said:

SIII mini doesn't have a light sensor so obviously it's not working. That's all.

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If that's true, then how come automatic brightness was working with the stock ROM?

Is it possible that the stock ROM was using the camera for it?

(I wrote before: "If there is no light sensor then how did the Automatic Brightness function work on the custom ROM? (and I think I remember noticing the brightness changing automatically at different light levels, but I'm not 100% sure)." I meant STOCK ROM not custom ROM).

ffoucault said:

I can confirm, as far as I know, that there is no ambient light sensor on S3 mini, so the automatic brightness on custom rom doesn't work on our device.
Install Lux app which uses the front camera to estimate incoming light to auto adjust screen brightness.

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I'm 100% sure I was able to select automatic brightness on the stock ROM. Maybe it didn't actually do anything, but it was possible to enable it...

Anyway, obviously changing the brightness level manually would be less battery-consuming, but assuming that I'm lazy and will keep it on relatively high settings, would I be saving battery life if I use the front camera for it, or would using it will actually consume more than I'm saving?

Cheers!

ffoucault said:

Lux can be triggered only when you wake up the phone so it can adjust the brightness. Usually my screen don't go beyond 20-40% when i'm indoor, In my opinion you'll drain your battery way faster with your display set to a fixed high setting.

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Alright, I'll try it out

Cheers!

soralz said:

Huh? Previously my SIII Mini I8190N doesn't have such automatic brightness selection on stock 4.1.2. Probably you have installed a mod and let the camera determine the lightning conditions?

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Most definitely not.