Unsaved brightness level on Mint Debian ( HP OMEN 2018)

[sharif]

hi Iam having an issue since a long time with the brightness level on Hp Omen 2018 which is need to adjust the level of the brightness with every restart I do . this is the information of the laptop spec generated by neofetch :

OS: LMDE 4 (debbie) x86_64

Host: OMEN by HP Laptop 15-dc0xxx

Kernel: 4.19.0-17-amd64

Uptime: 36 secs

Packages: 2459 (dpkg), 27 (flatpak)

Shell: bash 5.0.3

Resolution: 1920x1080

DE: Cinnamon 5.0.5

WM: Mutter (Muffin)

WM Theme: Mint-Y-Dark (Mint-Y)

Theme: Mint-Y [GTK2/3]

Icons: gnome [GTK2/3]

Terminal: gnome-terminal

CPU: Intel i7-8750H (12) @ 4.100GHz

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060

Memory: 924MiB / 31923MiB

[SMG]

hi Iam having an issue since a long time with the brightness level on Hp Omen 2018 which is need to adjust the level of the brightness with every restart I do .

Welcome to the forum, sharif.

Often times, problems with brightness are because the correct video driver did not install. Please give us information about your install by entering this command in a terminal: inxi -Fxxxrz
Click </> from the mini toolbar above the textbox where you type your reply and then place your cursor between the code markers and paste the results of the command between the code markers [code]Results[/code]. This will let us know how Mint sees your hardware.

[sharif]

Well thank you for the pleasant replay . And here it is the output :

Code: Select all

  Host: hp-omen Kernel: 4.19.0-17-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc 
  v: 8.3.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 5.0.5 wm: muffin 5.0.1 dm: LightDM 1.26.0 
  Distro: LMDE 4 Debbie base: Debian 10.2 buster 
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: HP product: OMEN by HP Laptop 15-dc0xxx v: N/A 
  serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 10 serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: HP model: 84DB v: 93.24 serial: <filter> UEFI: AMI v: F.12 
  date: 03/23/2020 
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 57.7 Wh condition: 57.7/57.7 Wh (100%) volts: 17.2/15.4 
  model: HP Primary type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Full 
CPU:
  Topology: 6-Core model: Intel Core i7-8750H bits: 64 type: MT MCP 
  arch: Kaby Lake rev: A L2 cache: 9216 KiB 
  flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 52992 
  Speed: 800 MHz min/max: 800/4100 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 800 2: 800 
  3: 800 4: 800 5: 800 6: 800 7: 800 8: 800 9: 800 10: 800 11: 801 12: 800 
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GP106M [GeForce GTX 1060] vendor: Hewlett-Packard 
  driver: nvidia v: 450.66 bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 10de:1c20 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: nvidia 
  unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa alternate: nv 
  resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 1060/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 450.66 
  direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Cannon Lake PCH cAVS vendor: Hewlett-Packard 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1f.3 chip ID: 8086:a348 
  Device-2: NVIDIA GP106 High Definition Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.1 chip ID: 10de:10f1 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.19.0-17-amd64 
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Wireless-AC 9560 [Jefferson Peak] driver: iwlwifi 
  v: kernel bus ID: 00:14.3 chip ID: 8086:a370 
  IF: wlo1 state: up mac: <filter> 
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet 
  vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 3000 bus ID: 3c:00.0 
  chip ID: 10ec:8168 
  IF: eno1 state: down mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 1.16 TiB used: 42.18 GiB (3.5%) 
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Samsung model: MZVLW256HEHP-000H1 
  size: 238.47 GiB speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 serial: <filter> rev: CXB73H1Q 
  scheme: GPT 
  ID-2: /dev/sda model: SPCC Solid State Disk size: 953.87 GiB 
  speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> rev: J1.3 scheme: GPT 
RAID:
  Hardware-1: Intel 82801 Mobile SATA Controller [RAID mode] driver: ahci 
  v: 3.0 port: 5020 bus ID: 00:17.0 chip ID: 8086.282a rev: 10 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 88.29 GiB used: 42.09 GiB (47.7%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda4 
  ID-2: swap-1 size: 7.45 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda3 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 67.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 55 C 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list 
  1: deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/debian/ buster main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/estmob-sendanywhere.list 
  1: deb [arch=amd64,i386] http://update.send-anywhere.com/linux/debian/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/freedownloadmanager.list 
  1: deb [arch=amd64] https://debrepo.freedownloadmanager.org/ bionic main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
  1: deb http://packages.linuxmint.com debbie main upstream import backport
  2: deb http://ftp.am.debian.org/debian/ buster main contrib non-free
  3: deb http://ftp.am.debian.org/debian/ buster-updates main contrib non-free
  4: deb http://security.debian.org/ buster/updates main contrib non-free
  5: deb http://ftp.am.debian.org/debian/ buster-backports main contrib non-free
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list 
  1: deb [arch=amd64] http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian bionic contrib
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/wine-obs.list 
  1: deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Emulators:/Wine:/Debian/Debian_10 ./
Info:
  Processes: 389 Uptime: 4m Memory: 31.18 GiB used: 1.68 GiB (5.4%) 
  Init: systemd v: 241 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 8.3.0 alt: 8 Shell: bash 
  v: 5.0.3 running in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.0.32 

