diff mbox

[3/3] xf86-video-intel: Add a helper for setting backlight without root rights

Message ID 1392418957-12889-3-git-send-email-hdegoede@redhat.com (mailing list archive)
State New, archived
Headers show

Commit Message

Hans de Goede Feb. 14, 2014, 11:02 p.m. UTC
Once the xserver stops running as root on kms capabable systems, we will need
some other way to access the backlight.

The approach taken in this patch leaves most of the heavy lifting (wrt
doing everything suid root safe) to pkexec, as is done in ie
gnome-settings-daemon, which controls the backlight directly on ati and
nouveau cards.

This commit adds src/backlight.h and src/backlight.c as a place to share common
backlight code, in the future most of the duplicate backlight code inside
src/sna/sna_display.c and src/uxa/intel_display.c should be moved there.

Signed-off-by: Hans de Goede <hdegoede@redhat.com>
---
 Makefile.am                                        |   4 +
 backlight_helper/Makefile.am                       |  37 ++++++
 backlight_helper/backlight_helper.c                |  37 ++++++
 ...g.x.xf86-video-intel.backlight-helper.policy.in |  19 +++
 configure.ac                                       |  11 ++
 src/Makefile.am                                    |   2 +
 src/backlight.c                                    | 142 +++++++++++++++++++++
 src/backlight.h                                    |  22 ++++
 src/sna/sna_display.c                              |  17 +--
 src/uxa/intel_display.c                            |  17 +--
 10 files changed, 292 insertions(+), 16 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 backlight_helper/Makefile.am
 create mode 100644 backlight_helper/backlight_helper.c
 create mode 100644 backlight_helper/org.x.xf86-video-intel.backlight-helper.policy.in
 create mode 100644 src/backlight.c
 create mode 100644 src/backlight.h

Comments

Chris Wilson Feb. 14, 2014, 11:54 p.m. UTC | #1
On Sat, Feb 15, 2014 at 12:02:37AM +0100, Hans de Goede wrote:
> Once the xserver stops running as root on kms capabable systems, we will need
> some other way to access the backlight.
> 
> The approach taken in this patch leaves most of the heavy lifting (wrt
> doing everything suid root safe) to pkexec, as is done in ie
> gnome-settings-daemon, which controls the backlight directly on ati and
> nouveau cards.
> 
> This commit adds src/backlight.h and src/backlight.c as a place to share common
> backlight code, in the future most of the duplicate backlight code inside
> src/sna/sna_display.c and src/uxa/intel_display.c should be moved there.

Right, I agree and think we can make that transition now. It should not
result in much more code than motion than introducing the helper.
Importantly, I think it will also clarify the tests we require before
declaring the backlight functional.

Is there a reason why the standalone helper is not kept alive? We could
just connect the pipe to the helper's stdin and launch it as a daemon
rather than keeping a child around who's only task is to spawn the
standalone helper everytime?

Otherwise the only other tweak I can see would be to replace the #ifdef
__linux__ with something like #ifdef USE_BACKLIGHT_HELPER
-Chris
Hans de Goede Feb. 15, 2014, 8:48 a.m. UTC | #2
Hi,

On 02/15/2014 12:54 AM, Chris Wilson wrote:
> On Sat, Feb 15, 2014 at 12:02:37AM +0100, Hans de Goede wrote:
>> Once the xserver stops running as root on kms capabable systems, we will need
>> some other way to access the backlight.
>>
>> The approach taken in this patch leaves most of the heavy lifting (wrt
>> doing everything suid root safe) to pkexec, as is done in ie
>> gnome-settings-daemon, which controls the backlight directly on ati and
>> nouveau cards.
>>
>> This commit adds src/backlight.h and src/backlight.c as a place to share common
>> backlight code, in the future most of the duplicate backlight code inside
>> src/sna/sna_display.c and src/uxa/intel_display.c should be moved there.
>
> Right, I agree and think we can make that transition now. It should not
> result in much more code than motion than introducing the helper.
> Importantly, I think it will also clarify the tests we require before
> declaring the backlight functional.

So you would like me to unify things before adding the helper I assume,
so first a unifying patch introducing backlight.[c,h] and then a patch adding
the helper on top ?

