It is not true that omnibook have 11 brightness level and not 8, it can be both. The released patch broke hal for those who have 8 brightness levels.
** Changed in: hal (Ubuntu) Status: Fix Released => Confirmed -- Laptop dims on startup even on AC https://launchpad.net/bugs/44962 -- desktop-bugs mailing list desktop-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/desktop-bugs