How to control Brightness

Question

I didn't install anything myself, but only Ubuntu 12.04 LTS on an Acer 4741g.

I use Fn+left/right to change the brightness, but failed.

How can I control the brightness levels?

I may have a guide in hebrew with the sources of it. you need? or you got a solution? Here: http://www.fxp.co.il/showthread.php?t=10255235&p=94282824#post94282824 Try using Google to translate all the page. Or, try the sorce at the end og tne manual. — yinon, Feb 26 '13 at 14:18
Nothing worked software and settings-wise for me. Installing a different driver for the graphics did the trick. Go to software center, install "additional drivers" if you don't see a "additional drivers" tab already visible in system settings / software sources. — , Apr 06 '13 at 16:22

score 40 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 28 '14 at 18:59

40

Try this:

Open a terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T).
Then type sudo nano /etc/default/grub. It will ask for your password. Type it in.
Around the 11th line, there will be something like: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash". Change it to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_backlight=vendor"
Save the file by Ctrl+O followed by Ctrl+X. Then run sudo update-grub in the terminal.
Reboot and see if backlight adjustment works. If not, undo the changes you did above, by invoking the text editor as in steps 1 and 2.

Hope it helps.

Works for Acer Aspire v3-571,Acer Aspire v3 571g,Hewlett Packard Bell EasyNote TS,Acer Aspire 4755G,Acer Aspire 5750-6866, Acer Aspire 5739, Lenovo T540p

edited Apr 28 '14 at 18:59

Eric Goulet

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answered Apr 30 '12 at 11:12

Richard

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To richy: i tried just ago it still didn't work. and if i press Fn+"left" , it will turn from the full to half . i press again, it will turn empty. it changes but the brightness doesn't change. and if i change it (also it won't work), but the next time, the brightness will be different from this time..... – homelesser Apr 30 '12 at 11:22
@homelesser what do you mean when you say that brightness will be different from this time? You mean after a reboot, or something else? And another thing, did you update your system after installing ubuntu? if not, try updating it as well. – Richard Apr 30 '12 at 20:03
Thank you! I have a Packard Bell EasyNote TS, and the backlight was stuck at full everytime I was using Ubuntu. Did exactly what you said up there, rebooted, and boom, adjustable backlight. Thank you. – Jul 02 '12 at 20:03
I tried this on my Aspire 4755G and it worked! Thanks! – ultrajohn Jul 04 '12 at 03:32
2

works perfectly with full control on Acer Aspire V3-571G – AhHatem Sep 28 '12 at 16:38
It works for Acer Aspire One 756-1007Ckk – Florin Apr 23 '13 at 15:36
If this doesn't work, try GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_backlight=legacy", it worked on my Acer Aspire V5-471PG – André Staltz Sep 21 '13 at 10:37
also works on Acer TravelMat 8473. Thanks! – itshorty Oct 18 '13 at 15:01
This didn't use to work for my Acer V3-571g (earlier distributions of Ubuntu/Xubuntu/Mint), but now, on Xubuntu 14.04 it's working great. Thank you. – scana May 24 '14 at 21:39
I can also confirm this works on a Gateway NE56R. I also know that this bug will be fixed in Ubuntu 14.10 so we won't have to do this anymore! I should know. I used to be a Utopic beta tester. It was too unstable for me so I had to go back to trusty and use this work around of yours. – John Scott Oct 14 '14 at 20:12
Worked perfectly on my ACER Travelmate P643-M with Ubuntu 14.04. Thanks, man! – Shubham Das Jan 02 '15 at 08:30
A linked Q says to add both acpi_osi=Linux and acpi_backlight=vendor, as does one of the other answers here, but in a different line. Not sure if that's important/significant. – matt wilkie Oct 09 '16 at 20:56
Works on my Acer 3820TG with: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_osi=Linux acpi_backlight=vendor" – Bim Oct 23 '16 at 21:40
Also for Lenovo Ideapad P500, with Kubuntu 17.04 – Diego-MX Jul 31 '17 at 15:02

score 13 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 12 '20 at 14:37

13

OP reported in Revisions 2 & 3 of the question that the following worked for him.

I figured it out from different sites, it fixes backlight.

