Dell Inspiron 11z Backlight Problem

[fw0804]

I've done quite a bit of searching on this problem (forums / search engines) and have not had any luck finding a solution. I have a Dell Inspiron 11z laptop with a fresh install of Kubuntu 10.10 and I'm not able to adjust the backlight brightness using the function keys. (If I go into Power Management | Edit Profiles | Performance... I can adjust it there only). If I press brightness dn or brightness up the indicator shows up but doesn't change one way or the other. Any suggestions?

[Teunis]

Re: Dell Inspiron 11z Backlight Problem

I've had a similar problem when my Toshiba Tecra was new, a few months later a software (kernel?) update brought the utility.
What I did find out was I could use these buttons during start up, before X became active.