Fix your laptops brightness function keys operating properly in Hardy
Posted by admin on April 26th, 2008 
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Before doing any changes you need to take backup of existing files
Now you need to download the following files in /etc/acpi/ directory
Download video_brightnessup.sh from here
Download video_brightnessdown.sh from here
After replacing these scripts
No reboot or logout required, simply press your function combination on your laptop to change brightness. Try to press FN + Up/Down Arrow.
Credit goes to AaronMT
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April 29th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Actually, I don’t have any problems with my function keys on my DeLL Inspiron 1420.
All keys were functional from the moment I’ve installed Hardy.
April 30th, 2008 at 12:38 am
hello, i have a SONY vaio VGN-FZ21E and to adjust the brightness i use the keys Fn + F5 (less brightness) and Fn + F6 (more brightness) but in Ubuntu Hardy Heron i can’t adjust the brightness and this fix do not result in my laptop, can you help?
May 2nd, 2008 at 3:13 pm
My Fujitsu Lifebook has problem with brightness function keys and this fix also does not fix the problem. The function keys work correctly in Windows.
May 4th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Hello João! Tell me please. The Web-camera works for you?
May 10th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
I just wrote a tool in C to do this same task. DOH!
May 10th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
@Greg
Is it possible to share with us or you can submit as article to ubuntugeek
Thanks
May 17th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
For those of you who had tried this tip but didn’t work, let me share my experience (on HP Compaq Presario V3000).
First, type this command:
>> cat /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCD/brightness
which will show on the screen something like this:
levels: 100 60 20 28 36 44 52 60 68 76 84 93 100
current: 100
Then change the brightness values in video_brightnessup.sh and video_brightnessdown.sh to match the values shown after the word ‘levels’ above.
Also, don’t forget to set the file permissions of video_brightnessup.sh and video_brightnessdown.sh so that they become executable.
Hope this works for you too!
June 1st, 2008 at 7:46 pm
All,
I have the same problem on my Fujitsu Amilo 2515 laptop. It looks to me as though the video_brightnessup & down scripts are not being called at all.
Anyway, as a quick workaround use the following script from a terminal window:
—————-
#!/bin/sh
if [ $# = 0 ]
then
bval=75
else
bval=$1
fi
echo ${bval} > /proc/acpi/video/GFX0/DD02/brightness
————
On my machine, valid values for brightness are: 13, 25, 38, 50, 63, 75, 88 , 100
If you invoke the script without a value, the brightness will be set to 75% which I find adequate for most environments.
June 12th, 2008 at 11:22 am
The script needs to be edited depending on the notebook being used. Not all monitors accept the same values for brightness. Mine are:
95 43 20 24 28 32 37 43 50 59 69 81 95
Also, most people will probably not know that they have to make the scripts executable with:
sudo chmod a+x /etc/acpi/video_bright*
Otherwise it will definitely not work.
June 20th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
hello everybody,
i have these function-keys problem, too. what i tried out is the follwing:
- edited the video_brightnessdown.sh and video_brightnessup.sh files
- filled with the values from /proc/acpi/video/NVID/LCD/brightness
- set the attributes to execute
then i tested the settings, and it stilld doesn’t work.
i found out that, when i am pressing the function-keys it affects the brighness-file (checked the current-value)
but the display is at maximum brightness and the current-values says: it is at 10! evertime i push the change-buttons the current-value changes, unfortunately not the real brightness of the display.
using the function-keys in a textconsole (STRG+ALT+F1) works.
is there any solution to this? or did i forgot anything?