Hey folks!
I noticed that when I was using Ubuntu, the automatic screen dimming feature on my Framework laptop seemed to work out of the box.
I’m not seeing the same with Aurora, nor do I see any settings to allow for auto screen dimming.
Is this a bug? Feature? Available through some additional setup?
EDIT: Edited for clarity. Regular brightness adjustment works just fine, but I’m looking for auto brightness via the laptop’s light sensor to also work.
My Plasma experience is not as current as I would live, however…
systemctl --user status plasma-powerdevil.service
Making it is running.
systemctl --user restart plasma-powerdevil.service
journalctl --user-unit plasma-powerdevil.service --no-pager
(See if anything stands out there)
And lastly, to make sure the button responses at least are registering, even if the screen is not:
watch -n 0.1 '
val=$(cat /sys/class/backlight/*/brightness)
max=$(cat /sys/class/backlight/*/max_brightness)
pct=$(( val * 100 / max ))
bars=$(( pct / 5 ))
printf "💡 Brightness: %3d%% [" "$pct"
for i in $(seq 1 $bars); do printf "█"; done
for i in $(seq $((bars+1)) 20); do printf " "; done
printf "]\n"
'
Let it sit and run, press brightness up and down, do the numbers change? Even if the brightness fails? Then I’d wage it is something with powerdevil and most likely
journalctl --user-unit plasma-powerdevil.service --no-pager
and if we want to get fancy…and this is on my Framework Laptop 16, but the premise should still work:
This will show you again, that the brightness keys work.
#!/usr/bin/env bash
sudo libinput debug-events | grep --line-buffered -i 'brightness' | sed \
-e 's/.*KEY_BRIGHTNESSUP.*/🔆 \x1b[32mBrightness Up\x1b[0m/' \
-e 's/.*KEY_BRIGHTNESSDOWN.*/🔅 \x1b[34mBrightness Down\x1b[0m/'
Considerations:
sudo libinput debug-events (plus our highlight filter)
Use when:
watch -n 0.1 'cat /sys/class/backlight/*/brightness'
Use when:
Thanks, Matt!
I will edit my original post, but what I meant to actually write was whether AUTOMATIC screen dimming could be enabled! Oops!
The buttons and everything else do work as expected, but there seems to be no option to take advantage of the light sensor to adjust the screen’s brightness automatically (it works in Ubuntu).
Sorry for the confusion!
I see it now, sorry I was multitasking.
Still a consideration without brightness.
systemctl --user status plasma-powerdevil.service
Making it is running.
systemctl --user restart plasma-powerdevil.service
journalctl --user-unit plasma-powerdevil.service --no-pager
Also…
Go to:
System Settings → Power Management → Energy Saving
Look for:
If it’s missing: KDE doesn’t detect a usable ALS.
That option is not there, so it must not be seeing something. I wonder if it might be worth checking into the Framework forums to see if this is a feature that can be enabled.
Older 2022 and I am not on KDE atm, but this may be worth poking at.
Thank you! Looks like I’ll need to explore that (I’m a linux n00b), but I’m optimistic that it’ll work!
No problem at all. 
As a comparison, due the brightness keys work by chance?
Yes, brightness keys work 100%. So does the slider in the OS itself.