Run the following command in Terminal:
gksu gedit /etc/default/grub
then change
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""
to
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_backlight=vendor"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="acpi_osi=Linux"
then save and run:
sudo update-grub 
and then restart the system for changes to take effect.

edited Jun 12 '20 at 14:37

Community

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answered Feb 26 '13 at 11:56

Aditya

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3

It worked for me, on Acer Aspire One 756-1007Ckk, but only after a restart. – Florin Apr 23 '13 at 15:40
acer aspire e1-570g on Lubuntu worked too! – Tebe May 30 '14 at 03:05

score 13 · Answer 3 · edited Dec 05 '14 at 11:26

13

Ubuntu 14.04 (13.10+) with intel graphics

How to check if graphics card is intel

First, check if your graphics card is intel. You can check it from System Settings->Details->Graphics or with following command:

ls /sys/class/backlight

You should see something like:

ideapad  intel_backlight

Fix backlight

Make sure /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf exists. If it doesn't, make it yourself and add the following:

Section "Device"
        Identifier  "card0"
        Driver      "intel"
        Option      "Backlight"  "intel_backlight"
        BusID       "PCI:0:2:0"

EndSection

Logout and Login. Done.

Thanks to Abhishek

Reposted a solution that worked for me http://itsfoss.com/fix-brightness-ubuntu-1310/

edited Dec 05 '14 at 11:26

Merlijn Sebrechts

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answered Apr 19 '14 at 12:43

Venkat Kotra

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Worked for Acer Aspire 3820T. Thanks a lot! – Hrundik Apr 18 '15 at 20:53
Worked for Acer Aspire 5334 with intel graphics. – Pieter Sep 01 '16 at 12:35

score 7 · Answer 4 · edited Jun 11 '15 at 21:07

7

[Like in richy's, but] I use GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_osi="

(I'm on an Aspire 5750-6866.) It works fine, same control levels I had in Windows.

My brightness used to be stuck at max before I discovered this.

(Although brightness levels still reset after a restart/hibernate/shutdown)

edited Jun 11 '15 at 21:07

Elder Geek

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answered May 21 '12 at 14:42

WindowsEscapist

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I'm also on an Aspire 5750. richy's solution had no effect, but this ended up working! Finally! My eye's we're starting to melt. – leighton Jan 11 '13 at 06:24

score 2 · Answer 5 · edited May 01 '12 at 22:27

2

I found out a solution that worked with my laptop:

add this to /etc/rc.local:

echo 2 > /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness

edited May 01 '12 at 22:27

fossfreedom

172,746

answered May 01 '12 at 19:26

Robin

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score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 02 '12 at 21:18

I had the same problem. I have a Travelmate P633-V and I did this code to fix it.

After installing the scripts my FN-Left and FN-Right are working fine.

The script should work with all intel devices that exposes /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight

https://github.com/codingtony/acer-brightness-linux-acpi

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Sep 30 '18 at 14:19

1

Whilst trying xbacklight didn't work for me because I'm using NVIDIA drivers, Light did the job pretty well for me.

After installing:

Increase backlight brightness by 5 percent
```
light -A 5
```
Decrease backlight brightness by 5 percent
```
light -U 5
```

answered Sep 30 '18 at 14:19

Gabriel Ziegler

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Sai Viswanath · Answer 8 · 2012-12-15T12:38:53.697

I got this problem when i upgraded from 11.10 to 12.04. enter this in terminal code:

sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

Check for these lines GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT and change it as the below and save it.

After the update the grub

code: sudo update-grub

Code:

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
`**GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset acpi_backlight=vendor"**`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

# Uncomment to enable BadRAM filtering, modify to suit your needs
# This works with Linux (no patch required) and with any kernel that obtains
# the memory map information from GRUB (GNU Mach, kernel of FreeBSD ...)
#GRUB_BADRAM="0x01234567,0xfefefefe,0x89abcdef,0xefefefef"

# Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only)
#GRUB_TERMINAL=console
# The resolution used on graphical terminal
# note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE
# you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo'
#GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480

# Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass "root=UUID=xxx" parameter to Linux
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true

# Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries
#GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true"

# Uncomment to get a beep at grub start
#GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1"

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered May 04 '13 at 06:43

1

Most simple and fast way to do this.... Use this command

xrandr --output LVDS1 --brightness 0.5

Set the value in between 0 to 1 like in this case it is 0.5 This works for me Try this !!!

answered May 04 '13 at 06:43

Sarthak killer

233

1

This does change the brightness, but only by means of software, not hardware (i.e.: the level of backlight of laptops doesn't change, only the brightness of the colors) – Koen Sep 27 '13 at 12:48

score 0 · Answer 10 · edited Sep 30 '18 at 14:24

0

On Acer Aspire 4740 after installing Ubuntu 18.04, Screen brightness would not change. Tried every thing above, did not help.

