Function keys are not working on Toshiba Satellite L510 so brightness control is not possible

Question

I am using Toshiba L510 AND Ubuntu 12.04. I Cannot control brightness of my system using function keys. What could be the cause?

Answer 1

Open a terminal using Ctrl+Alt+t and type sudo apt-get install xbacklight. That will install xbacklight if it isn't already there (I can't remember whether it's a default package!).

Then type xbacklight -set x replacing the x with a number between 1 and 99 to set the percentage brightness for your screen backlight. You can actually set to 0 (and I do because I hate bright screens) but I understand that can cause problems on some displays so I don't recommend trying it.

Answer 2

I just wanted to add, you can then set a keyboard shortcut to something like xbacklight -inc 10 to increase the brightness by 10%.

Unfortunately, you can't use Fn + Another Key since like he said, Fn is reserved for the BIOS. It's weird because my Fn + F7 works in turning off/on the screen, and Fn + F2 works in turning off (but not on) my wifi, but F5 and F6 do not adjust brightness... Hope someone can find a real fix soon.

Answer 3

Try adding acpi_backlight=vendor as a boot option. To do that, open a terminal window, and run

gksu gedit /etc/default/grub
Locate this line: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="".

Edit it to look like this: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="acpi_backlight=vendor"

Save the file, then, in a terminal, run sudo update-grub.

Reboot, and check if the brightness keys work.

That worked for me!

^{Related link : Brightness function keys not working}

Answer 4

I had the same problem on my Toshiba

I installed fnfxd package search synaptics Package Manger for it or

sudo apt-get install fnfxd

It solved my problem

Answer 5

This has fixed it both on a Toshiba L510 and a P850.

1) Edit /etc/default/grub and change this variable:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="pcie_aspm=force acpi_osi=Linux acpi_backlight=legacy"

2) Edit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf and add this line at the end of the file:

blacklist toshiba_acpi

3) Update the grub config file:

sudo update-grub

4.) Reboot.