Change screen brightness automatically on AC connection/disconnection

Question

I want to keep the screen brightness at minimum level when its unconnected to power and at maximum level when it's connected

On Ubuntu 11.04 it was possible, through this config screen: power settings

However on Ubuntu 11.10 my power settings looks like this:

Is it possible to change automatically screen brightness on ubuntu 11.10 when power gets connected or disconnected as it was in Ubuntu 11.04?

Thanks.

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 31 '12 at 03:27

Since Gnome 3 there is no way to specify a different backlight level for battery and AC - there is only one level with idle dimming enabled after a set period on battery. I can't see any good reason for making this over-simplification, as every other OS and major desktop environment supports it. I came up with my own script to perform the function of setting the brightness when a/c is connected/disconnected. Modify the script with you home directory and desired brightness levels, and save as /etc/pm/power.d/00-brightness (also add executable permissions using chmod 755 /etc/pm/power.d/00-brightness)

export DISPLAY=:0
user=chris
bat_bright=50
ac_bright=90

. /home/$user/.dbus/session-bus/*

case $1 in
    true)
    echo "Enable screen power saving"
sudo -u $user -g $user dbus-send --session --print-reply  --dest="org.gnome.SettingsDaemon" \
    /org/gnome/SettingsDaemon/Power org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Power.Screen.SetPercentage uint32:$bat_bright
    ;;
    false)
    echo "Disable screen power saving"
sudo -u $user -g $user dbus-send --session --print-reply  --dest="org.gnome.SettingsDaemon" \
    /org/gnome/SettingsDaemon/Power org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Power.Screen.SetPercentage uint32:$ac_bright
    ;;
esac

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 22 '12 at 05:11

This setting seems to have moved to the "screen" panel.

enter image description here

Although the default is the behaviour you describe, some configurations might work better if you add acpi_backlight=vendor to your grub kernel parameters.

You need to update grub after adding acpi_backlight=vendor... here are complete instructions (I need to do this for my f2 and f3 keys to function brightness up/down

Run this in a terminal:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

and change this line:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

to

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="acpi_backlight=vendor"

Save the file and run

sudo update-grub

Now reboot. Your function keys for brightness should now work.

Change screen brightness automatically on AC connection/disconnection

2 Answers2