[SOLVED] Brightness control gone missing from the panel you get clicking in the top right corner under Gnome

PsychoHermit · 12-15-2023, 01:27 PM

Hey folks,

Running Debian testing on an hp Envy M6 Touchsmart laptop. Running Gnome on Wayland.

The brightness control has gone missing from the panel you get clicking in the upper right corner of the display. Any clues?

System info

Code:

System:
  Kernel: 6.5.0-5-amd64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.2.0
    clocksource: tsc Desktop: GNOME v: 44.5 tk: GTK v: 3.24.38 wm: gnome-shell
    dm: GDM3 v: 45.0.1 Distro: Debian GNU/Linux trixie/testing
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP ENVY m6 Notebook PC
    v: 097C100022405F10000320100 serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 10
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 222C v: KBC Version 64.06
    serial: <superuser required> UEFI: Insyde v: F.23 date: 07/26/2016
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 41.8 Wh (100.0%) condition: 41.8/41.8 Wh (100.0%)
    volts: 12.3 min: 10.8 model: Hewlett-Packard Primary type: Li-ion
    serial: <filter> status: full
CPU:
  Info: quad core model: AMD A10-5750M APU with Radeon HD Graphics bits: 64
    type: MT MCP smt: enabled arch: Piledriver rev: 1 cache: L1: 192 KiB
    L2: 4 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 2145 high: 2684 min/max: 1400/2500 boost: enabled cores:
    1: 1735 2: 1785 3: 2684 4: 2377 bogomips: 19962
  Flags: avx ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Richland [Radeon HD 8650G] vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: N/A
    arch: TeraScale-3 bus-ID: 00:01.0 chip-ID: 1002:990b class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: Cheng Uei Precision Industry (Foxlink) HP Truevision HD
    driver: uvcvideo type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-2:3
    chip-ID: 05c8:036d class-ID: 0e02
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.9 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.2
    compositor: gnome-shell driver: X: loaded: vesa
    unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,radeon dri: swrast gpu: N/A display-ID: :1
    screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1366x768 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 361x203mm (14.21x7.99")
    s-diag: 414mm (16.31")
  Monitor-1: default res: 1366x768 hz: 76 size: N/A modes: N/A
  API: EGL v: 1.5 platforms: device: 0 drv: swrast surfaceless: drv: swrast
    x11: drv: swrast inactive: gbm,wayland
  API: OpenGL v: 4.5 vendor: mesa v: 23.2.1-1 glx-v: 1.4 es-v: 3.2
    direct-render: yes renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 16.0.6 256 bits)
    device-ID: ffffffff:ffffffff
  API: Vulkan v: 1.3.268 layers: 4 surfaces: xcb,xlib device: 0 type: cpu
    driver: mesa llvmpipe device-ID: 10005:0000
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Trinity HDMI Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:01.1 chip-ID: 1002:9902
    class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: AMD FCH Azalia vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel bus-ID: 00:14.2 chip-ID: 1022:780d class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.5.0-5-amd64 status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
    status: active 2: wireplumber status: active
  Server-2: PulseAudio v: 16.1 status: off (using pipewire-pulse)
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s
    lanes: 1 port: 2000 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
  IF: eno1 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter
    vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: ath9k v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s
    lanes: 1 bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 168c:0036 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlo1 state: up mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros driver: N/A type: USB rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s
    lanes: 1 bus-ID: 8-4:2 chip-ID: 0cf3:3121 class-ID: e001
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 953.87 GiB used: 22.57 GiB (2.4%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: SanDisk model: SDSSDH3 1T02 size: 953.87 GiB
    speed: 6.0 Gb/s tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: 1000 scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 307.96 GiB used: 17.81 GiB (5.8%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda6
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 96 MiB used: 51.9 MiB (54.0%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/sda1
  ID-3: /home size: 27.33 GiB used: 4.71 GiB (17.2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 18 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2
    dev: /dev/sda7
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 78.8 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 1988
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
    1: deb https://deb.debian.org/debian/ testing main non-free non-free-firmware contrib
    2: deb https://deb.debian.org/debian/ testing-updates main contrib non-free-firmware non-free
    3: deb https://deb.debian.org/debian testing-backports main contrib non-free
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64] https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
Info:
  Processes: 206 Uptime: 46m wakeups: 0 Memory: total: 12 GiB note: est.
  available: 10.9 GiB used: 4.11 GiB (37.7%) Init: systemd v: 254
  target: graphical (5) default: graphical Compilers: N/A Shell: Bash
  v: 5.2.21 running-in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.3.31

