brightness control usability issues.

[Kliment Yanev]

Binary package hint: gnome-power-manager

In latest gutsy with all updates gnome-power manager is extremely annoying with the automatic brightness control. The brightness setting osd appears after a minute or so even when the option to change brightness when idle has been disabled (though it thankfully does not alter brightness then). It appears again on keyboard/mouse input, obscuring part of the screen for a second. Also, there is no way to configure the idle time, as the screensaver setting is not respected, making the period far too short and annoying. Finally, I believe it wold be useful if the ac brightness and battery brightness could be synced with an option, as to me at least the screen brightness is more of a comfort issue than a power issue, in a way similar to volume.

The gui seems to go far with this volume analogy, with a similar applet and OSD, however I don't think this makes so much sense when the brightness is set automatically, as the osd obscures a part of the screen with no user action. Also, the screen dimming is not affected by inhibiting automatic sleep, and I think considering the use cases of inhibit, it might be a good idea.

[Chris Jones (cmsj)]

I see this on gutsy too. It behaves exactly like it's doing the dim-when-idle, it just displays the screen brightness indicator, which is quite annoying.

[permafrost91 (permafrost91)]

I have the same problem on my X60. I've noticed that if I change the brightness level in the preferences and then close the preferences dialog, the brightness indicator goes away too.

[Dmtalon (forums-v8eaters)]

I am seeing this with my (MSi 1636 based) ZT Elements laptop. It's using the Intel Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 chipset, and Nvidia 8400M G video card.

For me, the display is changing brightness at the same interval that the laptop believes it's going onto battery. This is happening as often as a couple times a minute. I can monitor this by the little display window popping up, and the battery/charging icon on the panel bar. There are a growing number of similar threads located at the ubuntuforums site.

I have at least stopped the brightness change by making both the on-ac-power and on-battery power settings reflect the same battery brightness. however This only seems to work on certain % of brightness. Having them both set to 84% was not working. I have them both set to 23% bright now and at least the screen isn't going bright/dim/bright/dim. This does not solve the problem, but makes it less annoying.

[Darina (darina-gr)]

I have a similar problem on my MSI PR200.

The new here is that it "resets" the brightness after i change it from the keyboard. After it "resets" it the brightness control is not working (except from keyboard) and the "Set display brightness to" in Power Management is "resetted" to this new value as well. It is usually either 100% or 0%. Really annoying.

Also there seems to be no connection between the keyboard brightness control and the one in the Power Management. When i adjust the brightness with Fn +F5 the LCD brightness or the Power Management brightness values are not changed.

Hope this is fixed soon ;(

[Martin Pool (mbp)]

I have this too on my X61s, it's rather annoying.

[Tomasz Rzepecki (nub)]

i'm experiencing a similar problem. when changing brightness using keyboard shortcuts, it goes bright/dim/bright/dim, though it does eventually reach higher/lower brightness. it also goes back up some time after being lowered after some time and after restarting monitor. it also stopped working completely and even refused to change brightness using normal power management tool (!) but its alright again now, for no apparent reason.
i'm using acer aspire 5315.
i would also like to point out that the bug seems to be similar to ati xorg bug #36956: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-ati/+bug/36956

[avdzm (alecos85)]

Hey all,

I've got a little problem with the brightness,
when i lower the brightness with the function (fn) keys and when
the screen dims (due to idle) when i move the mouse the screen goes to the original setting in power management (full brightness),

instead of what i choose (with the fn keys).

[Tomasz Rzepecki (nub)]

i don't know if it's of any importance, but i discovered that under windows, after uninstalling acer's power management tool (bloatware) the brightness controls stop working altogether.

[Tomasz Rzepecki (nub)]

one more thing i've found out - if brightness controls do work at all, the dim/bright bug doesn't occur during system loading and in the logon screen before logging in, only after logging in. it's in the logon screen if i 'switch user', but not when i log out.

[Tomasz Rzepecki (nub)]

the dim-bright issue seems to be gone in hardy, not sure if it always works, but it seems that if it does work at all, it works properly.

