Can't adjust brightness

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machinesinthecity
Level 1
Level 1
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Mar 19, 2024 3:53 pm

Can't adjust brightness

Post by machinesinthecity »

Hi there I'm having a problem adjusting the brightness on my T420s running Linux Mint 21.3 with Xfce 4.18.1 and kernel version 6.5.0-25. I've tried using the brightness keys on my keyboard and clicking on the battery icon in the toolbar and adjusting the brightness with the slider there both of these don't change the brightness. There is no brightness slider in the display settings. I had found a solution which was to use this terminal command

Code: Select all

echo 15 | sudo tee /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness
but for some reason it stopped working as of yesterday! Please if anyone could help me find a way to adjust the brightness because currently its stuck on the lowest which is the faintest bit visible even in the dark. I'm having to use an external monitor to use it. And if anybody could also help as to why the brightness keys do not work. Thanks in advance!

My system information

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[code]
System:
  Kernel: 6.5.0-25-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: N/A Desktop: Xfce 4.18.1 tk: Gtk 3.24.33
    info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm 4.18.0 vt: 7 dm: LightDM 1.30.0 Distro: Linux Mint 21.3 Virginia
    base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 4173R87 v: ThinkPad T420s serial: <superuser required>
    Chassis: type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: LENOVO model: 4173R87 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: LENOVO v: 8CET51WW (1.31 )
    date: 11/29/2011
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 30.0 Wh (99.3%) condition: 30.2/38.9 Wh (77.7%) volts: 12.1 min: 11.1
    model: Panasonic 42T4847 type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Not charging
CPU:
  Info: dual core model: Intel Core i5-2520M bits: 64 type: MT MCP smt: enabled arch: Sandy Bridge
    rev: 7 cache: L1: 128 KiB L2: 512 KiB L3: 3 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 3007 high: 3052 min/max: 800/3200 cores: 1: 2989 2: 2990 3: 3000 4: 3052
    bogomips: 19936
  Flags: avx ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics vendor: Lenovo
    driver: i915 v: kernel ports: active: LVDS-1,VGA-1 empty: none bus-ID: 00:02.0
    chip-ID: 8086:0126 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: NVIDIA GF119M [NVS 4200M] vendor: Lenovo driver: N/A pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16
    bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1056 class-ID: 0300
  Device-3: Chicony integrated camera type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 2-1.6:4
    chip-ID: 04f2:b221 class-ID: 0e02
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.4 compositor: xfwm v: 4.18.0 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa gpu: i915 display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 2880x1053 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 762x279mm (30.0x11.0") s-diag: 811mm (31.9")
  Monitor-1: LVDS-1 pos: bottom-r model: AU Optronics res: 1600x900 hz: 60 dpi: 132
    size: 309x174mm (12.2x6.9") diag: 355mm (14") modes: 1600x900
  Monitor-2: VGA-1 pos: primary,top-left model: Philips 220BLP serial: <filter> res: 1280x720
    hz: 60 dpi: 69 size: 474x296mm (18.7x11.7") diag: 559mm (22") modes: max: 1680x1050 min: 720x400
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 3000 (SNB GT2) v: 3.3 Mesa 23.2.1-1ubuntu3.1~22.04.2
    direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio vendor: Lenovo
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:1c20 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: NVIDIA GF119 HDMI Audio vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie:
    speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:0e08 class-ID: 0403
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k6.5.0-25-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Intel 82579LM Gigabit Network vendor: Lenovo ThinkPad T520 driver: e1000e v: kernel
    port: 5080 bus-ID: 00:19.0 chip-ID: 8086:1502 class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp0s25 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 [Taylor Peak] driver: iwlwifi v: kernel pcie:
    speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:0085 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlp3s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Broadcom BCM2045B (BDC-2.1) type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 2-1.4:3
    chip-ID: 0a5c:217f class-ID: fe01 serial: <filter>
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 2.0 lmp-v: 3.0
    sub-v: 4203 hci-v: 3.0 rev: 2ec
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 313.01 GiB used: 33.82 GiB (10.8%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Biostar model: S120-256GB size: 238.47 GiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: SSD
    serial: <filter> rev: 117D scheme: MBR
  ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Intel model: SSDMAEMC080G2L size: 74.53 GiB speed: 3.0 Gb/s type: SSD
    serial: <filter> rev: 02M3 scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 72.32 GiB used: 33.82 GiB (46.8%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb2
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 6.1 MiB (1.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sdb1
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swapfile
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Full speed or root hub ports: 3 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
    class-ID: 0900
  Hub-2: 1-1:2 info: Intel Integrated Rate Matching Hub ports: 8 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
    chip-ID: 8087:0024 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-3: 2-0:1 info: Full speed or root hub ports: 3 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
    class-ID: 0900
  Hub-4: 2-1:2 info: Intel Integrated Rate Matching Hub ports: 6 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
    chip-ID: 8087:0024 class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 2-1.4:3 info: Broadcom BCM2045B (BDC-2.1) type: Bluetooth driver: btusb
    interfaces: 4 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s chip-ID: 0a5c:217f class-ID: fe01 serial: <filter>
  Device-2: 2-1.6:4 info: Chicony integrated camera type: Video driver: uvcvideo interfaces: 2
    rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s power: 200mA chip-ID: 04f2:b221 class-ID: 0e02
  Hub-5: 3-0:1 info: Hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-6: 4-0:1 info: Super-speed hub ports: 2 rev: 3.0 speed: 5 Gb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
    class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 54.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 3515
Repos:
  Packages: 2528 apt: 2512 flatpak: 13 snap: 3
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/jetbrains-ppa.list
    1: deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/jetbrains-ppa-archive-keyring.gpg] http: //jetbrains-ppa.s3-website.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com any main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
    1: deb http: //packages.linuxmint.com virginia main upstream import backport
    2: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy main restricted universe multiverse
    3: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
    4: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
    5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jammy-security main restricted universe multiverse
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/spotify.list
    1: deb http: //repository.spotify.com stable non-free
Info:
  Processes: 252 Uptime: 54m wakeups: 1 Memory: 7.63 GiB used: 2.61 GiB (34.2%) Init: systemd
  v: 249 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 11.4.0 alt: 11/12 Client: Unknown python3.10 client
  inxi: 3.3.13
[/code]
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chazb
Level 5
Level 5
Posts: 713
Joined: Wed Nov 30, 2016 2:56 am
Location: Oklahoma

Re: Can't adjust brightness

Post by chazb »

On you your computer, look in "Backgrounds". Online explore your browser settings.
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Hoser Rob
Level 20
Level 20
Posts: 11796
Joined: Sat Dec 15, 2012 8:57 am

Re: Can't adjust brightness

Post by Hoser Rob »

It probably didn't stop working just by itself. Did you do an update or install something? One thing I can say is that a 6.5 series kernel isn't going to help anything with hardware that came out in 2011. New kernels are built for new hardware. You should be using the oldest supported kernel available, in this case the stock 5.15 series ones. I don;t know if that would be causing this but you should eliminate that as a variable.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong - H. L. Mencken
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stevengarland
Level 5
Level 5
Posts: 844
Joined: Tue Mar 05, 2019 4:04 pm
Location: Michigan

Re: Can't adjust brightness

Post by stevengarland »

Any brightness control in your bios?
Keep It Simple Sweetheart
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