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So, I'm new to this world and I'm trying to slowly settle in and learn. But I´m encountering some problems that I'm eager to solve since I´'e been spending the few last days trying to find a fix.

Here's the problem:

My setup is a laptop with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS in dual boot, connected to an external 24" 1080p monitor. I close my laptop and put it vertically on a stand, so that I use more of a desktop setup with external mouse and keyboard.

I code a lot for school at night and reducing the brightness level of the external monitor has been a pain, as I can only reduce brightness from the LG control menu of the monitor, and even so the level just hurts my eyes. From Ubuntu Settings, I don't even have the option to scroll to reduce the monitor's brightness (which magically appears if I detach my laptop).

I've tried other tools such as Brightness controller or directly from the terminal, but they turn off my blue light filter (Night light) as soon as I change the settings from the tool or the terminal. The brightness goes down, but the fact that the filter goes off, just hurts my eyes more.

Can anybody advise?

Note: My external monitor already shows as primary in Ubuntu, although it has no privileges such as the built-in one.

BeastOfCaerbannog
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SandStorm
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  • I struggle with the same problem and have not found a solution. If you feel like getting technical, give this a try: https://clinta.github.io/external-monitor-brightness/ – i9pp0 Jan 02 '21 at 11:26
  • @i9pp0 I don't know if you still struggle, but the answer below might be of help to you. – BeastOfCaerbannog Nov 04 '22 at 21:50

1 Answers1

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There is the awesome Soft brightness extension that does exactly what you want!

It uses a combination of hardware and software brightness control that allows the simultaneous brightness/backlight adjustment of both your laptop's and your external screen by pressing the brightness keys on your keyboard or by using the slider in the system status area on the top right of the panel.

Here is a screenshot of the extension's options (from the project's GitHub page):

Soft brightness options

The extension works great on Ubuntu 20.04 with GNOME 3.36 (I was using it for more than a year with no problems at all) and it works with GNOME versions up to 42 for the moment. That means that it should work fine for Ubuntu versions up to 22.04.

For more info, you can visit the the project's GitHub page.

BeastOfCaerbannog
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