Yes, I am currently assuming 0 as sw level, just to set the current...

Thanks for explaining what the kernel is doing! The values I was seeing make a bit more sense now. I thought I was going insane, writing one value to the file and seeing another! >_>

I will look into reverse-engineering that, as it would be much better if the applet worked without the special kernel...

Oh, new version: http://cs.trinity.edu/~acm/debs/adva...ght-0.3.tar.gz
And source: http://cs.trinity.edu/~acm/debs/adva...0.3-src.tar.gz

The only real changes are a bit of code cleanup (doubt it has a performance impact) and it now checks to see which device it is on, to prevent blanking the screen on an n800 (since it lacks a transflective screen) and confusing the user.

Edit: an strace is here: http://pastebin.ca/850430
I'm not sure how to interpret that... I have done some strace interpretation for an Operating Systems class once, but nothing this complex.