Cannot change brightness (Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, Unity)

Question

I'm new to Linux systems in general (I'm using Ubuntu 16.04 LTS) and I'm having difficulty in changing the brightness of my notebook.

When I use the Fn+F8 or Fn+F9 the brightness bar shows up but there is no change in the actual brightness of the screen.

I tried every method described in this post (How to adjust screen brightness in Ubuntu 14.04?) to no success. Installing and using the xbacklight has no effect, same for editing the brightness file in the "intel_backlight" file.

Anyone knows how to solve this?

I had the same problem using Toshiba C660 satelite a few years back. It wouldn't work, until I used the nvidia driver from the "additional drivers" tab, couldn't get it to fix, using the open-source driver. Does it happen to you, which driver are you using? — Mookey, Apr 26 '16 at 06:30
The graphics card is an Intel® HD Graphics 3000. I'm still not very familiar with the way linux handles the computer drivers and all, so I'm not sure what do you mean about "additional drivers tab". — Andrei, Apr 26 '16 at 17:33
I found a strange workaround on my laptop (compaq cq70). Instead of pressing Fn+f7 to dim and Fn+f8 to brighten, I am able to use Ctrl+f10 to dim and press Ctrl+f11 to brighten. — Joel Sjögren, Jul 24 '16 at 11:32

Archisman Panigrahi · Accepted Answer · 2024-03-18T02:13:14.643

89

This method does not work when nightlight/redshift is enabled, and also does not work with Wayland.

This does not make your brightness function keys work, but is a workaround.

Install Brightness Controller with the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:apandada1/brightness-controller
sudo apt update

For Version 2 with Multi Monitor Support and Color Temperature support:

sudo apt install brightness-controller

enter image description here

For Version 1 with up to 4 Monitor Support:

sudo apt install brightness-controller-simple

Brightness Controller Version 1 (Note: Version 1 is not anymore updated)

Note: This does not decrease the intensity of backlight, so won't save your batteries. But you can use this as a last resort to save your eyes. This also works in desktops, where there is no option to control brightness.

edited Mar 18 '24 at 02:13

answered Apr 26 '16 at 09:09

Archisman Panigrahi

28,338
18
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20

This not a brigthness controller. This just play with colors of system – Harshit Chaudhary May 05 '16 at 18:59
1

@HarshitChaudhary you are right..this is a bug with this version.Thanks! – williamj949 May 12 '16 at 16:38
1

Refer this link for more details https://bugs.launchpad.net/hundredpapercuts/+bug/1270579 – williamj949 May 12 '16 at 16:44
Finally I can set the brightness. For some reason I only have primary brightness, secondary isn't working. And clearly it is secondary brightness that is used by settings menu and xbacklight. All the various grub solutions didn't work for me (I tried many of them). [I am on an ASUS A555U, ubuntu 16.04 - to spare anyone else the effort] – JasoonS Jun 20 '16 at 01:55
1

@JasoonS You don't have access to secondary brightness as your computer is connected to only one monitor. – Archisman Panigrahi Jun 20 '16 at 16:24
@ArchismanPanigrahi Thanks, that makes sense. Well bottom line, this worked, so (y) – JasoonS Jun 20 '16 at 16:32
@HarshitChaudhary Currently it seems to control the brightness well, as it claims. Not the colors. – xji Jul 03 '16 at 10:26
This doesn't work for me at all. The brightness controller window says "Primary Not Found" and that's that. No controls, nothing. I don't get how this is such a big issue. Ubuntu should be able to handle this out of the box. :( – Vala Jul 27 '16 at 10:31
Hello - dialog box comes up, but no effect: 14.04 on MSI laptop with hybrid Intel graphics on the motherboard and NVIDIA (boo) as the standalone. Running brightness-controller on the command line I get xrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output default on the first line, then xrandr: Gamma size is 0. each time I adjust the slider. – WillC May 15 '17 at 14:46
Works on Ubuntu 16.04 + Asus ROG.
1. Set acpi_backlight = native in grub (If you're looking at this page, you probably tried the grub already)
2. I needed to quit flux / redshift for this application to take effect. Screen brightness is controllable now PLUS the added benefit of the "flux effect". Perfect. Thanks.
– Sterls Jul 02 '17 at 15:56
This does not work together with Ubutu 18.04 Nightlight. Nightlight is disabled when I change any slider in the brightness controller. – Christoph Thiede Mar 17 '24 at 21:55

Serge Stroobandt · Answer 2 · 2019-05-08T13:11:43.903

37

Hardware brightness buttons

Since Ubuntu LTS 18.04

Here is every step required for xbacklight control:

