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On my dual boot laptop I noticed that maximum brightness in Ubuntu and Windows 8 is totally different. In Windows 8 the screen is much much brighter at maximum level than it is at Ubuntu maximum level. (I was even asked why my laptop display looks that dim.)

I have a Lenovo ThinkPad E330 Laptop with Intel HD 4000 graphics.

How can I increase the maximum brightness level Ubuntu uses?

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  • Same Issue. Even though I don't have dual boot, I've always felt my display to be dim.
    – TheKojuEffect
    Jan 30, 2013 at 17:37
  • I'll try to take some pictures to show the difference as I think screenshots don't make any sense here.
    – joschi
    Jan 30, 2013 at 17:40
  • Added the information. To give a little update to the described problem: I failed in making some photos, that could show the effect so it's just a subjective impression I have when I look at Ubuntu or Windows. I guess brightness is controlled by the kernel and there's no setting maximum brightness higher than maximum brightness because it's determined by the hardware, or am I wrong?
    – joschi
    May 14, 2013 at 8:44
  • try this app , may be it will help you omgubuntu.co.uk/2013/04/brightness-control-ubuntu
    – Qasim
    May 14, 2013 at 8:56
  • 1
    The mentioned app (brightness control indicator) is just using the system values for brightness and doesn't allow you to increase brightness to a higher value than that.
    – joschi
    May 14, 2013 at 10:13

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
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This worked for me, you could give it a try:

  1. $ sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

  2. Replace this line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" with
    GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_backlight=vendor"

  3. Save and close

  4. $ sudo update-grub

  5. reboot

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  • After I did this the brightness was set to minimal and I could no longuer increase the brightness.
    – Mehdi Charife
    Oct 6, 2023 at 9:00
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Ubuntu has a preset range of values that it can give to any hardware device and assumes that they all use the same brightness values (which they don't) because the BIOS controls for Ubuntu are poorly coded.

The control is integrated into the window manager and can't be individually configured (same goes for the brightness OSD which can't be disabled without disabling power management altogether).

I filed a bug for this years ago.

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2

Did you try xrandr? I had the opposite of your problem, my monitor was too bright and I ended up adjusting it using xrandr:

xrandr --output VGA1 --gamma 0.7:0.7:0.7 --brightness 0.8

you need to replace VGA1 with your current output, and replace 0.8 and 0.7 by 1.5 for example. by default they are all set to 1.

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1

I also had this problem with my HP 2560p on 16.04. For me it had to do with the light sensor. When I disabled the light sensor in /sys/devices/platform/hp-wmi/als (change 1 to 0) I could increase the brightness higher than before.

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  • Welcome to Ask Ubuntu! I recommend editing this answer to expand it with specific details about how to do this. (See also How do I write a good answer? for general advice about what sorts of answers are considered most valuable on AskUbuntu.)
    – David Foerster
    Jan 28, 2017 at 14:49

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