Brightness

13 replies [Last post]
noisysoul
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Joined: 03/20/2013

Hi, I've used Ubuntu and its derivatives for a couple of years and Trisquel seduces me so badly, but I just cannot increase or decrease the brightness.

I'm running Trisquel 6 on a usb stick (my HD contains eOS, at least until I can make Trisquel work properly) and even though I've installed drivers like I used to on Ubuntu and its derivatives and checked the internet I still cannot fix my brightness issue.

I'm basically begging for help hahahaha.

Greetings from Chile :)

(BTW: I know how to use the terminal, I've been using linux for almost 3 years).

noisysoul
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Joined: 03/20/2013

oh, I've been such a fool, I forgot to mention I'm running it on a Samsung R430 laptop (I used to use ppa voria's drivers). thx

MagicFab
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Joined: 12/13/2010

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I had another Samsung, different problem, but similar problem. I
remember trying some other value for acpi_vendor at boot. Check this:
http://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Samsung/Samsung%20N150

Cheers,

Fabian

- --
Fabián Rodríguez
http://fsf.magicfab.ca
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miga
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Joined: 09/17/2011

Please be careful installing drivers or a kernel from a different source. Most third-party drivers are proprietary (non-free) software and most versions of the Linux kernel have non-free components in them as well.

It looks like you can use nvidia-bl-dkms, which looks to be free software (GPL licensed, but I haven't confirmed this). This is not the proprietary nVidia driver (which we don't support or recommend at all), but is a driver to control the backlight.

If you've already tried that, then I have no idea where you could go next.

linuxbookpro
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Joined: 03/18/2012

Assuming you just need to control the LCD or LED brightness try the package xbacklight and just manually set up the function keys in your keyboard settings.
http://linux.die.net/man/1/xbacklight

noisysoul
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Joined: 03/20/2013

Guys, I tried your solutions but none of them worked :/ I used the usb stick on a older Toshiba laptop and Trisquel runs pretty well (Satellite from 2006-2007, brightness, audio and wifi working out of the box)... I don't know what to do, I really would like to switch to Trisquel, but I don't know how to increase/decrease brightness on my Samsung lappy :C

Anyway, thank you so much for your help, I hope someone knows a solution somewhere :)

Have a great weekend.

lembas
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Joined: 05/13/2010

What kind of a GPU does that have?

lspci|grep VGA

Perhaps you can change it via a file, one of these

find /sys -iname brightness

If you get multiple files, you can try to relate them to the devices with lspci by looking at the address.

Mampir
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Joined: 12/16/2009

Since 6.0 I also have problems with setting the brightness. Specifically, on a computer with an Nvidia GPU. The functions buttons do nothing, only show an indicator of changing, but the brightness doesn't actually change.

I work around this by setting the brightness from a file in the /sys directory. In my case the file is /sys/class/backlight/nv_backlight/brightness. I do it like this:

echo 21 | sudo tee /sys/class/backlight/nv_backlight/brightness

21 is the brightness value. In my case the brightness goes from 1 to 21, 21 being the brightest.

GustavoCM

I am a member!

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Joined: 11/20/2012

One can manipulate the hardware directly:

$ sudo setpci -s 00:02.0 f4.b=XX

, where 'XX' is an hexadecimal value, from '00' to 'ff'. '00' will virtually shut down your screen, 'ff' could possibly burn it :-) Besides, such "manipulation" can be a not-so-good idea... you could change other parameters accidentaly, for example.

See the setpci(8) man page to know more about the command itself.

There is also "redshift", which allows more changes in the screen than just its brightness.

pngwen
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Joined: 12/21/2012

I have a samsung S10 notebook which has similar behavior. Part of the problem is that it has 2 backlight devices, and the intel one is the one that actually controls the laptop. The other problem is that it has extermely fine control. I can set brightness between 0 and 12000! I've found that trisquel tends to latch on to the wrong brightness control device. My solution was to write a little app which attaches to the correct one and lets me adjust it in big jumps.

