[SOLVED] Fn + Brightness Up/Dwn on Dell M1210 not working in KDE4

[helipil0t]

I was researching for weeks on this annoying problem. For the life of me I couldn't figure out how to adjust the LCD brightness up or down using my function keys. Even using 'echo -n 62 > /proc/acpi/video/VID1/LCD/brightness' wouldn't work after spitting out 'Permission Denied'. Then I stumbled across an article and found a solution. Couldn't keep it to myself so here it is.

Run gnome-power-manager from the command prompt or create a shortcut to it in you're ~/.kde4/Autostart folder. You can find gnome-power-manager in the /usr/bin folder.
you'll see a little icon appear in the lower right corner of you're screen. Give you're Fn+UP or Fn+Dwn a try and you should see a pop up indicating the brightness level. I can only get 3 brightness levels but it's better than nothing.

If for whatever reason you don't have gnome-power-manager just install it from Adept or in you're command prompt by typing 'sudo apt-get install gnome-power-manager'.

Hope this helps.

[Xaron]

Re: [SOLVED] Fn + Brightness Up/Dwn on Dell M1210 not working in KDE4

WORKS PERFECT!
Thumbs up!

[Teunis]

Re: [SOLVED] Fn + Brightness Up/Dwn on Dell M1210 not working in KDE4

I tried this trick on my Tecra S5 but the only difference is another pop up showing the percentage of brightness but no change in actual screen brightness.

The same happens with the Kpowersave utility, I can move the brightness bar but hitting Apply does nothing.

[Jakkals]

Re: [SOLVED] Fn + Brightness Up/Dwn on Dell M1210 not working in KDE4

Hi Guys!

I had the same problem with my laptop. If I boot into KDE4 my screen brightness was very dark and to make matters worse my function buttons that sets the brightness were also not responding. After some research and playing around I found a solution.

Open a terminal window and run the following command:

guidance-power-manager

Your screen brightness should instantly go brighter and your function buttons should too work now.

If you get command not found, you will have to install it:

sudo aptitude install kde-guidance-powermanager

I created a symbolic link inside my ~/kde.4/Autostart directory so that it runs the program at logon without me having to manually run it every time.

ln -s /usr/bin/guidance-power-manager ~/.kde4/Autostart

Let me know if this works for you!