Brightness not changable with FN+F4 / FN+F5 [Solved]

[JanTrix]

The brightness of the backlight cannot be changed using the FN+F4 / FN+F5 keys on an Asus Expertbook P1511 Notebook.
The brightness popup appears and shows the current brightness value. But nothing changes when pressed the FN+F4 / FN+F5 keys.
Adjusting the brightness via the system settings works and is also restored after booting.

Maybe someone has an idea?

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System:    Kernel: 5.10.0-12-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1 
           parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.10.0-12-amd64 
           root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash 
           init=/lib/systemd/systemd 
           Desktop: Xfce 4.16.0 tk: Gtk 3.24.24 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm 4.16.1 vt: 7 
           dm: LightDM 1.26.0 Distro: MX-21_x64 Wildflower October 20  2021 
           base: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye) 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: ASUSTeK product: VivoBook_ASUSLaptop X515DAP_Y1511CDA v: 1.0 
           serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: ASUSTeK model: X515DAP v: 1.0 serial: <filter> UEFI: American Megatrends 
           v: X515DAP.306 date: 03/29/2021 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 10.9 Wh (31.6%) condition: 34.5/37.1 Wh (93.0%) volts: 7.8 
           min: 7.8 model: ASUSTeK ASUS Battery type: Li-ion serial: N/A status: Discharging 
           cycles: 310 
CPU:       Info: Dual Core model: AMD Ryzen 3 3250U with Radeon Graphics bits: 64 type: MT MCP 
           arch: Zen family: 17 (23) model-id: 18 (24) stepping: 1 microcode: 8108109 cache: 
           L2: 1024 KiB 
           flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm bogomips: 20760 
           Speed: 1202 MHz min/max: 1400/2600 MHz boost: enabled Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1202 
           2: 1195 3: 1368 4: 1367 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected 
           Type: l1tf status: Not affected 
           Type: mds status: Not affected 
           Type: meltdown status: Not affected 
           Type: spec_store_bypass 
           mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 
           mitigation: Retpolines, IBPB: conditional, STIBP: disabled, RSB filling 
           Type: srbds status: Not affected 
           Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:  Device-1: AMD Picasso vendor: ASUSTeK driver: amdgpu v: kernel bus-ID: 03:00.0 
           chip-ID: 1002:15d8 class-ID: 0300 
           Device-2: IMC Networks USB2.0 VGA UVC WebCam type: USB driver: uvcvideo 
           bus-ID: 1-6.2:4 chip-ID: 13d3:5a11 class-ID: 0e02 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 compositor: xfwm4 v: 4.16.1 driver: 
           loaded: amdgpu,ati unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1 
           Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x285mm (20.0x11.2") 
           s-diag: 582mm (22.9") 
           Monitor-1: eDP res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 142 size: 344x193mm (13.5x7.6") 
           diag: 394mm (15.5") 
           OpenGL: 
           renderer: AMD Radeon Vega 3 Graphics (RAVEN2 DRM 3.40.0 5.10.0-12-amd64 LLVM 11.0.1) 
           v: 4.6 Mesa 20.3.5 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: AMD Raven/Raven2/Fenghuang HDMI/DP Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus-ID: 03:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:15de class-ID: 0403 
           Device-2: AMD Raven/Raven2/FireFlight/Renoir Audio Processor driver: N/A 
           alternate: snd_pci_acp3x, snd_rn_pci_acp3x bus-ID: 03:00.5 chip-ID: 1022:15e2 
           class-ID: 0480 
           Device-3: AMD Family 17h HD Audio vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus-ID: 03:00.6 chip-ID: 1022:15e3 class-ID: 0403 
           Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.10.0-12-amd64 running: yes 
           Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 14.2 running: yes 
Network:   Device-1: Realtek RTL8821CE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter vendor: AzureWave 
           driver: rtl8821ce v: v5.5.2.1_35598.20191029 modules: rtw88_8821ce,wl port: f000 
           bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:c821 class-ID: 0280 
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter> 
Bluetooth: Device-1: IMC Networks Bluetooth Radio type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 1-6.1:3 
           chip-ID: 13d3:3529 class-ID: e001 serial: <filter> 
           Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 3 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 2.1 lmp-v: 4.2 
           sub-v: 8821 hci-v: 4.2 rev: c 
           Info: acl-mtu: 820:8 sco-mtu: 255:12 link-policy: rswitch hold sniff park 
           link-mode: slave accept service-classes: rendering, capturing, object transfer, audio 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 242.22 GiB used: 94.9 GiB (39.2%) 
           SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required. 
           ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Western Digital 
           model: PC SN530 SDBPNPZ-256G-1002 size: 238.47 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B 
           logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 21106000 
           temp: 31.9 C scheme: GPT 
           ID-2: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 type: USB vendor: SanDisk model: U3 Titanium 
           size: 3.75 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B type: N/A serial: <filter> 
           rev: 7.01 scheme: MBR 
           SMART Message: Unknown USB bridge. Flash drive/Unsupported enclosure? 
Partition: ID-1: / raw-size: 34.48 GiB size: 33.65 GiB (97.57%) used: 12.99 GiB (38.6%) fs: ext4 
           dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2 
           ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 256 MiB size: 252 MiB (98.46%) used: 403 KiB (0.2%) 
           fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1 
Swap:      Alert: No swap data was found. 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 45.1 C mobo: 45.0 C gpu: amdgpu temp: 45.0 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 2300 
Repos:     Packages: note: see --pkg apt: 2209 lib: 1157 flatpak: 0 
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye main contrib non-free
           2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb http://ftp.halifax.rwth-aachen.de/mxlinux/packages/mx/repo/ bullseye main non-free
Info:      Processes: 242 Uptime: 7m wakeups: 1 Memory: 5.81 GiB used: 1.08 GiB (18.6%) 
           Init: systemd v: 247 runlevel: 5 default: 5 tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 10.2.1 
           alt: 10 Shell: Bash v: 5.1.4 running-in: quick-system-info-mx 
           inxi: 3.3.06 
Boot Mode: UEFI

