screen brightness on HP dv7

[biodiesel-bri]

I have a dv7-6b78us and the screen brightness keys weren't working. I'll be posting my success getting those going here. I have a temporary workaround.

None of the threads I read were quite accurate with respect to the hybrid graphic card setup on this laptop, so here's the workaround that worked for me.

Set the brightness at about 50%

echo 2000 | sudo tee /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness

Set the brightness to max

cat /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/max_brightness | sudo tee /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness

Even though I installed the Radeon drivers, the Intel graphics card is on by default as well, hence we have to use that.

Once I figure out how to bind the actual fn-F2 and fn-F3 keys to increase and decrease brightness I'll post that here. I'll be working on getting the graphics cards to behave as well.

[biodiesel-bri]

I found a much better solution.

Run this in a terminal:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

and change this line:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

to:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="acpi_backlight=vendor"

Save the file and run:

sudo update-grub

Now reboot. Your function keys for brightness should now work.

[Mr Mutis]

Thanks!! I fixed my dv7-6153ea! Next, need to fix the hybrid graphics crap... Cause battery only lasts an hour after fully charged.

[biodiesel-bri]

Ah, I did that too. Here's how:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=11652878

[lawrencesilva]

hi guys ive the same problem with the brightness control not working on my hp dv7-6135dx.

i tried the grub update didnt work

i used to have that folder: /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/ folder and now its missing

any ideas on how i can get it back and have my brightness control again? its pretty hard to the eyes looking

at my laptop at its highest backlight level.

thanks

[mastablasta]

you might want to have a look at this thread and get those new testing AMD drivers on to get hybrid GPU support: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1924347

[biodiesel-bri]

You also have to remove the proprietary drivers from your system, at least I did.

add to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-local.conf:

blacklist fglrx

I also added this to my /etc/local.rc (above the exit 0 line):

modprobe radeon

[THPubs]

Thanks bro this solved my problem! But 1 little bit... When restarted, the brightness resets. We have to adjust it again every time we restart the machine! Know how to fix that?

[prosiedem]

I found a much better solution.

Run this in a terminal:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

and change this line:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

to:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="acpi_backlight=vendor"

Save the file and run:

sudo update-grub

Now reboot. Your function keys for brightness should now work.

I can confirm it works like a charm with HP Pavilion DV7

[Dans564]

Check out my guide on getting everything on a dv6 working here. Should help you get your dv7 up and running 100%

Happy ubuntuing!
Dan