With Unity I can change the backlight with the hotkeys out of the box, didn't had to do anything to get that working.
I've now switched to Gnome (by installing ubuntu-gnome-desktop), but I've not found a way to get the hotkeys working for the backlight again. I also don't see the backlight slider in the upper right menu or in the settings.
I've tried everything on this page: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/Debugging/Backlight
I've tried different combinations in my grub configuration:
video.use_native_backlight
acpi_backlight=vendor
acpi_backlight=none
thinkpad-acpi.brightness_enable=1 acpi_backlight=vendor
thinkpad-acpi.brightness_enable=1 acpi_backlight=none
acpi_osi="!Windows 2012"
acpi_osi=linux
thinkpad-acpi.brightness_enable=1 acpi_osi=
I've also added 'EnableBrightnessControl' to my xorg.conf.
Unfortunately, nothing changes.
And /sys/class/backlight/ is always empty.
The only thing that did make a difference was adding 'acpi_os=' to my grub config.
This did show the backlight slider in the settings & menu. And did show the pop-up when changing the backlight via the hotkeys.
Unfortunately, it didn't change the backlight. And the slider didn't go futher than 5% or something.
During all my tests xbacklight always worked. That's the only way to change my backlight in Gnome atm. Only when I added 'acpi_os=' xbacklight stopped working.
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: linux-image-4.4.0-36-generic 4.4.0-36.55
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-36.55-generic 4.4.16
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-36-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_uvm nvidia_drm nvidia_modeset nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.1
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
/dev/snd/controlC1: tpater 2523 F.... pulseaudio
/dev/snd/controlC0: tpater 2523 F.... pulseaudio
CurrentDesktop: GNOME
Date: Fri Sep 16 08:55:30 2016
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=3bb7a82d-4df4-43fb-9005-42cee745d105
InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-08-30 (17 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20160719)
MachineType: LENOVO 20ENCTO1WW
ProcFB: 0 EFI VGA
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-4.4.0-36-generic.efi.signed root=/dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
RelatedPackageVersions:
linux-restricted-modules-4.4.0-36-generic N/A
linux-backports-modules-4.4.0-36-generic N/A
linux-firmware 1.157.3
SourcePackage: linux
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 08/03/2016
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: N1EET57W (1.30 )
dmi.board.asset.tag: Not Available
dmi.board.name: 20ENCTO1WW
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: SDK0J40709 WIN
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: None
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvrN1EET57W(1.30):bd08/03/2016:svnLENOVO:pn20ENCTO1WW:pvrThinkPadP50:rvnLENOVO:rn20ENCTO1WW:rvrSDK0J40709WIN:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNone:
dmi.product.name: 20ENCTO1WW
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad P50
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO
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