[Huckleberry Finn]

You can try 5.16 kernel from MX Package Installer - Popular Apps tab.

(if it weren't able to set brightness or keep the last setting in other ways, then I would tell to use boot parameters.)

[linexer2016]

You may also consider using a command line utility (available from the repos) called sct. Sct enables one to input at the start of your session or during an existing session a colour temperature. I use sct5000 for normal daylight ops and sct3400 for night time. There's a number of discussions in the forums on sct and colour temperature etc.

[JanTrix]

You can try 5.16 kernel from MX Package Installer - Popular Apps tab.

Thank you for your prompt reply. I hadn't tried the obvious yet. However, kernel 5.16 made no change. (Only WiFi didn't work).

[Huckleberry Finn]

You can also try antiX 4.19 and/or 4.9 .. Just to see if they make Fn keys work ...

(You'll find 5.10 and 4.xx in "Advanced Options" in Grub to boot with.)

But, in case you're asking that for screen color etc. then sct will do the job...


P.S. Removal of kernels is the same way of installation, (when booted with another kernel)

[JanTrix]

Sct is definitely a useful feature. But I work for image processing with a calibrated monitor. Changing the color temperature would be unfavorable. The brightness can be adjusted on the notebook. Only the function keys should also be able to change the brightness value.

[Huckleberry Finn]

If still not: (with none of the kernels) you can try these (one at a time) as boot parameters:

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acpi_backlight=video

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acpi_backlight=vendor

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acpi_backlight=native

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acpi_backlight=none

To temporarily try: press E on Grub, type (say acpi_backlight=video ) after ... ro quiet splash and hit F10 to go on boot, then try Fn Keys )

Or, just paste one of them each boot into "Kernel Parameters" box in "MX Boot Options".... If none of them works, don't forget to remove the parameter.

[JanTrix]

If still not: (with none of the kernels) you can try these (one at a time) as boot parameters:

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acpi_backlight=video

I had already experimented with boot parameters but not with acpi_backlight=video. And that was the solution!
The function keys work and the set value persists after booting with Kernel 5.10.

Thank you very much for your quick help,
Jan

[Huckleberry Finn]

Thank you, too for the feedback. You can mark the thread like this:

[linexer2016]

Huck's suggestions ring true once again ... well done Huck