Linux – How to set the laptop screen brightness programatically

brightnesslaptop-displaylinuxopenboxubuntu 11.10

I'm currently migrating to openbox without gnome session. In unity i can use the vendor keys to set the screen brightness, but in openbox I'm on my own.

  • /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness works fine, the problem is that I need sudo to set the brightness and that wouldn't work with keyboard mappings.
  • xbacklight -get/set doesn't do or output anything.
  • I don't really want to use xrandr –brightness.

Are there any other options or a way to fix the problems with xbacklight or acpi_video0 ?

Best Answer

My solution was to add the following line to etc/rc.local:

chmod a+w /proc/acpi/video/VID/LCD/brightness

I don't know if permissions can also be changed in the /sys filesystem.

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