Framework16 config file for Illuminanced (Display Brightness controlled by the ambient light sensor)

Framework Laptop 16 Linux
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I’ve been trying to figure out how to use Illuminanced to control my display brightness using Framework16’s light sensor.

Thing is, by default, the config file refers to an intel backlight file and the wrong sensor:

### Default /etc/illuminanced.toml sample:
max_backlight_file = "/sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/max_brightness"
backlight_file = "/sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness"
illuminance_file = "/sys/bus/acpi/devices/ACPI0008:00/iio:device0/in_illuminance_raw"

As you may know, the Framework 16 does not (as of now) ship with an Intel CPU at all.

Changing these lines to this makes illuminanced work properly with the FW16:

### Correct /etc/illuminanced.toml sample:
max_backlight_file = "/sys/class/backlight/amdgpu_bl2/max_brightness"
backlight_file = "/sys/class/backlight/amdgpu_bl2/brightness"
illuminance_file = "/sys/bus/iio/devices/iio:device0/in_illuminance_raw"

The systemd service should now start properly when using this config.
This config might work with the 13 (AMD), but only own a 16 (7040 series) so I can’t test.

Complete config file link

Notes:
I am using arch btw and I also use the AUR version of illuminanced.

The config I shared is customized to what I like personally.

The light sensor has a range from 0 to 3355 according to my testing (Shining my phone’s flashlight directly on the sensor makes it stuck at 3355 and putting my finger on it stucks it at 0)

edits: site was buggy due to bad internet so it didn’t send properly + added full file link

3 Likes
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it works! i just wish the documentation were a little more clear on how to configure.

3

Yeah I wish it was too, it took me like 3 hours of trial and error to get everything working and customized.

4

I was wondering what that extra sensor was, thanks for sharing! I may try to set this up and see if it works, albeit I’m not 100% certain I want auto-brightness.

1 Like
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Is this more reliable/resilient than the default implementation? At least on Debian by default this does happen for me already when enabling Automatic Screen brightness in Gnome’s Power Settings. But in some brightness conditions the display brightness fluctuates quite uncontrollably.

I’m also not that certain if I really need auto brightness, as changing it manually is simple enough from the keyboard, but if it’s used, a better algorithm would be appreciated.

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I can’t really tell if it is more reliable or resilient than the default gnome implementation since I personally really hate the Gnome DE so I very rarely use it. I personally use KDE and it lacks any auto-brightness feature so illuminanced is the only option I’ve found.

In the case of illuminanced, you actually do have a config file that you can edit to adjust the behavior of the auto-brightness, so you can make it smoother to your liking.

The only thing is (and this is the reason I made this thread in the first place) this utility has very lacky documentation, so you’ll need alot of trial and error.

2 Likes
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@Franscobec
Hey. I am setting up my Framework 16 with Linux and i want to use illuminanced. I saw that you shared your config but the link is not valid anymore. Do you want share youre Config again or maybe just post it plaintext here? It would help me and other people a lot if they could use a proven config.

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Hey Appletree,
Apologies, I didn’t notice that the link had an expiration date. I’ve set the time to indefinite, so the link should start working again.

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Thank you very much!

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Hello everyone,

i don’t mean to be rude, but i didn’t really like illuminanced, so i wrote my own tool in Golang if any tinkerers are interested: https://git.redxen.eu/caskd/ambient-backlight

Hope it ends up being useful to someone. :smiley:

Here’s how i invoke it: ambient-backlight -value.min-illumination 0 -value.max-illumination 12 -value.history 5