Screen Brightness on an Asus 1015e (and other Intel-based laptops) (Shallow Thoughts)

Screen Brightness on an Asus 1015e (and other Intel-based laptops)

When I upgraded my Asus laptop to Stretch, one of the things that stopped working was the screen brightness keys (Fn-F5 and Fn-F6). In Debian Jessie they had always just automagically worked without my needing to do anything, so I'd never actually learned how to set brightness on this laptop. The fix, like so many things, is easy once you know where to look.

It turned out the relevant files are in /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight. cat /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness tells you the current brightness; write a number to /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness to change it.

That at least got me going (ow my eyes, full brightness is migraine-inducing in low light) but of course I wanted it back on the handy function keys.

I wrote a script named "dimmer", with a symlink to "brighter", that goes like this:

#!/bin/zsh

curbright=$(cat /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness)
echo dollar zero $0
if [[ $(basename $0) == 'brighter' ]]; then
  newbright=$((curbright + 200))
else
  newbright=$((curbright - 200))
fi
echo from $curbright to $newbright

sudo sh -c "echo $newbright > /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness"

That let me type "dimmer" or "brighter" to the shell to change the brightness, with no need to remember that /sys/class/whatsit path. I got the names of the two function keys by running xev and typing Fn and F5, then Fn and F6. Then I edited my Openbox ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml, and added:

<keybind key="XF86MonBrightnessDown">
  <action name="Execute">
    <execute>dimmer<execute>
  </action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="XF86MonBrightnessUp">
  <action name="Execute">
    <execute>brighter<execute>
  </action>
</keybind>