How to change LCD brightness from command line (or via script)?

Question

To work around bug #1005495 (changing LCD brightness via hotkeys impossible), I'd like to have one command line query for increasing and one for reducing the brightness of my LCD. I could then map a hotkey to each one of this queries.

The problem is: I don't know how to increase and reduce the LCD brightness on the command line. Do you?

Answer 1

one more way we have to do this is with another new program named as xbacklight , open your terminal and type this

sudo apt-get install xbacklight

then type this xbacklight -set 50

there 50 stands for brightness range we can get it upto 100 from 0 .

you can also increase and decrease the brightness from present value to specified level.as you mentioned if you want to increase to 10% from current value of brightness then you can give this

xbacklight -inc 10

and to decrease 10% you can give this

xbacklight -dec 10 

Answer 2

Open your terminal and type this

xrandr -q | grep " connected"

it will gives you the output as LVDS1 connected 1680x1050+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 331mm x 207mm

There LVDS1 Stands for your display .

so now you have to do as

xrandr --output LVDS1 --brightness 0.5

there 0.5 stands for brightness and it ranges from 0.0 to 1.0 . 0.0 -> Full black .so you have to choose the required value of brightness .

Answer 3

The following works for me:

echo 400 > /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness

I guess the maximum possible value is in the /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/max_brightness file.

Answer 4

For Laptops,
sudo setpci -s 00:02.0 F4.B=80

Change 80 by [0-FF] to get lowest-highest brightness. The value specified is in hex, so 80 will give you a 50% of max brightness.

For Desktops [not tested by me],
xgamma -gamma .75

Answer 5

Try this in terminal:

xrandr --output LVDS1 --brightness 0.9

You can change the last value as you like, eg. 0.2

Answer 6

Here's a short line that can help you relax your eyes. Just create a crontaab with the line or make a script

xrandr --output VGA1 --brightness 0.5; sleep 20; xrandr --output VGA1 --brightness 1

Answer 7

As @palacsint said, echo 244 > /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness path works for me.

But max and min values are resent in /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/max_brightness and /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/bl_power files respectively.

Also, the actual brightness that your computer is running now is present in /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/actual_brightness

Answer 8

Make this script:

set-brightness.sh

#!/bin/bash
TARGET="acpi_video0"
cd /sys/class/backlight
MAX="$(cat "${TARGET}/max_brightness")"
# The `/1` at the end forced bc to cast the result 
# to an integer, even if $1 is a float (which it 
# should be)
LOGIC="$(echo "($1 * ${MAX})/1" | bc)"
for i in */; do
    if [[ "${TARGET}/" != "$i" && -e "${i}brightness" ]]; then
        cat "${i}max_brightness" > "${i}brightness"
    fi
done
echo "$LOGIC" > "${TARGET}/brightness"

Run it as root, with any value between 0 and 1.

sudo ./set-brightness.sh 0.5

• If your system doesn't have an /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0, there should be at least one directory in there, which may be device-specific (I also have a radeon_bl0, for example).
• If you have others, keep in mind their values stack (hence the loop; pushing all the other values to 1.0, then setting the target one to the desired amount).
• While acpi_video0 should always work, it doesn't always have the full range of physical brightnesses available. Try each one, and use the one with the largest gamut as your "TARGET"

Answer 9

KDE 4.12:

qdbus org.kde.Solid.PowerManagement /org/kde/Solid/PowerManagement/Actions/BrightnessControl setBrightness 55

Answer 10

Using the above answers, I created this script (saved in my home directory as brightness.sh) to modify display brightness (as the laptop's keyboard suffered a spilled tea issue and became unusable). Feel free to use it (if you have the designated files...otherwise tinkering to point to your variation of them will be necessary).

#!/bin/bash
function main_menu
{
    sudo clear
    cursetting=$(cat /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness)
    maxsetting=$(cat /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/max_brightness)
    powersave=$((maxsetting/5))
    conservative=$((powersave*2))
    medium=$((powersave*3))
    performance=$((powersave*4))
    echo ""
    echo "----------------------- Brightness -----------------------"
    echo " 1. Set Display to Minimum (Powersave) brightness setting."
    echo " 2. Set Display to Low (Conservative) brightness setting."
    echo " 3. Set Display to Medium brightness setting."
    echo " 4. Set Display to High (Performance) brightness setting."
    echo " 5. Set Display to Maximum brightness setting."
    echo " 6. Exit."
    echo "----------------------------------------------------------"
    if [ $cursetting -eq $powersave ]; then
     cursetting='Minimum'
    else
     if [ $cursetting -eq $conservative ]; then
      cursetting='Conservative'
     else
      if [ $cursetting -eq $medium ]; then
       cursetting='Medium'
      else
       if [ $cursetting -eq $performance ]; then
        cursetting='Performance'
       else
        if [ $cursetting -eq $maxsetting ]; then
         cursetting='Maximum'
        fi
       fi
      fi
     fi
    fi
    echo "        Current Display Setting - "$cursetting;
    choice=7
    echo ""
    echo -e "Please enter your choice: \c"
}

function press_enter
{
    echo ""
    echo -n "Press Enter to continue."
    read
    main_menu
}

main_menu
while [ $choice -eq 7 ]; do
read choice

if [ $choice -eq 1 ]; then
 echo $powersave | sudo tee /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness
 main_menu
else
 if [ $choice -eq 2 ]; then
  echo $conservative | sudo tee /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness
  main_menu
 else
  if [ $choice -eq 3 ]; then
   echo $medium | sudo tee /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness
   main_menu
  else
   if [ $choice -eq 4 ]; then
    echo $performance | sudo tee /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness
    main_menu
   else
    if [ $choice -eq 5 ]; then
     echo $maxsetting | sudo tee /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness
     main_menu
    else
     if [ $choice -eq 6 ]; then
      exit;
     else
      echo -e "Please enter the NUMBER of your choice: \c"
      choice = 7
     fi
    fi
   fi
  fi
 fi
fi
done

Answer 11

Interactive ncurses-like UI using xbacklight

A poor man's ncurses. Hit h and it goes down 10%, hit l and it goes up 10%. Then show the current luminosity.

xback() (
  done=false;
  echo "less: h, more: l, quit: q"
  while ! $done; do
    read -rsn1 key
    if [ "$key" = h ]; then
      xbacklight -dec 10
    elif [ "$key" = l ]; then
      xbacklight -inc 10
    elif [ "$key" = q ]; then
      done=true
    fi
    printf "\r$(xbacklight -get) "
  done
)