Ubuntu 14.04 brightness problem (Lenovo Z500)
Solution 1:
Two years ago I bought this laptop which works pretty well with Linux. When I upgraded to my new distro, Elementary OS Freya, I noticed the problem that backlight was unable to change. I could change it only on grub screen. After trying every guide on the internet I partially solved the issue by downgrading the kernel (and the related Intel graphics driver) to version 3.13. Yesterday I gave another try. It was very lucky :)
Here the solution:
On the grub configuration file /etc/default/grub
modify the following line:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
by adding this string: acpi_backlight=vendor
.
In my case it is:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_backlight=vendor"
Update grub by launching:
sudo update-grub
Then create a xorg configuration file like this:
/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/80-backlight.conf
and copy in it this text:
Section "Device"
Identifier "Intel Graphics"
Driver "intel"
Option "AccelMethod" "sna"
Option "Backlight" "ideapad"
BusID "PCI:0:2:0"
EndSection
Save the file, Reboot, Enjoy :-)
This trick could work on other Lenovo Ideapad laptops. I tested on Lenovo Ideapad z500 on Elementary OS Freya and Debian 8 Jessie.
If you have complitely another laptop you can try this way: Modify grub like in the first part of the guide, update grub, reboot, then verify what backlight "drivers" (I don't know what they are) are being listed. Give:
ls /sys/class/backlight/
and if it gives:
backlight_driver1
backlight_driver2
backlight_driver3
Then create the xorg file with one of the drivers in the list:
Section "Device"
Identifier "Intel Graphics"
Driver "intel"
Option "AccelMethod" "sna"
Option "Backlight" "backlight_driver1"
BusID "PCI:0:2:0"
EndSection
And reboot. If it works, enjoy, otherwise modify the file with another one in the list the same way.
Solution 2:
You could try this
- Add
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="acpi_backlight=vendor"
to/etc/default/grub
. - Update grub and reboot. Execute
sudo update-grub && reboot
.