Ubuntu – Cannot change brightness (Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and onward)

16.04brightnessscreen

I'm new to linux systems in general (I'm using Ubuntu 16.04 LTS) and I'm having difficulty in changing the brightness of my notebook.

When I use the Fn+F8 or Fn+F9 the brightness bar shows up but there is no change in the actual brightness of the screen.

I tried every method discribed in this post (How to adjust screen brightness in Ubuntu 14.04 (Trusty Tahr)?) to no success.
Installing and using the xbacklight has no effect, same for editing the brightness file in the "intel_backlight" file.

Anyone knows how to solve this?

Best Answer

This does not make your brightness function keys work, but is a workaround.

Install Brightness Controller with the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:apandada1/brightness-controller
sudo apt update

For Version 1 with up to 4 Monitor Support:

sudo apt install brightness-controller-simple

Brightness Controller Version 1

For Version 2 with Multi Monitor Support and Color Temperature support:

sudo apt install brightness-controller

enter image description here

Note: This does not decrease the intensity of backlight, so won't save your batteries. But you can use this as a last resort to save your eyes. This also works in desktops, where there is no option to control brightness.

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