$ sudo nano /etc/default/grub and replace the corresponding line with GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_backlight=vendor"
$ sudo update-grub
No joking, make sure that the appropriate drivers are actually installed: $ sudo apt install xbacklight xorg xserver-xorg-video-intel
Issuing $ find /sys -type f -name brightness should yield something like /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/drm/card0/card0-eDP-1/intel_backlight/brightness
$ cd /sys/class This directory should contain a soft link called brightness to the brightness device discovered in the previous step. Should it be missing, create it: $ sudo ln -s /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/drm/card0/card0-eDP-1/intel_backlight/brightness /sys/class/brightness

$ cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf should read:

Section "Device"
    Identifier      "Device0"
    Driver          "intel"
    Option          "Backlight"      "intel_backlight"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier      "Monitor0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier      "Screen0"
    Monitor         "Monitor0"
    Device          "Device0"
EndSection

If it doesn't, edit it with $ sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

The assignment of the physical XF86MonBrightnessDown and XF86MonBrightnessUp keys is explained here for Xubuntu LTS or XFCE users.
Finally, reboot for these changes to take effect.

Finer-grained brightness control (all Ubuntu versions)

If brightness control happens to be too coarse, then make this additional adjustment.

Ubuntu LTS 16.04

To find out if you have integrated Intel video graphics, enter the following command:

$ ls /sys/class/backlight/
    intel_backlight  panasonic

At least intel_backlight should be mentioned, most probably in addition to an OEM name like for example panasonic, dell_backlight, etc.

If this is the case, proceed with creating the following file

$ sudo nano /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf

containing the following lines:

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

Reboot, and enjoy your backlight buttons! [Source]

Before Ubuntu LTS 16.04

Under (X)Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, brightness control on my Panasonic Toughbook CF-52 used to work fine by adding acpi_osi=Linux to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT= line in /etc/default/grub:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_osi=Linux"

and issuing

$ sudo update-grub

after editing and before rebooting.

edited May 08 '19 at 13:11

answered Dec 11 '16 at 15:27

Serge Stroobandt

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I tried this fix on my laptop which has an integrated Intel gfx card (with a backlight as revealed by the ls command as suggested), and with 2nd Nvidia 960M as well. On reboot I get a purple screen, but nothing else being displayed - I can change the background brightness, but I can't log in, as I can't see anything on the screen except a full screen purple wash. – Tony Suffolk 66 Jan 27 '17 at 11:31
@TonySuffolk66 You have what is called a hybrid graphics environment, which is a bit problematic. Personally, I have no experience with that. However, following above link will provide you with some answers. – Serge Stroobandt Jan 27 '17 at 12:13
1

Solved my issue with Lenovo W520 @ Ubuntu 16.04. – Ihor Pomaranskyy Mar 25 '17 at 11:10
You can also read/write to the device file (as root), eg in my case: "echo 45 > /sys/class/backlight/radeon_bl0/brightness" . Appears to be a range of 0-255. – akom May 31 '17 at 14:21
1

This answers even works for me!!!. I am Linux mit xfce user.thanks alot Gin Gordon – Jul 22 '17 at 08:48
1

Fixed issue on 17.04 Ubuntu as well, fn keys now work again to control brightness. – Michael Jackson Sep 27 '17 at 13:36
1

The post-16.04 version also works on Debian Stretch – Jonathan E. Landrum Jan 22 '18 at 03:20
1

work on ubuntu 16.04 on Lenovo W520 – Han Jan 30 '18 at 14:51
1

works for a Dell Inspiron 7370 on Ubuntu 16.04 – Israel Morales Mar 24 '18 at 17:22
9

@SergeStroobandt sudo ln -s /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/drm/card0/card0-eDP-1/intel_backlight/brightness /sys/class/brightness ln: failed to create symbolic link '/sys/class/brightness': Operation not permitted What should i do? – Pranav Apr 22 '19 at 20:44
@Pranav did you solve the ln issue? – João Pimentel Ferreira Aug 10 '21 at 20:23
Does Unity still use the X11 config?? – Soerendip Jul 05 '23 at 01:09

score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 03 '16 at 12:52

6

Another option is the application Redshift, which in addition to adjusting brightness can also adjust the color temperature to reduce the blue light at night.

Example usage: redshift -b 0.8 will set the brightness to 0.8 on a scale of 0 to 1

answered Jul 03 '16 at 12:52

xji

642

When using redshift, I get the problem of multiple commands being stacked, causing the screen to flicker. If i close my terminal, redshift stops working – drewburr Apr 14 '17 at 16:21
From Redshift docs: Redshift has a brightness adjustment setting, but it does not work the way most people might expect. In fact it is a fake brightness adjustment obtained by manipulating the gamma ramps, which means that it does not* reduce the backlight of the screen.* – rustyx Oct 14 '19 at 20:32

score 5 · Answer 4 · edited Oct 02 '16 at 23:44

5

I use Lenovo Z570 and adding acpi_backlight=none to /etc/default/grub and updating grub worked nicely with Fn key.

