Brightness keys stop working

So I thought I had my screen settings just how I wanted: I’d set the acpi_backlight kernel parameter to native so my screen went dim enough and I’d told the xfce power manager to handle the brightness keys and set the brightness step count to my liking.

My problem is the brightness keys work for a while then at some point just stop responding, as in I press them but the brightness doesn’t change. If i change the acpi_backlight parameter to say, vendor, then back to native again, the keys will start working again but I’ll have the same problem before long. The keys work on vendor too but I find the lowest brightness too bright on that setting, so I want to use native. How can I figure out what’s happening here? My guess would be that the kernel is taking away control from the xfce power manager but if so, what can I do about that?

inxi output:

System:
  Kernel: 6.6.18-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.2.1
    clocksource: tsc avail: hpet,acpi_pm
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.6-x86_64
    root=UUID=2b9252ac-5f22-44a9-a4ee-5778a4501004 rw apparmor=1
    security=apparmor udev.log_priority=3 acpi_backlight=native
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.18.1 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.36 wm: xfwm4 v: 4.18.0
    with: xfce4-panel tools: light-locker dm: LightDM v: 1.32.0 Distro: Manjaro
    base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: ASUSTeK product: K53Z v: 1.0 serial: <filter>
  Mobo: ASUSTeK model: K53Z v: 1.0 serial: <filter>
    uuid: 22c61358-c16c-e111-8a0b-10bf4843eef3 BIOS: American Megatrends v: 212
    date: 11/25/2011
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT1 charge: 90.3 Wh (95.9%) condition: 94.2/97.2 Wh (96.9%)
    volts: 12.4 min: 10.8 model: ASUS PA3533U type: Li-ion serial: <filter>
    status: not charging
Memory:
  System RAM: total: 8 GiB available: 7.24 GiB used: 4.84 GiB (66.8%)
  Array-1: capacity: 8 GiB slots: 2 modules: 2 EC: None
    max-module-size: 4 GiB note: est.
  Device-1: A1_DIMM0 type: DDR3 detail: synchronous size: 4 GiB speed: N/A
    volts: N/A width (bits): data: 64 total: 64 manufacturer: Kingston
    part-no: SNY1600S11-4G-EDEG serial: <filter>
  Device-2: A1_DIMM1 type: DDR3 detail: synchronous size: 4 GiB speed: N/A
    volts: N/A width (bits): data: 64 total: 64 manufacturer: Kingston
    part-no: SNY1600S11-4G-EDEG serial: <filter>
CPU:
  Info: model: AMD A6-3420M APU with Radeon HD Graphics socket: FS1 (P0)
    note: check bits: 64 type: MCP arch: K12 Fusion level: v1 built: 2011
    process: GF 32nm family: 0x12 (18) model-id: 1 stepping: 0
    microcode: 0x3000027
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 4 smt: <unsupported> cache: L1: 512 KiB
    desc: d-4x64 KiB; i-4x64 KiB L2: 4 MiB desc: 4x1024 KiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1100 high: 1400 min/max: 800/1500 boost: enabled
    base/boost: 1500/1500 scaling: driver: acpi-cpufreq governor: schedutil
    volts: 1.1 V ext-clock: 100 MHz cores: 1: 800 2: 1400 3: 1400 4: 800
    bogomips: 11981
  Flags: 3dnow 3dnowext 3dnowprefetch abm aperfmperf apic arat clflush cmov
    cmp_legacy constant_tsc cpb cpuid cr8_legacy cx16 cx8 de extapic
    extd_apicid fpu fxsr fxsr_opt ht hw_pstate ibs lahf_lm lbrv lm mca mce
    misalignsse mmx mmxext monitor msr mtrr nonstop_tsc nopl npt nrip_save nx
    osvw pae pat pausefilter pdpe1gb pge pni popcnt pse pse36 rdtscp rep_good
    sep skinit sse sse2 sse4a svm svm_lock syscall tsc vme vmmcall wdt
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Not affected
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass status: Not affected
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer
    sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines, STIBP: disabled, RSB filling,
    PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Sumo [Radeon HD 6520G] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: radeon v: kernel
    alternate: amdgpu arch: TeraScale-2 code: Evergreen process: TSMC 32-40nm
    built: 2009-15 ports: active: LVDS-1 empty: HDMI-A-1,VGA-1 bus-ID: 00:01.0
    chip-ID: 1002:9647 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: Chicony CNFA078 driver: uvcvideo type: USB rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 bus-ID: 2-3:3 chip-ID: 04f2:b23b
    class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter>
  Display: x11 server: X.org v: 1.21.1.11 compositor: xfwm4 v: 4.18.0 driver:
    X: loaded: radeon unloaded: modesetting alternate: fbdev,vesa dri: r600
    gpu: radeon display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1366x768 s-size: <missing: xdpyinfo>
  Monitor-1: LVDS-1 mapped: LVDS model: LG Display 0x02dc built: 2010
    res: 1366x768 hz: 60 dpi: 101 gamma: 1.2 size: 344x194mm (13.54x7.64")
    diag: 395mm (15.5") ratio: 16:9 modes: max: 1366x768 min: 640x480
  API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: amd r600 platforms: device: 0 drv: r600 device: 1
    drv: swrast gbm: drv: r600 surfaceless: drv: r600 x11: drv: r600
    inactive: wayland
  API: OpenGL v: 4.5 vendor: mesa v: 23.3.6-manjaro1.1 glx-v: 1.4
    direct-render: yes renderer: AMD SUMO (DRM 2.50.0 / 6.6.18-1-MANJARO LLVM
    16.0.6) device-ID: 1002:9647 memory: 500 MiB unified: no
  API: Vulkan Message: No Vulkan data available.
