Framework Laptop 13 Brightness Control Not Working

Framework Laptop 13 Linux
1

I’m running Linux Mint 21.3 with kernel 6.8.0 on a Framework Laptop 13 with the AMD Ryzen AI 7 340 and the 2.8K display.

The amdgpu driver is loaded correctly (confirmed via lspci and lsmod), but /sys/class/backlight is empty unless I use acpi_backlight=video, which exposes a non-functional ACPI interface (slider shows up but does nothing).

Things I’ve tried:

  • amdgpu.backlight=0 → exposes ACPI backlight (doesn’t work)
  • amdgpu.backlight=1 → no /sys/class/backlight entry at all
  • ACPI does not expose video or backlight devices
  • xrandr gamma adjustment works (software workaround)

What am I missing?

Any advice is welcome.

2

You need a newer kernel and probably are missing the GPU firmware. Basically pick a more modern distro.

Strix and Kraken support happened upstream in 6.9 iirc.

1 Like
3

I tried updating my kernel to 6.11, but the brightness control still doesn’t work.

4

Share your dmesg please.

5

Here’s the full output

6

I don’t see amdgpu loaded. You’re probably missing one of the extra kernel packages Ubuntu splits things into.

7

Just received my Framework 13 with Ryzen AI 340 and installed Linux Mint 22.1. I was having same issue with Brightness, but amdgpu was not loading. Got it loaded and brightness fn keys worked fine.

Solution

  1. Do a check to verify if amdgpu kernel drivers are loading with ‘dmesg | grep -i amdgpu’
  2. Use the instructions here.

  1. Figure out compatible Ubuntu .deb package of amdgpu-install*.deb to use for your version of Mint. Below command may help. *

    cat /etc/os-release

    NAME=“Linux Mint”
    VERSION=“22.1 (Xia)”
    ID=linuxmint
    ID_LIKE=“ubuntu debian”
    PRETTY_NAME=“Linux Mint 22.1”
    VERSION_ID=“22.1”
    VERSION_CODENAME=xia
    UBUNTU_CODENAME=noble*

  2. Download the associated Ubuntu deb build of amdgpu-install_*.deb that matches. Mine was ‘noble’
    Index of /amdgpu-install/latest/

  3. Added my user to groups ‘render’ and ‘video’ before install to play it safe.

  4. Read the entire documentation and decide what you want to install. Here was the install cmd I used.

    # amdgpu-install --accept-eula --usecase=workstation -y --vulkan=pro --opencl=rocr

Hope this helps other people in future. Sorry about msg formatting being a mess.

8

I don’t expect suspend works properly this way. You need a newer kernel. If Mint is following Ubuntu 24.04 repositories you can apt install linux-oem-24.04c.

1 Like
9

Hey. I am having the same problem. I’m a complete noob with this - I did the thing in this past post but completely fucked up the OS because I didn’t realize it was from a couple years ago. It DID fix the problem with the brightness but ultimately I had to reinstall Mint… hopefully the thing youre suggesting will work?

10

I just had to compile and install my own kernel to seemingly get everything working. Latest kernel available from Mint is 6.14 which seems to fix the brightness issue, but I was getting poor performance from Wifi. This seems fixed in 6.16.7 (I actually build this to try and get USB-C video working through a dock, which is also working).

I quite like Linux Mint but I think given the bleeding edge nature of the FW 13 AI 300 platform still, if you’re not comfortable with having to update/compile a kernel, using Ubuntu directly might be the better solve. You can always install Cinnamon on it if you want a more Mint-like experience.

11

Tim is definitely right.
Playing with Linux and new Architectures(Ryzen AI) is definitely not for beginners. Can become frustrating fast if you don’t know how to revert/debug.

Setting up AMDGPU as dkms does still have its bugs on Mint 22.1 - kernel 6.8.0.86. But eventually starts running into screen glitching after 2-3 times. Fixed my brightness issue but not a permanent solution.

$ dkms status
amdgpu/6.12.12-2194681.24.04, 6.8.0-86-generic, x86_64: installed

$ uname -a
Linux element 6.8.0-86-generic #87-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Mon Sep 22 18:03:36 UTC 2025 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

I encountered some X11 lockups after compiling 6.14 kernel with AMD XDNA support. Spent a LOT of time learning how Ryzen AI 340 chip works and the NPU support in kernel. But ended up falling back to 6.8.0 using dkms(amdgpu). Had to take a break and enjoy new laptop. :smiley:

Will try compiling 6.16.7. I’ve used linux for 10+ yrs but this is my first compiling kernels. First for everything :smiley:

EDIT: Fixed formatting