Added blacklist acer-wmi to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf and rebooted

The Fn shortcut started working.

Reference: https://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-2172282.html

edited Sep 30 '18 at 14:24

Thomas

6,223

answered Sep 30 '18 at 13:50

Vigyani

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4

Added the following in /etc/default/grub
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_osi=Linux acpi_backlight=vendor"
– Vigyani Sep 30 '18 at 14:43

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Apr 12 '13 at 17:08

Try the following:

sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

Then change this line: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_osi=Linux acpi_backlight=vendor" Then in a terminal type sudo update-grub Reboot and see if the problem is solved.

david6 · Answer 12 · 2013-04-27T22:12:01.283

(Defunct) solution for Ubuntu 12.04.1:

Use Add Drivers / Additional Drivers to load Cedar Trail drm driver (closed source).

For Ubuntu 12.04.2 (and fully updated 12.04) this issue is resolved by more recent updates. It does not require the proprietary driver.

If you have just done a fresh install of 12.04.2, then you need to update (and re-start) to fix this.

At terminal, type sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade and then sudo apt-get dist-upgrade.

Update: (28-Apr-2013)

Repeated steps, with fresh install. This did not fix problem.

While the brightness is fixed, any dimness/brightness adjustment (using function keys) does not seem work after this fix ..

Ongoing ...

Serge Stroobandt · Answer 13 · 2019-02-01T19:54:03.653

0

Same solution as one-liner

For this solution, no nano knowledge is required. As such, it may also come handy for multi-machine installation scripts.

sudo sed -i 's|^GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"|GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_backlight=vendor"|' /etc/default/grub && sudo update-grub

For the faint of heart, the above command edits the file /etc/default/grub to replace the appropriate line with GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_backlight=vendor"

After editing, a sudo update-grub should be issued for the changes to take effect.

edited Feb 01 '19 at 19:54

answered Feb 25 '14 at 21:37

Serge Stroobandt

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We should not encourage users to run commands like this. Especially if they cannot even work with nano. This is also not useful to more technical users, because it "obfuscates" what is really going on, and it will not work if you have other non-standard grub parameters. – Merlijn Sebrechts Dec 05 '14 at 10:51
1

@Galgalesh "Treat all users with respect." You should urgently read The impact of the Linux philosophy. "The entire Unix philosophy revolves around the idea that the user knows what he or she is doing." "Unix was not designed to stop its users from doing stupid things, as that would also stop them from doing clever things." – Serge Stroobandt Dec 05 '14 at 12:24
If I phrased my comment disrespectfully, I'm sorry for that. English is a second language to me, I do not mean to be disrespectful.
There is a big difference between permitting people to do stupid things and encouraging people to do stupid things. Linux still allows people to wget a random script from the internet and run it. That does not mean we should post it as a solution.

Your answer is dangerous, does not educate the user, and is not future-proof. No matter what the Linux philosophy might be, this is not a good askubuntu answer.
– Merlijn Sebrechts Dec 05 '14 at 14:22
Firstly, the above command does not load any script from the internet; it does exactly the same as other solutions mentioned here. Secondly, this answer is educational as it shows how a system administrator would roll out this solution to numerous machines. It saves time and avoids any typing mistakes. Again, do not make any assumptions. Many people here run more than just a single instance of Ubuntu on a single machine. System administrators also come to SE to look for answers. Do not put a limit on yourself or others! – Serge Stroobandt Dec 06 '14 at 11:41
This is an excellent method, once the correct settings have been identified. It would allow a non-technical user to load the required settings. However, it may not be the correct solution for any given user. – david6 Mar 06 '15 at 00:02

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Mar 05 '14 at 01:55

I was struggling with this problem as well. My notebook is an Acer Aspire E1-522. I could solve the brightness issue by changing from the X.Org X server to the proprietary AMD video driver.

To do so, go to Software & Updates and then go to the tab Additional Drivers. There you can probably find the proprietary driver. Select it and click Apply Changes. You will need to reboot you computer in order to know if it really helped.

How to control Brightness

14 Answers14

Ubuntu 14.04 (13.10+) with intel graphics

How to check if graphics card is intel

Fix backlight

Same solution as one-liner

Linked

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