[SMG]

When I checked the specs for your computer, I found info indicating it has both Intel and Nvidia graphics. The output you posted is only showing Nvidia graphics. Do you have a BIOS/UEFI setting for graphics that is set to only use Nvidia (Discrete)?

Code: Select all

Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GP106M [GeForce GTX 1060] vendor: Hewlett-Packard 
  driver: nvidia v: 450.66 bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 10de:1c20 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: nvidia 
  unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa alternate: nv 
  resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 1060/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 450.66 
  direct render: Yes 

The reason I mention that is because it is possible Intel regulates the brightness (or there may be an Fn key that regulates brightness) and I'm not sure the 4.19 kernel is the best match for that cpu/hardware given the timing of when that kernel was released in relation to when your hardware came out. However, maybe the issue is related to the Nvidia driver being used and not related to Intel.

This is the first time I'm seeing alternate: nv as a driver possibility and I do not know if that might be a clue as to what is happening. I'm not familiar with that driver.

Are you using the Brightness controls in the Power Setting app in Cinnamon to set the value?

[Wallby]

This is the first time I'm seeing alternate: nv as a driver possibility and I do not know if that might be a clue as to what is happening. I'm not familiar with that driver.

Hello,

I don't experience this issue (i.e. after a restart, brightness remains what it was just fine, also on LMDE4 + cinnamon 5.0.5 + linux 4.19.0-17-amd64).

However, I also have alternate: nv in output of inxi -Fxxxrz..

Code: Select all

Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics 
  vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 
  chip ID: 8086:0416 
  Device-2: NVIDIA GM107M [GeForce GTX 960M] vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI 
  driver: nvidia v: 450.66 bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 10de:139b 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: modesetting 
  unloaded: fbdev,nouveau,nvidia,vesa alternate: nv 
  resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Haswell Mobile v: 4.5 Mesa 18.3.6 
  compat-v: 3.0 direct render: Yes 

[SMG]

I don't experience this issue (i.e. after a restart, brightness remains what it was just fine, also on LMDE4 + cinnamon 5.0.5 + linux 4.19.0-17-amd64).

However, I also have alternate: nv in output of inxi -Fxxxrz..

You have much older hardware, so that might be why you are not seeing this issue with the brightness.

I just did another search on NV and apparently it is an older nvidia driver just for 2D acceleration.

[sharif]

When I checked the specs for your computer, I found info indicating it has both Intel and Nvidia graphics. The output you posted is only showing Nvidia graphics. Do you have a BIOS/UEFI setting for graphics that is set to only use Nvidia (Discrete)?

Code: Select all

Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GP106M [GeForce GTX 1060] vendor: Hewlett-Packard 
  driver: nvidia v: 450.66 bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 10de:1c20 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: nvidia 
  unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa alternate: nv 
  resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 1060/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 450.66 
  direct render: Yes 

The reason I mention that is because it is possible Intel regulates the brightness (or there may be an Fn key that regulates brightness) and I'm not sure the 4.19 kernel is the best match for that cpu/hardware given the timing of when that kernel was released in relation to when your hardware came out. However, maybe the issue is related to the Nvidia driver being used and not related to Intel.

This is the first time I'm seeing alternate: nv as a driver possibility and I do not know if that might be a clue as to what is happening. I'm not familiar with that driver.

Are you using the Brightness controls in the Power Setting app in Cinnamon to set the value?

Hi so sorry for late response . Yes I was able to control the brightness through fn - f1 and f2 and also through power management . But the irritating issue is saving the brightness level after restart or shutdown

[SMG]

Yes I was able to control the brightness through fn - f1 and f2 and also through power management . But the irritating issue is saving the brightness level after restart or shutdown

Do you have a BIOS/UEFI setting for graphics that is set to only use Nvidia (Discrete)?

[sharif]

sadly no i searched allover the bios but i didn't find . So I will stuck with this issue ?

[SMG]

Maybe someone else will have some ideas.

I do not have any ideas of why it would be resetting, so I can not offer any potential solutions. Normally, any changes we recommend are because the backlight is not changing even when using the function keys or power management, but that is not your situation. Those are working.