Laptop Brightness Buttons
under Linux

Serge Y. Stroobandt

Copyright 2015–2016, licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA

Problem

Laptop brightness buttons may not function out of the box under Linux.

Solution

Here is how to get these special keys working. In a terminal window type:

$ sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Using the arrow keys, navigate to the following line:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

At the end of the line add acpi_osi= to get:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_osi="

Write the file out by hiiting [Ctrl]+[O], followed by [Enter]. Exit nano with [Ctrl]+[X].

Finally, do not forget to update grub using the following command:

$ sudo update-grub

Now the laptop can be rebooted and the brightness keys should be working.

$ sudo reboot 0

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