Note I might chicken out wrt the bits for determining which iface to use, at a
first glance those seem significantly different between the sna and uxa code,
but the rest should be easy to unify.

> Is there a reason why the standalone helper is not kept alive? We could
> just connect the pipe to the helper's stdin and launch it as a daemon
> rather than keeping a child around who's only task is to spawn the
> standalone helper everytime?

Hmm, so to be clear what you mean is having the helper take only the iface
on its cmdline, and then read level values from stdin, until it gets EOF
on stdin, yes that should work nicely, I'll change that in the next fd.

> Otherwise the only other tweak I can see would be to replace the #ifdef
> __linux__ with something like #ifdef USE_BACKLIGHT_HELPER

Yes that would be cleaner I'll change that too.

Regards,

Hans
Chris Wilson Feb. 15, 2014, 11:52 a.m. UTC | #3
On Sat, Feb 15, 2014 at 09:48:14AM +0100, Hans de Goede wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> On 02/15/2014 12:54 AM, Chris Wilson wrote:
> >On Sat, Feb 15, 2014 at 12:02:37AM +0100, Hans de Goede wrote:
> >>Once the xserver stops running as root on kms capabable systems, we will need
> >>some other way to access the backlight.
> >>
> >>The approach taken in this patch leaves most of the heavy lifting (wrt
> >>doing everything suid root safe) to pkexec, as is done in ie
> >>gnome-settings-daemon, which controls the backlight directly on ati and
> >>nouveau cards.
> >>
> >>This commit adds src/backlight.h and src/backlight.c as a place to share common
> >>backlight code, in the future most of the duplicate backlight code inside
> >>src/sna/sna_display.c and src/uxa/intel_display.c should be moved there.
> >
> >Right, I agree and think we can make that transition now. It should not
> >result in much more code than motion than introducing the helper.
> >Importantly, I think it will also clarify the tests we require before
> >declaring the backlight functional.
> 
> So you would like me to unify things before adding the helper I assume,
> so first a unifying patch introducing backlight.[c,h] and then a patch adding
> the helper on top ?

No, I've just moved some code around in your patch and reduced a little
more duplication. I'm happy with it all now, except for one minor
niggle..

How do you make pkexec work? On my f20, it just hangs in
polkit_authority_check_authorization_sync()

I've verfied that the direct interface works. I've verifed that the
helper works. But pkexec doesn't launch the helper. :(
 
> Note I might chicken out wrt the bits for determining which iface to use, at a
> first glance those seem significantly different between the sna and uxa code,
> but the rest should be easy to unify.
> 
> >Is there a reason why the standalone helper is not kept alive? We could
> >just connect the pipe to the helper's stdin and launch it as a daemon
> >rather than keeping a child around who's only task is to spawn the
> >standalone helper everytime?
> 
> Hmm, so to be clear what you mean is having the helper take only the iface
> on its cmdline, and then read level values from stdin, until it gets EOF
> on stdin, yes that should work nicely, I'll change that in the next fd.

Already done.
-Chris
Hans de Goede Feb. 15, 2014, 9:37 p.m. UTC | #4
Hi,

On 02/15/2014 12:52 PM, Chris Wilson wrote:
> On Sat, Feb 15, 2014 at 09:48:14AM +0100, Hans de Goede wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> On 02/15/2014 12:54 AM, Chris Wilson wrote:
>>> On Sat, Feb 15, 2014 at 12:02:37AM +0100, Hans de Goede wrote:
>>>> Once the xserver stops running as root on kms capabable systems, we will need
>>>> some other way to access the backlight.
>>>>
>>>> The approach taken in this patch leaves most of the heavy lifting (wrt
>>>> doing everything suid root safe) to pkexec, as is done in ie
>>>> gnome-settings-daemon, which controls the backlight directly on ati and
>>>> nouveau cards.
>>>>
>>>> This commit adds src/backlight.h and src/backlight.c as a place to share common
>>>> backlight code, in the future most of the duplicate backlight code inside
>>>> src/sna/sna_display.c and src/uxa/intel_display.c should be moved there.
>>>
>>> Right, I agree and think we can make that transition now. It should not
>>> result in much more code than motion than introducing the helper.
>>> Importantly, I think it will also clarify the tests we require before
>>> declaring the backlight functional.
>>
>> So you would like me to unify things before adding the helper I assume,
>> so first a unifying patch introducing backlight.[c,h] and then a patch adding
>> the helper on top ?
> 
> No, I've just moved some code around in your patch and reduced a little
> more duplication. I'm happy with it all now, except for one minor
> niggle..

