Comment 138 for bug 415023

There are enough accounts to suggest that users should not try to upgrade BIOS in the attempt to work around this problem. It won't work.

There are several options to work around it:

1. Disable gnome-power-manager (or for xubuntu, xfce4-power-manager). This will work. The downside, I believe, is that you will lose suspend/hibernate on closing the lid. For me this is bad, as I expect the system to at least go to standby on closing the lid.
2. Use one of the power managers, but if adjusting brightness, hit <right-button> to bring up a menu, adjust (Fn-F4 or F5), and <left-button> to clear the menu. Otherwise adjusting brightness is a hassle.
3l The power managers will still cause the screen to flicker when trying to autodim the screen. To clear, use the right button as above.

Is there any news about an expected fix for this problem?