edited Oct 02 '16 at 23:44

andrew.46

38,003
27
156
232

answered May 14 '16 at 06:39

sanjay Joshi

51

This one worked for me (Sony Vaio VPCEG30EL) – revliscano Nov 20 '20 at 19:10

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 10 '18 at 09:12

2

In XFCE, you must enable "Handle display brightness keys" on XFCE Power Manager, under the General tab.

enter image description here

answered Sep 10 '18 at 09:12

Nabil Kadimi

2,212

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 10 '22 at 03:20

For AMD Radeon Graphics Card on Ubuntu 22.04 (this closely follows Serge's answer:

Install pre-requisite packages:

sudo apt install xbacklight
sudo apt install xorg

Find brightness config file

sudo find /sys -type f -name brightness

You may see multiple options, but the one indicating the graphics driver will be needed. In my case, its:
```
/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:08.1/0000:07:00.0/backlight/amdgpu_bl1/brightness
```

Create / edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf so that it looks like:

Section "Device"
    Identifier      "Device0"
    Driver          "amd"
    Option          "Backlight"      "amdgpu_bl1"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
    Identifier      "Monitor0"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
    Identifier      "Screen0"
    Monitor         "Monitor0"
    Device          "Device0"
EndSection

Edit parameter GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT in the GRUB file /etc/default/grub to:
```
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_osi=Linux"
```
Update the GRUB file
```
sudo update-grub
```
Restart

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered May 19 '16 at 16:52

1

In 16.04 there is a package in the repos called "backlight-indicator" which will use your camera to set backlight (or not) and differentially set it for AC and/or battery usage.

answered May 19 '16 at 16:52

Andor Kiss

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6
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E: Unable to locate package backlight-indicator No LSB modules are available. Distributor ID: Ubuntu Description: Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS Release: 16.04 Codename: xenial – Enigma Aug 30 '16 at 00:18
http://www.ubuntuupdates.org/package/atareao_atareao/xenial/main/base/backlight-indicator – Andor Kiss Aug 31 '16 at 10:29
you should add this @Enigma ppa:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:atareao/atareao
– Mohammad Rafigh Nov 04 '16 at 21:31

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Oct 14 '19 at 20:23

I have a Panasonic CF-LX3, and it reports as having 2 brightness controls:

/sys/class/backlight/:
intel_backlight -> ../../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/drm/card0/card0-eDP-1/intel_backlight
panasonic -> ../../devices/virtual/backlight/panasonic

But actually on this machine the first one works and the vendor one doesn't.

So adding acpi_brightness=video to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT in /etc/defaults/grub helped.

(don't forget to update-grub)

score 0 · Answer 9 · edited Nov 04 '19 at 07:28

0

After following the accepted answers, it still did not work in Ubuntu 18.04. Then, I changed /etc/default/grub to contain the line:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_backlight=none"

Instead of:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_backlight=vendor"

And run:

sudo update-grub

Then reboot. It worked perfectly.

edited Nov 04 '19 at 07:28

Eliah Kagan

117,780

answered Nov 04 '19 at 07:25

Vikram Pudi

21

Nothing works.. – Soerendip Jul 05 '23 at 01:11

score 0 · Answer 10 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:25

0

I fixed this on my Asus UX303UB with a little difference:

set to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_osi=" (acpi_osi= did it for me, other options didn't work, got this from here). Of course after this run update-grub. This make function keys respond showing the Ubuntu notification, but doesn't really change brightness. One more thing taken from other answers:
sudo nano /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf

with contents:

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

Now the only problem is to associate Fn+F7 to xset dpms force standby to turn off the screen.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:25

Community

1

answered Dec 19 '16 at 03:48

Pablo Bianchi

15,657

1

Didn't work for me. I got black screen after login. – Jordan Silva Mar 26 '17 at 19:31
1

This command spoiled my system. Got stuck during booting. Don't try this. – sv_jan5 Jul 03 '17 at 04:23
@sv_jan5 @JordanSilva Strange, do you have 16.04.02? Exactly Asus UX303UB? Check with lsb_release -a and sudo dmidecode -t baseboard. – Pablo Bianchi Jul 03 '17 at 12:51
lsb_release -a gave: No LSB modules are available. Distributor ID: Ubuntu Description: Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS Release: 16.04 Codename: xenial – sv_jan5 Jul 03 '17 at 14:33

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Jul 04 '17 at 04:14

0

In my case, the problem was because of some issue with my graphics drivers. Changing them to a stable version solved the issue.

answered Jul 04 '17 at 04:14

sv_jan5

151

Cannot change brightness (Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, Unity)

11 Answers11

Hardware brightness buttons

Since Ubuntu LTS 18.04

Finer-grained brightness control (all Ubuntu versions)

Ubuntu LTS 16.04

Before Ubuntu LTS 16.04

Linked

Related