Nice, thanks for working on this! I'll run some tests with your modified code
coming Monday to ensure that everything works as it should with pkexec and
the xserver running as a regular user.

> How do you make pkexec work? On my f20, it just hangs in
> polkit_authority_check_authorization_sync()

Do you have selinux in enforcing mode ? That is know to cause this issue.
I need to file selinux policy bugs for both this as well as for Xorg's inability
to talk to systemd-logind when selinux is in enforcing mode. Doing:
setenforce 0 as root may help.

Regards,

Hans
diff mbox

Patch

diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 71c7698..d6b97b6 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -26,6 +26,10 @@  if BUILD_TOOLS
 SUBDIRS += tools
 endif
 
+if BUILD_BACKLIGHT_HELPER
+SUBDIRS += backlight_helper
+endif
+
 MAINTAINERCLEANFILES = ChangeLog INSTALL
 
 if HAVE_X11
diff --git a/backlight_helper/Makefile.am b/backlight_helper/Makefile.am
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a4a5050
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backlight_helper/Makefile.am
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ 
+#  Copyright 2005 Adam Jackson.
+#
+#  Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
+#  copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"),
+#  to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation
+#  on the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sub
+#  license, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom
+#  the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
+#
+#  The above copyright notice and this permission notice (including the next
+#  paragraph) shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the
+#  Software.
+#
+#  THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
+#  IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
+#  FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.  IN NO EVENT SHALL
+#  ADAM JACKSON BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER
+#  IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN
+#  CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
+
+AM_CFLAGS = \
+	@CWARNFLAGS@ \
+	@NOWARNFLAGS@ \
+	$(NULL)
+
+backlight_helperdir = $(prefix)/libexec
+policydir = $(datarootdir)/polkit-1/actions
+
+backlight_helper_PROGRAMS = xf86-video-intel-backlight-helper
+nodist_policy_DATA = org.x.xf86-video-intel.backlight-helper.policy
+
+xf86_video_intel_backlight_helper_SOURCES = \
+	backlight_helper.c \
+	$(NULL)
+
+EXTRA_DIST = org.x.xf86-video-intel.backlight-helper.policy.in
+DISTCLEANFILES = $(nodist_policy_DATA)
diff --git a/backlight_helper/backlight_helper.c b/backlight_helper/backlight_helper.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c681aae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backlight_helper/backlight_helper.c
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ 
+#include <errno.h>
+#include <stdio.h>
+#include <stdlib.h>
+#include <string.h>
+
+#define BUF_SIZE 1024
+
+int main(int argc, char *argv[])
+{
+	char buf[BUF_SIZE];
+	FILE *f;
+	int r;
+
+	if (argc != 3) {
+		fprintf(stderr, "Error %s expects exactly 2 parameters\n",
+			argv[0]);
+		fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s <iface> <level>\n", argv[0]);
+		return 1;
+	}
+
+	snprintf(buf, BUF_SIZE, "/sys/class/backlight/%s/brightness", argv[1]);
+	f = fopen(buf, "r+");
+	if (!f) {
+		fprintf(stderr, "Error opening %s: %s\n", buf, strerror(errno));
+		return 1;
+	}
+	
+	r = fprintf(f, "%s\n", argv[2]);	
+	if (r < 0) {
+		fprintf(stderr, "Error writing %s: %s\n", buf, strerror(errno));
+		return 1;
+	}
+	
+	fclose(f);
+
+	return 0;
+}
diff --git a/backlight_helper/org.x.xf86-video-intel.backlight-helper.policy.in b/backlight_helper/org.x.xf86-video-intel.backlight-helper.policy.in
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..37e9622
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backlight_helper/org.x.xf86-video-intel.backlight-helper.policy.in
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@ 
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<!DOCTYPE policyconfig PUBLIC
+ "-//freedesktop//DTD PolicyKit Policy Configuration 1.0//EN"
+ "http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/PolicyKit/1.0/policyconfig.dtd">
+<policyconfig>
+  <vendor>The X.Org project</vendor>
+  <vendor_url>https://01.org/linuxgraphics/community/xf86-video-intel</vendor_url>
+  <icon_name>brightness</icon_name>
+  <action id="org.x.xf86-video-intel.backlight-helper">
+    <description>Modify lcd panel brightness</description>
+    <message>Authentication is required to modify the lcd panel brightness</message>
+    <defaults>
+      <allow_any>no</allow_any>
+      <allow_inactive>no</allow_inactive>
+      <allow_active>yes</allow_active>
+    </defaults>
+    <annotate key="org.freedesktop.policykit.exec.path">@prefix@/libexec/xf86-video-intel-backlight-helper</annotate>
+  </action>
+</policyconfig>
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 4f73ba4..6bc80de 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -62,6 +62,14 @@  AC_DISABLE_STATIC
 AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
 AC_SYS_LARGEFILE
 