[Martin Pool (mbp)]

On Thu, May 1, 2008 at 11:26 AM, Tomasz Rzepecki <email address hidden> wrote:
> the dim-bright issue seems to be gone in hardy, not sure if it always
> works, but it seems that if it does work at all, it works properly.

It is definitely better than it was but not totally fixed.

When all the options are turned off in the Power control panel, I can
set the brightness using the function keys and it stays set.

If I set "dim display when idle" it also seems to work ok.

If I add a brightness applet things seem to work too.

If I set "reduce backlight brightness" on battery power it's not so
good: when unplugged, the brightness goes to almost the lowest
setting, which is too dim for me, and when re-plugging it stays
somewhat dimmer than it was before. Perhaps that's a separate bug, at
any rate it's a big improvement.

--
Martin <http://launchpad.net/~mbp/>

[Martin Pool (mbp)]

One additional failure mode:

I have 'dim display when idle' turned on for battery, off for AC.

My laptop had been idle on battery for a while, with the display
dimmed. I plugged in the power supply before pressing any keys. The
display remained dim, even after I pressed a key; I had to turn it
back up manually.

What should have happened: plugging in ac should have restored the brightness.

[Tomasz Rzepecki (nub)]

the brightness controls seem to work at every startup now, so i guess the bug is fixed.

martin: yeah, i think it's a different bug. it seems like the brightness settings aren't saved properly. similiar thing happens when you suspend: after unsuspending the brightness is set to the max, even if it was set to the lowest before suspend. not sure if the same is true for hibernation, as it doesn't seem to work for me.

[Martin Pool (mbp)]

@nub, I filed bug 232099 for the continuing problems. As far as I'm concerned, this bug is fixed.

[Syarif (psychicmind9)]

hai..im using acer aspire 4736 laptop.
im also having the same problem as you guys.
My diplay brightness is not functioning.
i hve a simple solution but working. It works like charm for Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty.

Here my solution and tutorial.

My solution is:
---------------

1. Install COmpiz (Advanced Desktop Effect Settings (ccsm) from Add/Remove..

2. After finished, go to System > Preferences > CompizConfig Settings Manager.

3. At Accessibility Column, tick the Opacity, Brightness And Saturation and click at the word.

4. There are Opacity| Brightness | Saturation tab. Choose the brightness tab.

5. You will see keyboard(increase),mouse(increase),keyboard(decrease),mouse(decrease) icon at the left. At the right of it, you will see Disable button.

---------------------
-Brightness Increase-
---------------------

6. Click at the disable button of keyboard(increase) and tick the enable box.

7. Now, put your own combination. Lets say we want to make it as CTRL + right button. There are a choice:

      Shift Super
      Ctrl Alt

8. Click at the Grab key combination.

9. ccsm windows will pop up. Press ctrl + right button on your keyboard and press ok..

10. Now you have done for the Brightness increase button.

----------------------
-Brightness Decrease-
----------------------

11. Click at the disable button of keyboard(decrease) and tick the enable box.

12. Now, put your own combination. Lets say we want to make it as CTRL + left button. There are a choice:

      Shift Super
      Ctrl Alt

13. Click at the Grab key combination.

14. ccsm windows will pop up. Press ctrl + left button on your keyboard and press ok..

15. Now you have done for the Brightness decrease button.

------------
-Try it OUT-
------------

Now, go to the desktop and press CTRL + left button on your keyboard repeatedly and CTRL + right repeatedly.

It is working??

Note: this brightness working at all active windows.

try open up mozilla and press the CTRL + left button. Mozilla will get dimmer.
Try open up terminal and do the same things. The terminal will get dimmer to.
press CTRL + right to get it brighter.

Hope you will understand my simple tutorial. Please drop your comment and suggestion.

Happy playing!!!

[cosmix (cosm7x)]

gnome-power-manager keeps resetting the brightness of a HP Mini 2140 too. This bug persists as of GNOME 2.30.2 (Ubuntu 10.10 Alpha 2).