Nvidia Card Updates and Screen Brightness SOLVED (with work around)

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HAWR
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Re: Nvidia Card Updates and Screen Brightness

Post by HAWR »

You can add the command to the Startup Applications. Open the menu, type startup in the search field, click on Startup Application, press the + button at the bottom, choose Custom command. Then choose a name like brightness control and add as command

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xrandr --output DP-2 --brightness 0.6
and click save. Every time you login now, your brightness will be set to 0.6.
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Lady Fitzgerald
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Re: Nvidia Card Updates and Screen Brightness

Post by Lady Fitzgerald »

HAWR wrote: Tue May 24, 2022 3:55 pm You can add the command to the Startup Applications. Open the menu, type startup in the search field, click on Startup Application, press the + button at the bottom, choose Custom command. Then choose a name like brightness control and add as command

Code: Select all

xrandr --output DP-2 --brightness 0.6
and click save. Every time you login now, your brightness will be set to 0.6.
I tried that twice and it didn't work.
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Re: Nvidia Card Updates and Screen Brightness

Post by HAWR »

I tried it myself and it works for me. Is your command enabled in the Startup Applications?
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Re: Nvidia Card Updates and Screen Brightness

Post by Lady Fitzgerald »

HAWR wrote: Tue May 24, 2022 4:17 pm I tried it myself and it works for me. Is your command enabled in the Startup Applications?
Yes. Give me a few minutes. I think I may have hit on the problem. I'll be back in a few after I check it out.
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Re: Nvidia Card Updates and Screen Brightness

Post by SMG »

Usually, that does work.

Another place to try adding it is to the bottom of the .profile file which is a hidden file in your home directory. It is a text file so you can just View> Show Hidden files in Nemo (file manager) and then scroll down to the file and double-click it to open it for editing. Scroll to the bottom and on the next line, cut and paste the xrandr command. Save the file. It should activate the next time you log in.
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Re: Nvidia Card Updates and Screen Brightness

Post by Lady Fitzgerald »

My hunch was wrong. :cry:

I tried adding the command to the .profile and again no joy. :cry: This is driving me nucking' futz.
Jeannie

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Re: Nvidia Card Updates and Screen Brightness

Post by HAWR »

I have the impression, that you have not the whole permissions over your system. When you run the following command in the terminal, do you get an output?

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sudo find ~/ -user root
If there are outputs, please run the following command and try the brightness control again with a reboot:

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sudo chown -Rc $USER:$USER $HOME
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Re: Nvidia Card Updates and Screen Brightness

Post by SMG »

Lady Fitzgerald wrote: Tue May 24, 2022 4:37 pmI tried adding the command to the .profile and again no joy. :cry:
While the xrandr command was for a different issue, you are not the first person who has given feedback to indicate it did not work. What the other person did was just make a script and manually run the script after they started the computer.

You can also see if HAWR might be able to help figure out what is happening.
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Re: Nvidia Card Updates and Screen Brightness

Post by HAWR »

Hello SMG,
you are not the first person who has given feedback to indicate it did not work
But above Lady Fitzgerald wrote:
I tried

Code: Select all

xrandr --output DP-2 --brightness 0.7
and it worked fine.
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Re: Nvidia Card Updates and Screen Brightness

Post by SMG »

HAWR wrote: Tue May 24, 2022 5:11 pm Hello SMG,
you are not the first person who has given feedback to indicate it did not work
But above Lady Fitzgerald wrote:
I tried

Code: Select all

xrandr --output DP-2 --brightness 0.7
and it worked fine.
She is not the first person to tell me adding a xrandr command that worked from the command line did not work when the line was added to the .profile file.
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Lady Fitzgerald
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Re: Nvidia Card Updates and Screen Brightness

Post by Lady Fitzgerald »

I tried the chown command, then repeated both the xander in Start Up Applications, then, failing there tried it .profile. Again, no joy.

I've never been fond of NVIDIA in Linux but my hatred for them has intensified exponentially. :x

I've done a TimeShift restore and started from scratch with each attempt. I just restored again.
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Re: Nvidia Card Updates and Screen Brightness

Post by Lady Fitzgerald »

Uh... Just because I restored to a previous state doesn't mean I've given up. I just like to try things starting from a clean slate.
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Re: Nvidia Card Updates and Screen Brightness

Post by Lady Fitzgerald »

Anything anyone?
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Re: Nvidia Card Updates and Screen Brightness

Post by SMG »

Lady Fitzgerald wrote: Wed May 25, 2022 2:20 pm Uh... Just because I restored to a previous state doesn't mean I've given up. I just like to try things starting from a clean slate.
I posted a reply yesterday, but apparently that was when my internet went out and it did not go through (because I do not see it here). What did you want to try?

