[RESOLVED] Brightness keys (Fn-F7, Fn-F8) don't work after Xfce login (hid_sensor already blacklisted)

Community Support
1

FW13 Intel 13th, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, Xfce desktop

I followed the instructions to disable the hid sensor, and I get the expected “blacklisted” message during boot. Screen brightness keys work at the login screen for Xfce desktop (my default), but after login they don’t work at all.

It’s a recent clean install of Ubuntu, with a few additions such as blueman, dropbox and the kate editor.

Has anyone seen similar, please?

Roops

2

My way to make it work is by explicitly binding those keys in my configuration.

So in /etc/acpi/handler.sh I have:

    video/brightnessdown)
	    DISPLAY=:0.0 xbacklight -dec 1
	    logger 'brightness down'
	    ;;
    video/brightnessup)
	    DISPLAY=:0.0 xbacklight -inc 1
	    logger 'brightness up'
	    ;;

And this is because I have an Artix Linux and am using acpid.

But since you are using Ubuntu instead, you should be able to add the shortcuts in the app xfce4-settings-editor by navigating to its section xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts, and add the bindings using the key names XF86MonBrightnessUp and XF86MonBrightnessDown.

3

What happens if you do Fn+Esc first? For me (Fedora) that switches the keyboard to the correct mode and brightness keys (and others) work without needing the Fn key pressed at the same time.

4

Thanks for the reply, but I couldn’t see which section in the text in xfce-settings-editor to add that.

I did find a fix, though–after installing xfce4-goodies I added xfce4-battery-plugin (to get % in the panel) and Power Manager, then under the Power Manager “General” tab I found “Handle display brightness keys” and turned it on, which works reliably with the previous tweak to disable hid_sensor_hub.

Thanks again

Roops

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