+# Platform specific settings
+case $host_os in
+  *linux*)
+    backlight_helper=yes
+    ;;
+esac
+AM_CONDITIONAL(BUILD_BACKLIGHT_HELPER, [test "x$backlight_helper" = "xyes"])
+
 # Are we in a git checkout?
 dot_git=no
 if test -e .git; then
@@ -681,6 +689,7 @@  fi
 DRIVER_NAME="intel"
 AC_SUBST([DRIVER_NAME])
 AC_SUBST([moduledir])
+AC_DEFINE_DIR([PREFIX_PATH], prefix, [installation prefix])
 
 AC_CONFIG_FILES([
                 Makefile
@@ -700,6 +709,8 @@  AC_CONFIG_FILES([
                 xvmc/shader/vld/Makefile
 		test/Makefile
 		tools/Makefile
+		backlight_helper/Makefile
+		backlight_helper/org.x.xf86-video-intel.backlight-helper.policy
 ])
 AC_OUTPUT
 
diff --git a/src/Makefile.am b/src/Makefile.am
index e87f030..842d0b2 100644
--- a/src/Makefile.am
+++ b/src/Makefile.am
@@ -59,6 +59,8 @@  intel_drv_la_SOURCES = \
 	intel_driver.h \
 	intel_options.c \
 	intel_module.c \
+	backlight.c \
+	backlight.h \
 	compat-api.h \
 	$(NULL)
 
