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Dell Inspiron brightness constantly changing (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 4 weeks ago by DeltaWingDragon@sh.itjust.works to c/linuxquestions@lemmy.zip

7 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/47508691

When my laptop is on battery, the brightness changes depending on what's on the screen.

It changes when I maximize or minimize a window, when I open or close a tooltip, when the visual bell goes off in my terminal, when I move my mouse onto something, when I'm watching a video with no input.

It is extremely annoying and I would like it to stop happening.

All the solutions I have seen only work for a Dell Inspiron with Intel CPU, and mine is AMD.

System stats
Hardware: Dell Inspiron 15 with AMD Ryzen 7 CPU, 16GB RAM, AMD Radeon graphics.

Software: Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie) with Linux 6.12.43 kernel and KDE Plasma 6.3.6 desktop

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[–] HelloRoot@lemy.lol 2 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

Is maybe the light sensor controlling it? (if your laptop has one)

Sounds like when the brightness that the screen emmits changes, the sensor picks that up (in a darker environment?)

For a debugging step, try covering it with your fingers and check whether it still happens.

[–] DeltaWingDragon@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

There is no light sensor in my model.

When I aim a powerful lamp directly at it, the screen brightness does not change.

Light sensors are never mentioned in the online manual for my model.

[–] HelloRoot@lemy.lol 1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Have you tried live booting another distro?

Maybe the new KDE Linux is a good canditate. It comes with the same DE and has the newest testing versions of everything and might have a bugfix included. Also it's arch based so there might be some default config that is different compared to what comes with debian.

https://kde.org/linux/install/

[–] DeltaWingDragon@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 weeks ago

It seems I can't boot from USB on this machine. The drive is recognized in the BIOS, but even when I add it to the sequence, it always boots from the main SSD. If I disable all options except the USB, it says "No bootable device found". When I start GRUB on my main drive, the USB doesn't show up.

[–] Veraxis@lemmy.world 1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I believe some Dells have a bios setting for dynamic brightness which can be turned off.

[–] DeltaWingDragon@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Can't find it in my BIOS. I tried modifying a "screen efficiency" setting, no change. All the other "power management" settings are related to the battery.

[–] Veraxis@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

Hmm, not sure then. It might be called something different. But I do know exactly the thing you mean from having it on my work computers, and I find it very annoying, too.