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD BeaverCreek HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6500D and 6400G-6600G series]
    vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:01.1
    chip-ID: 1002:1714 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: AMD FCH Azalia vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    bus-ID: 00:14.2 chip-ID: 1022:780d class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.6.18-1-MANJARO status: kernel-api with: aoss
    type: oss-emulator tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: sndiod v: N/A status: off tools: aucat,midicat,sndioctl
  Server-2: JACK v: 1.9.22 status: off tools: N/A
  Server-3: PipeWire v: 1.0.3 status: n/a (root, process) tools: pw-cli
  Server-4: PulseAudio v: 17.0 status: active (root, process)
    with: pulseaudio-alsa type: plugin tools: pacat,pactl,pavucontrol
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: ASUSTeK RTL8111/8168/8411 driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: gen: 1
    speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: e000 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168
    class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp2s0 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter vendor: Lite-On
    driver: ath9k v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 03:00.0
    chip-ID: 168c:0032 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlp3s0 state: up mac: <filter>
  IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global
    broadcast: <filter>
  IP v6: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global
  IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link
  Info: services: NetworkManager,wpa_supplicant
  WAN IP: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Message: No bluetooth data found.
Logical:
  Message: No logical block device data found.
RAID:
  Message: No RAID data found.
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 447.13 GiB used: 328.7 GiB (73.5%)
  SMART Message: Required tool smartctl not installed. Check --recommends
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Crucial model: CT480BX500SSD1
    size: 447.13 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s
    tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: 052 scheme: MBR
  Optical-1: /dev/sr0 vendor: HL-DT-ST model: DVDRAM GT51N rev: AS00
    dev-links: cdrom
  Features: speed: 24 multisession: yes audio: yes dvd: yes
    rw: cd-r,cd-rw,dvd-r,dvd-ram state: running
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 447.13 GiB size: 439.04 GiB (98.19%)
    used: 328.7 GiB (74.9%) fs: ext4 block-size: 4096 B dev: /dev/sda1
    maj-min: 8:1 label: N/A uuid: 2b9252ac-5f22-44a9-a4ee-5778a4501004
Swap:
  Alert: No swap data was found.
Unmounted:
  Message: No unmounted partitions found.
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: full speed or root hub ports: 5 rev: 1.1
    speed: 12 Mb/s (1.4 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 chip-ID: 1d6b:0001
    class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 1-2:2 info: PowerA Xbox Series X Wired Controller OPP Black
    type: <vendor specific> driver: xpad interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0
    speed: 12 Mb/s (1.4 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 power: 500mA
    chip-ID: 20d6:2005 class-ID: ff00 serial: <filter>
  Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: full speed or root hub ports: 5 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
    class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 2-3:3 info: Chicony CNFA078 type: video driver: uvcvideo
    interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0
    power: 500mA chip-ID: 04f2:b23b class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter>
  Device-2: 2-5:4 info: Realtek RTS5138 Card Reader Controller
    type: mass storage driver: ums-realtek interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 power: 500mA
    chip-ID: 0bda:0138 class-ID: 0806 serial: <filter>
  Hub-3: 3-0:1 info: hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 2 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s (57.2 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
    class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 3-1:2 info: Sunplus Innovation Optical Mouse type: mouse
    driver: hid-generic,usbhid interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 1.5 Mb/s (183 KiB/s)
    lanes: 1 mode: 1.0 power: 98mA chip-ID: 1bcf:0005 class-ID: 0301
  Hub-4: 4-0:1 info: super-speed hub ports: 2 rev: 3.0
    speed: 5 Gb/s (596.0 MiB/s) lanes: 1 mode: 3.2 gen-1x1 chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
    class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 6280.4 C mobo: N/A gpu: radeon temp: 54.0 C
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Info:
  Processes: 233 Power: uptime: 1d 4h 5m states: freeze,mem,disk suspend: deep
    avail: s2idle wakeups: 2 hibernate: platform avail: shutdown, reboot,
    suspend, test_resume image: 2.89 GiB services: upowerd,xfce4-power-manager
    Init: systemd v: 255 default: graphical tool: systemctl
  Packages: pm: pacman pkgs: 1656 libs: 597 tools: pamac pm: flatpak pkgs: 0
    Compilers: clang: 16.0.6 gcc: 13.2.1 Shell: Sudo (sudo) v: 1.9.15p5
    default: Bash v: 5.2.26 running-in: xfce4-terminal inxi: 3.3.33

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