diff --git a/src/backlight.c b/src/backlight.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a98b6e6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/backlight.c
@@ -0,0 +1,142 @@ 
+/***************************************************************************
+
+ Copyright 2013 Intel Corporation.  All Rights Reserved.
+
+ Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
+ copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
+ "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
+ without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
+ distribute, sub license, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
+ permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to
+ the following conditions:
+
+ The above copyright notice and this permission notice (including the
+ next paragraph) shall be included in all copies or substantial portions
+ of the Software.
+
+ THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS
+ OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
+ MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.
+ IN NO EVENT SHALL INTEL, AND/OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM,
+ DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR
+ OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR
+ THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
+
+ **************************************************************************/
+
+#ifdef HAVE_CONFIG_H
+#include "config.h"
+#endif
+
+#include <errno.h>
+#include <fcntl.h>
+#include <string.h>
+#include <sys/types.h>
+#include <sys/wait.h>
+#include <unistd.h>
+#include <xorg-server.h>
+#include <xf86.h>
+#include <xf86Crtc.h>
+#include "intel_driver.h"
+#include "backlight.h"
+
+#define READ_PIPE	0
+#define WRITE_PIPE	1
+
+#ifdef __linux__ /* The helper is for linux only */
+
+/*
+ * Unfortunately this is not as simple as I would like it to be. If selinux is
+ * dropping dbus messages pkexec may block *forever*.
+ *
+ * Backgrounding pkexec by doing System("pkexec ...&") does not work because
+ * that detaches pkexec from its parent at which point its security checks
+ * fail and it refuses to execute the helper.
+ *
+ * So we're left with spawning a helper child which gets levels to set written
+ * to it through a pipe. This turns the blocking forever problem from a hung
+ * machine problem into a simple backlight control not working problem.
+ */
+
+static void backlight_helper_main(struct backlight_helper *helper)
+{
+	char cmd[1024];
+	int r, level;
+
+	while (1) {
+		r = read(helper->fds[READ_PIPE], &level, sizeof(level));
+		if (r != sizeof(level))
+			break;
+		snprintf(cmd, sizeof(cmd),
+		  "pkexec %s/libexec/xf86-video-intel-backlight-helper %s %d",
+		  PREFIX_PATH, helper->iface, level);
+		System(cmd);
+	}
+	close(helper->fds[READ_PIPE]);
+	_exit(0);
+}
+
+static int backlight_helper_init(struct backlight_helper *helper,
+				  xf86OutputPtr output, const char *iface)
+{
+	int r;
+
+	if (helper->child_created)
+		return 0;
+
+	helper->iface = iface;
+
+	r = pipe(helper->fds);
+	if (r) {
+		xf86DrvMsg(output->scrn->scrnIndex, X_ERROR,
+			   "backlight pipe error: %s\n", strerror(errno));
+		return r;
+	}
+	intel_fd_set_cloexec(helper->fds[READ_PIPE]);
+	intel_fd_set_cloexec(helper->fds[WRITE_PIPE]);
+	intel_fd_set_nonblock(helper->fds[WRITE_PIPE]);
+
+	helper->pid = fork();
+	switch (helper->pid) {
+	case -1:
+		close(helper->fds[READ_PIPE]);
+		close(helper->fds[WRITE_PIPE]);
+		xf86DrvMsg(output->scrn->scrnIndex, X_ERROR,
+			   "backlight fork error: %s\n", strerror(errno));
+		return -1;
+	case 0:
+		close(helper->fds[WRITE_PIPE]);
+		backlight_helper_main(helper);
+		break;
+	default:
+		close(helper->fds[READ_PIPE]);
+		helper->child_created = 1;
+	}
+	return 0;
+}
+
+void backlight_helper_set(struct backlight_helper *helper,
+			  xf86OutputPtr output, const char *iface, int level)
+{
+	int r;
+
+	r = backlight_helper_init(helper, output, iface);
+	if (r)
+		return;
+
+	r = write(helper->fds[WRITE_PIPE], &level, sizeof(level));
+	if (r != sizeof(level))
+		xf86DrvMsg(output->scrn->scrnIndex, X_ERROR,
+			   "backlight write error: %s\n", strerror(errno));
+}
+
+void backlight_helper_cleanup(struct backlight_helper *helper)
+{
+	if (!helper->child_created)
+		return;
+
+	close(helper->fds[WRITE_PIPE]);
+	waitpid(helper->pid, NULL, 0);
+}
+
+#endif /* The helper is for linux only */
diff --git a/src/backlight.h b/src/backlight.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dd036c4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/backlight.h
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ 
+#ifndef BACKLIGHT_H
+#define BACKLIGHT_H
+
+struct backlight_helper {
+	int child_created;
+	int fds[2];
+	int pid;
+	const char *iface;
+};
+
+#ifdef __linux__ 
+
+void backlight_helper_set(struct backlight_helper *helper,
+			 xf86OutputPtr output, const char *iface, int level);
+void backlight_helper_cleanup(struct backlight_helper *helper);
+
+#else
+
+#define backlight_helper_cleanup(helper)
+
+#endif
+#endif
diff --git a/src/sna/sna_display.c b/src/sna/sna_display.c
index 521d4ef..559c8fa 100644
--- a/src/sna/sna_display.c
+++ b/src/sna/sna_display.c
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ 
 #include "sna_reg.h"
 #include "fb/fbpict.h"
 #include "intel_options.h"
+#include "backlight.h"
 