We suggested more than a half-dozen ideas in this topic and it appears one works. At this point, it must be run manually (or maybe a script created to have it run), but you said it worked.
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Re: Nvidia Card Updates and Screen Brightness

Post by Lady Fitzgerald »

SMG wrote: Thu May 26, 2022 9:30 am
Lady Fitzgerald wrote: Wed May 25, 2022 2:20 pm Uh... Just because I restored to a previous state doesn't mean I've given up. I just like to try things starting from a clean slate.
I posted a reply yesterday, but apparently that was when my internet went out and it did not go through (because I do not see it here). What did you want to try?

We suggested more than a half-dozen ideas in this topic and it appears one works. At this point, it must be run manually (or maybe a script created to have it run), but you said it worked.
Yes, one did work but not being able to get it to work automagically is incredibly annoying. The whole idea behind computers is to have them do things for us. Having to manually reset the brightness after every startup is like having to lift the hood of a car and flip a switch every time one wants to start the engine.

I haven't the foggiest clue how to create a script.

Did I ever mention I hate NVIDIA with a purple passion and consider the name to be a curse word?
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Re: Nvidia Card Updates and Screen Brightness

Post by SMG »

Lady Fitzgerald wrote: Thu May 26, 2022 9:48 amYes, one did work but not being able to get it to work automagically is incredibly annoying.
It's also extremely unusual. I only know of one other person for whom automating the solution did not work. However, in that case, the person was quite appreciative of the time spent by those helping them and was glad to finally have a solution possible. Running the xrandr command at start-up was not such a great inconvenience to them.

There are not an infinite supply of workarounds available for this type of hardware problem.
Lady Fitzgerald wrote: Thu May 26, 2022 9:48 amDid I ever mention I hate NVIDIA with a purple passion and consider the name to be a curse word?
Considering the successor laptop to yours had what sounds the same issue and a firmware update (from System76) fixed the issue, I suspect this may not an Nvidia issue. I did not find the System76 website very helpful with regards to determining whether you do have the last UEFI they released for your model. If you have a way of asking, that is the only other idea I have for addressing this issue.
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Re: Nvidia Card Updates and Screen Brightness

Post by Lady Fitzgerald »

SMG wrote: Thu May 26, 2022 5:35 pm
Lady Fitzgerald wrote: Thu May 26, 2022 9:48 amYes, one did work but not being able to get it to work automagically is incredibly annoying.
It's also extremely unusual. I only know of one other person for whom automating the solution did not work. However, in that case, the person was quite appreciative of the time spent by those helping them and was glad to finally have a solution possible...
If I came across as being unappreciative of the help I've received so far, I sincerely apologize. I do appreciate the help I have received so far. It's just having to run that command at every startup would be a PITA since I'm in and out of the computer multiple times a day and having to manually run the command every time I booted would get really old really fast.

You said something about running a script. How would I do that?
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Re: Nvidia Card Updates and Screen Brightness

Post by SMG »

What the other person did was created a script and then put a shortcut to the script on their desktop. After booting they ran the script using the shortcut. Based on what you wrote, that sounds like something you would not want to do.

I have not written scripts, but what I recall reading about others doing is having the script called from the .profile file in order to automate the process. However, if the xrandr line is not working there, I do not know if a script executable will.

There may be other ways to make the script automatic.
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Re: Nvidia Card Updates and Screen Brightness

Post by Lady Fitzgerald »

SMG wrote: Thu May 26, 2022 7:33 pm What the other person did was created a script and then put a shortcut to the script on their desktop. After booting they ran the script using the shortcut. Based on what you wrote, that sounds like something you would not want to do...
You are correct; I would not want to do that, especially since I'm completely clueless on how to write scripts.

However, there is a better way than that. There is an applet called Command Launcher that Moem turned me onto. I've been using it to easily and quickly restart Cinnamon when panel tooltips stop working. I just installed a second instance of Command Launcher, named the tooltip "Brightness" and found a display icon to display in the panel, reinstalled the NVIDIA update (for the umpteenth time), then rebooted. Now, when the computer boots up with a display lighting up half of Arizona, I can just click on that icon to dim the display to a less blinding level. Thanks for indirectly putting the seed for this idea in my one remaining functioning brain cell (albeit unintentionally).

It's not ideal but it's a lot better than having to open up a terminal, find, copy, and paste in the command, then run it or (as I have been doing) just running the computer with an out of date, thus insecure, graphics driver. In the meantime, I'll still look for a way to get this goofy computer to run that command automagically when booting.

Again, thanks to all who have been responding here with suggestions.
Jeannie

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Re: Nvidia Card Updates and Screen Brightness

Post by SMG »

Lady Fitzgerald wrote: Thu May 26, 2022 8:59 pm I just installed a second instance of Command Launcher, named the tooltip "Brightness" and found a display icon
What do you mean by a "display icon"? I am asking as it may help others.
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