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Being aware of that this is partially a known issue, since each is individual and different, the problem is as following:

On my Lenovo Laptop with Linux Mint the backlight cannot be set using Fn+F6/F7. These keys are not detected at all, neither by xev nor by acpi_listen. However other key combinations like Fn+F3 for volume up is detected by both commands. So it is a more low-level issue, I am afraid. On the other hand, this works well:

  • echo 10000 | sudo tee /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness and as well
  • with the GUI slider in mate-power-preferences works perfectly.
  • xdotool key 232 or xdotool key XF86MonBrightnessDown

More detailed:

  • I tried many boot combinations (yes I updated GRUB and did reboot, as described in this troubleshooting wiki.ubuntu.com Debugging/Backlight)
  • I tried adding files in /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/ as recommended (80-backlight.conf using both "Backlight" "ideapad" and "intel_backlight", or 20-intel.conf)

uname -a yields: Linux Lenovo-V14-G2-ITL 5.8.0-53-generic #60~20.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Thu May 6 09:52:46 UTC 2021 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

These are the available backlights (which can be written using cat)

$ ls /sys/class/backlight/
ideapad  intel_backlight

This is my current configuration

$ cat /proc/cmdline
BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-5.8.0-53-generic root=/dev/mapper/vgmint-root ro pcie_aspm=force acpi_osi=Linux acpi_backlight=vendor quiet splash

I tried these (as well individually and with many combinations, only visible effect is that the output of ls /sys/class/backlight/ is changing)

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="pcie_aspm=force acpi_osi=linux acpi_backlight=vendor video.use_native_backlight=1"
camel
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  • Not sure, but if `xev` doesn't register your keypresses, I don't think there's much you can do. I guess you have two options: 1) Figuring out why `xev` does not register these keys; or 2) use different keys to bind a command (I had best experiences with `xbacklight`). – pfnuesel May 15 '21 at 18:09
  • `xev` not registering keypress might be more common than I thought, see e.g. here: https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/584299/58056 – pfnuesel May 15 '21 at 18:11
  • The behaviour is similar to this https://askubuntu.com/questions/830948/lenovo-ideapad-brightness-keys-not-generating-any-events-in-ubuntu-16-04-1 however I am stuck at the transition to the step where xev detects the keys . `xdotool key 232` works well! And xmodmap -pke shows the brightness keys but how do I get the scancodes? With getkeycodes I see that there is not an entry for keycode=232 (so there is no scancode associated with it?) – camel May 15 '21 at 19:07

1 Answers1

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Sorry, but I cannot leave comments so I have to use answer. What Lenovo model is it?

See if this works (and, as always, make a backup of any configuration file before modifying it):

  1. echo options hid_apple fnmode=0 | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/hid_apple.conf
  2. sudo update-initramfs -u
  3. Reboot

EDIT: If fnmode=0 doesn't work, you can try fnmode=2.

telometto
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  • It's a Lenovo machine, probably a V14 G2-ITL as the hostname suggests. Why do you think options for an [Apple keyboard](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/407501/make-apple-keyboard-settings-persistent-in-hid-apple-parameters) would work here? – Freddy May 15 '21 at 19:16
  • I have had the same problem with a layered keyboard (none of the my products are Apple, either) where some of the buttons didn't work when I pressed `Fn`. Changing the `conf` file and updating the `initramfs` (and rebooting) worked for me. Thought it might be worth a shot for you as well. Cheers. – telometto May 15 '21 at 19:26