 #include <xf86Crtc.h>
 
@@ -144,6 +145,7 @@  struct sna_output {
 	char *backlight_iface;
 	int backlight_active_level;
 	int backlight_max;
+	struct backlight_helper backlight_helper;
 
 	int num_modes;
 	struct drm_mode_modeinfo *modes;
@@ -391,6 +393,12 @@  sna_output_backlight_set(xf86OutputPtr output, int level)
 		BACKLIGHT_CLASS, sna_output->backlight_iface);
 	fd = open(path, O_RDWR);
 	if (fd == -1) {
+		/* If this is an access error, invoke the helper instead */
+		if (errno == EACCES)  {
+			backlight_helper_set(&sna_output->backlight_helper,
+				output, sna_output->backlight_iface, level);
+			return;
+		}
 		xf86DrvMsg(output->scrn->scrnIndex, X_ERROR, "failed to open %s for backlight "
 			   "control: %s\n", path, strerror(errno));
 		return;
@@ -447,14 +455,6 @@  sna_output_backlight_get_max(xf86OutputPtr output)
 	char path[1024], val[BACKLIGHT_VALUE_LEN];
 	int fd, max = 0;
 
-	/* We are used as an initial check to see if we can
-	 * control the backlight, so first test if we can set values.
-	 */
-	sprintf(path, "%s/%s/brightness",
-		BACKLIGHT_CLASS, sna_output->backlight_iface);
-	if (access(path, R_OK | W_OK))
-		return -1;
-
 	sprintf(path, "%s/%s/max_brightness",
 		BACKLIGHT_CLASS, sna_output->backlight_iface);
 	fd = open(path, O_RDONLY);
@@ -2539,6 +2539,7 @@  sna_output_destroy(xf86OutputPtr output)
 	free(sna_output->prop_ids);
 	free(sna_output->prop_values);
 
+	backlight_helper_cleanup(&sna_output->backlight_helper);
 	free(sna_output->backlight_iface);
 
 	free(sna_output);
diff --git a/src/uxa/intel_display.c b/src/uxa/intel_display.c
index e1b2920..41b391e 100644
--- a/src/uxa/intel_display.c
+++ b/src/uxa/intel_display.c
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@ 
 #include "intel.h"
 #include "intel_bufmgr.h"
 #include "intel_options.h"
+#include "backlight.h"
 #include "xf86drm.h"
 #include "xf86drmMode.h"
 #include "X11/Xatom.h"
@@ -123,6 +124,7 @@  struct intel_output {
 	const char *backlight_iface;
 	int backlight_active_level;
 	int backlight_max;
+	struct backlight_helper backlight_helper;
 	xf86OutputPtr output;
 	struct list link;
 };
@@ -245,6 +247,12 @@  intel_output_backlight_set(xf86OutputPtr output, int level)
 		BACKLIGHT_CLASS, intel_output->backlight_iface);
 	fd = open(path, O_RDWR);
 	if (fd == -1) {
+		/* If this is an access error, invoke the helper instead */
+		if (errno == EACCES)  {
+			backlight_helper_set(&intel_output->backlight_helper,
+				output, intel_output->backlight_iface, level);
+			return;
+		}
 		xf86DrvMsg(output->scrn->scrnIndex, X_ERROR, "failed to open %s for backlight "
 			   "control: %s\n", path, strerror(errno));
 		return;
@@ -298,14 +306,6 @@  intel_output_backlight_get_max(xf86OutputPtr output)
 	char path[BACKLIGHT_PATH_LEN], val[BACKLIGHT_VALUE_LEN];
 	int fd, max = 0;
 
-	/* We are used as an initial check to see if we can
-	 * control the backlight, so first test if we can set values.
-	 */
-	sprintf(path, "%s/%s/brightness",
-		BACKLIGHT_CLASS, intel_output->backlight_iface);
-	if (access(path, R_OK | W_OK))
-		return -1;
-
 	sprintf(path, "%s/%s/max_brightness",
 		BACKLIGHT_CLASS, intel_output->backlight_iface);
 	fd = open(path, O_RDONLY);
@@ -1083,6 +1083,7 @@  intel_output_destroy(xf86OutputPtr output)
 	intel_output->mode_output = NULL;
 
 	list_del(&intel_output->link);
+	backlight_helper_cleanup(&intel_output->backlight_helper);
 	free(intel_output);
 
 	output->driver_private = NULL;