How to control brightness using function keys in Ubuntu / Linuxmint

Keywords: Brightness Control, Ubuntu ,Linuxmint

My colleague was having issue with his HP laptop. He was not able to control the brightness of his laptop using function keys. Here are the steps to enable brightness control using function keys in Ubuntu and Linuxmint. To do that we need to edit GRUB configuration file.

Below method has been tested with Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 14.04 and Linuxmint 17 and Linuxmint 17.01. I hope this will work with other Linux distributions also.

Step: 1 Open a terminal and type following command and enter.

$ sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

How_to_control_brihtness_using_function_keys_in_Ubuntu_Linuxmint_1

After enter it will ask for your pass-word.

Step: 2 Enter your account password. Please note that when you type your password it won’t be visible to you, so don’t get confuse. Just enter your password care-fully.

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It will open the GRUB configuration file. See below screen shot attached.

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Step: 3 In this file we need to edit the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=”” to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=”acpi_backlight=vendor”.  After that save the file.

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Step: 4 Now you have to update the GRUB configuration file. Enter the following command in the terminal

$ sudo update-grub

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You will see output something like below attached screen-shot. That’s all.

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Step: 6  Restart your system and now you will be able to control brightness any time.

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6 Thoughts to “How to control brightness using function keys in Ubuntu / Linuxmint”

  1. Anonymous

    still works in 2020 with linux mint 20 with hp g7 250. thanks!

  2. Nitin

    Thanks a lot. 🙂

  3. Anonymous

    Thanks worked for me too.

  4. Anonymous

    Thanks, worked for me too, after installing xubuntu-desktop on top of Ubuntu 14.04 on my Lenovo X140e.

  5. Thanks a lot Sachin Sir for all your help in setting up Linux Mint & all these basic necessities in my system….

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