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In the system settings for ubuntu 16.04 I can't change the screen brightness on my Dell Inspiron N7010, the scroll bar moves but nothing actually changes. Additionally I can't change the brightness through the terminal through any commands I have found on google. Can anyone help me or provide suggestion? It drains my battery extremely fast to have it on 100% brightness all the time. Thank you!

EDIT:

$ head /sys/class/backlight/*/brightness

==> /sys/class/backlight/dell_backlight/actual_brightness <==
6

==> /sys/class/backlight/dell_backlight/brightness <==
6

==> /sys/class/backlight/dell_backlight/max_brightness <==
15

==> /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/actual_brightness <==
617

==> /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness <==
617

==> /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/max_brightness <==
4882

$ lspci -k | grep -iEA3 '3D|VGA'

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 18)
    Subsystem: Dell Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller
    Kernel driver in use: i915
    Kernel modules: i915
Pixelknight1398
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  • Identify your graphics card – Panther May 11 '17 at 19:52
  • Welcome to AskUbuntu. Please provide us some information of your computer such as your graphics card information. Also for the battery, install tlp package for battery optimization. – Ege Sucu May 11 '17 at 19:56
  • Can you add the output of head /sys/class/backlight/*/*brightness* to your question please, additional to some information about your graphics hardware and driver, e.g. the output of lspci -k | grep -iEA3 '3D|VGA'? – Byte Commander May 11 '17 at 20:45
  • @ByteCommander I added the graphics card information and the output of the backlight brightness. – Pixelknight1398 May 31 '17 at 00:52
  • The graphics card is Intel Ironlake Mobile. Same issue here. – TenLeftFingers Aug 04 '18 at 13:29
  • I see. Ya I am not sure what happened. I think it has something to do with the original operating system on the laptop... I think it has windows 7 home premium from factory? Not sure but after the ubuntu installation this feature broke for me and every solution I tried did nothing. I ended up reinstalling windows 7 ultimate I think on it to try and remedy the problem. Still nothing. Now just have to deal with a super bright screen, an extra laptop battery from the drainage rate, and an adapter replacement every couple months cuz the one for this lappy sucks. – Pixelknight1398 Aug 04 '18 at 17:50
  • Interesting that it doesn't work under Windows either. Yes, it originally had Win 7. Thanks for the response. If I ever find a solution I'l come back here with the answer. I didn't think it would be a big deal but it really hurts my eyes at night. It didn't work on 10.04 either http://www.linlap.com/dell_inspiron_17r – TenLeftFingers Aug 04 '18 at 20:48
  • I understand. Best of luck! I would help the search but I haven't used that laptop in a while, been doing most of my development work on my PC with ubuntu 18.04. Thank you – Pixelknight1398 Aug 04 '18 at 20:53
  • Thanks to you too! I've settled on this solution: https://askubuntu.com/a/469040/39783 It's terminal based but seems to work on a hardware level rather than some of the colour related tricks that exist. – TenLeftFingers Aug 04 '18 at 20:59
  • Looks good :) Thanks I will have to give it a shot one of these days. – Pixelknight1398 Aug 04 '18 at 21:09

1 Answers1

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I used the terminal commands listed both in & below the following YouTube video, to successfully control the brightness in Ubuntu MATE 16.04, on a Lenovo G570 laptop:

"Brightness Indicator : Easily control screen brightness in Linux Mint (Ubuntu)" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5_HyOT519U

You can simply copy/paste them from below the video (running them one after the other), into your terminal window.

Alternatively, have you simply tried the FN key + Down Arrow ?

GNz11
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  • I followed the instructions in the YouTube video, to no avail. The brightness indicator is installed, though when I changed the value associated with it, the screen brightness does not actually change. Additionally, FN key + Down Arrow doesn't respond as expected. – Pixelknight1398 May 31 '17 at 01:00