I've attached the application to this post. You'll need gcc and gtk+3-dev to build it. Once built, you get two programs. These are samsung-brightness which is the actual adjustment program and samsung-brightness-window which is the gui. Just put both in your path (like in /usr/local/bin) and then setuid samsung-brightness so it can tweak your sys files. Hope that helps!

So in summary, here's the commands to install this badboy:

tar xjf samsung-brightness.tar.bz2
cd samsung-brightness
make
sudo cp samsung-brightness samsung-brightness-window /usr/local/bin
chmod a+s /usr/local/bin/samsung-brightness

Also, it occurs to me I never applied any sort of license to this thing. Then again, it represents like 45 minutes of effort. If it's useful, take it and use it! If you think it would be useful to others, I put the GPL 3 in there. We can say for now that my intent is to apply the GPL, and this is a production draft of the code. Will that work?

AttachmentSize
samsung-brightness.tar_.bz2 12.44 KB
Magic Banana

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I am a translator!

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Joined: 07/24/2010

You had better use the GPL the right way, with a COPYING file and a preamble in every source file.

pngwen
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Joined: 12/21/2012

When you're right right you're right. Here's a version with GPL applied.

The reason I didn't have it on there before was it was written as quick fix for my one machine. I guess now that I've handed it out, the license becomes important. The irony is, the GPL is longer than the software :-D

AttachmentSize
samsung-brightness.tar_.bz2 23.19 KB
noisysoul
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Joined: 03/20/2013

Dear pngwen, the terminal emulator keeps showing me errors :/ I couldn't make it work, maybe it doesn't do with my laptop, but anyway, thank you so much.

Guys, I still cannot make it work :/ thanks anyway, I guess I won't be able to switch to Trisquel until I get a new laptop (probably in 2015 or so).

PD: I could install Trisquel 6 on my old laptop (Toshiba from 2006-2007), and I use to work and study (while I have to keep Elementary OS Luna on my main laptop).

Thank you so much guys, please have a great week.

BTW, this is my laptop:

http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/laptops/NP-R430-JA01US

(it's just like that, the only difference is that I added it a RAM card, so it now has 3GB of RAM)

noisysoul
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Joined: 03/20/2013

Please ignore Spanish :/

• Marca: Samsung
• Procesador: Intel
• Memoria Ram: 1GB
• Disco Duro: 250GB
• Tamaño de pantalla: 14 pulgadas
• Modelo: NP-R430-JA04CL
• Especificaciones:
• Sistema Operativo: Windows 7 Starter
• Procesador: Intel Pentium Dual Core T4400 (2.20GHz, 800MHz, 1MB) / Intel GL40 + ICH9M
• Memoria Ram: 1GB (DDR3 / 1GB x 1) / conexión de memoria: 2 x SODIMM / Expandible hasta 4GB
• Disco Duro: 250 GB (5,400 rpm S-ATA)
• Pantalla / Resolución: 14.0" LED HD (1366 x 768) 16:9 Brillante
• Tarjeta Gráfica: Intel GMA 4500M (gráficos internos)
• Unidad óptica: Súper Multi Doble Capa (S-ATA)
• Multimedia: Efecto de sonido: Eliminación de Ruido en Micrófono Efecto de Sonido SRS 3D
• Parlantes: Altavoz Estéreo de 3 W (1.5 W x 2)
• Cámara Web: Sí
• Conectividad inalámbrica: 802.11 bg/n, Ethernet: 10 / 100 LAN
• Lector de Tarjetas: 3 en 1 (SD, SDHC, MMC)
• VGA
• HDMI
• Salida para audífonos
• Entrada de micrófono
• Micrófono integrado
• USB: 3 entradas 2.0
• DC-in: Sí
• RJ45 (LAN): Sí
• Poder: Adaptador AC: 60 Watts
• Batería: estandar 6 Celdas
• Otros: Teclado: 87 teclas, 88 teclas
• Softwares pre instalados: Easy Battery Manager
• Easy Display Manager
• Easy Network Manager
• Easy SpeedUp Manager
• Samsung Support Center
• Samsung Update Plus
• Dimensiones: 343.9 x 239 x 29.2 ~ 36.9 mm
• Peso: 2.26 Kilos