Thanks,
--glenn

Well hell, it looks like I have stumped the experts. Plenty of views but no replies.

beachboy2 · 12-16-2023, 10:34 PM

PsychoHermit,

I have not used it myself but this Gnome-shell extension (soft-brightness) may be of help:

https://github.com/F-i-f/soft-brightness

PsychoHermit · 12-17-2023, 07:09 AM

Beachoy2,

Thanks for the link but I couldn't get it to work. Maybe it don't support gnome 44.5.

--glenn

Nishtya · 12-17-2023, 08:22 AM

I am back to linux after a long absence and currently KDE but if I remember correctly, you should go into power settings in gnome. There is adjustable screen brightness there for when on ac or on battery I believe. HTH

PsychoHermit · 12-17-2023, 08:26 AM

Hi Nishtya,

There's no screen brightness setting in power settings. Thanks for trying,

--glenn

Nishtya · 12-17-2023, 09:17 AM

Taken from the manual for what I think is your model

"How do I adjust the brightness of my laptop's screen?

Look for the brightness keys on your keyboard (usually represented by a sun icon) and press the Fn key along with the appropriate brightness key to increase or decrease the brightness. Alternatively, you can adjust it through the Windows settings."

Don't you hate it when everything you google assumes windows? But maybe unlike my Dell you do have the keyboard function.

PsychoHermit · 12-17-2023, 09:52 AM

Nistya,

I have what might be interpreted to be sun icons, but holding fn and the sun icons don't do anything. Damn, that would have been the ticket!

Thanks,
--glenn

Nishtya · 12-17-2023, 10:34 AM

Took a look at one of the models. It is the one with the backlit kb, F3 certainly looks like a sun. My old work Dells would have two keys, big sun and little sun I think. If there is only one could it maybe mean to use an arrow key also? How flexible are your fingers? LOL

Only other thing I can think of is make a quickie live USB of a distro with KDE. It is currently located in the power settings for sure as I have no keyboard shortcut on mine and found it there. If it works there should be a way to do it in gnome, no? And you can narrow it down at least to if there is something hardware wrong if it won't work in a KDE environment

PsychoHermit · 12-17-2023, 11:44 AM

I downloaded KUbuntu and burned it to a usb and booted it. The brightness control worked as expected. Now how to do it in Gnome?

I booted Ubuntu 22.04 and checked, the brightness control is present there, and it works as expected.

Thanks,
--glenn

Nishtya · 12-17-2023, 12:23 PM

OK! it isn't your hardware or compatibility with linux in general. Have you tried creating a new user in gnome that is like all fresh? Maybe you were doing some tweaking of your DE and lost the control? If KDE can do it you got to believe gnome can. Good luck.

PsychoHermit · 12-17-2023, 02:24 PM

I had a minor disaster restoring from an old backup which left my computer non bootable. Long story but I ended up reinstalling Debian. Surprise surprise, the brightness control came back. Now to redo all of my customizations. Oh well, I was bored anyway. I have my work cut out for me for several hours.

Nishtya · 12-17-2023, 02:48 PM

[QUOTE= Now to redo all of my customizations. Oh well, I was bored anyway. I have my work cut out for me for several hours.[/QUOTE]

Well one of those might have been what caused your brightness control to disappear. I would do just a little tweaking at a time maybe and check on that control periodically

PsychoHermit · 12-17-2023, 03:12 PM

Nah, copying in backgrounds and setting up several scripts to run as systemd services. Nothing serious.

Thanks,
--glenn