Bug 500687

Summary: scrolling on applet/pressing brightness keys should adjust the brightness level of current/active display
Product: [Plasma] plasmashell Reporter: fanzhuyifan
Component: Brightness and Color widgetAssignee: Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs-null>
Status: ASSIGNED ---    
Severity: wishlist CC: kdedev, natalie_clarius, nate
Priority: NOR Keywords: usability
Version First Reported In: master   
Target Milestone: 1.0   
Platform: Other   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description fanzhuyifan 2025-02-24 19:51:35 UTC 
SUMMARY

scrolling on applet/pressing brightness keys should adjust the brightness level of current/active display, instead of adjusting the brightness of all displays simultaneously.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. In multi monitor setup, press brightness keys

OBSERVED RESULT
Brightness of all monitors change simultaneously

EXPECTED RESULT
Brightness of only active monitor changes

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. In multi monitor setup, scroll on brightness applet

OBSERVED RESULT
Brightness of all monitors change simultaneously

EXPECTED RESULT
Brightness of only the monitor with the applet changes

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
In a multimonitor setup, it should be pretty rare that a user wants to change the brightness of all displays simultaneously. The more common need is to change the brightness of a particular display. Currently this is inconvenient, as the user needs to go to applet, and adjust the slider for that particular display.

See also thread here: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/powerdevil/-/merge_requests/361#note_982173
Comment 1 TraceyC 2025-02-24 20:31:36 UTC 
What the default should be is worth considering
Personally, I usually want to just change brightness on my laptop display, not the external monitors. So I would also prefer the default to be that the laptop keys only adjust the laptop display
Comment 2 fanzhuyifan 2025-02-24 20:36:02 UTC 
(In reply to TraceyC from comment #1)
> What the default should be is worth considering
> Personally, I usually want to just change brightness on my laptop display,
> not the external monitors. So I would also prefer the default to be that the
> laptop keys only adjust the laptop display

I don't know if currently we have the infrastructure to distinguish between laptop keys and external keyboard keys..
Comment 3 TraceyC 2025-02-25 17:04:38 UTC 
Instead of using the keyboard to determine the active display, can we use the code that determines active display / active window to get the focused display?
Comment 4 Bug Janitor Service 2025-02-25 18:26:42 UTC 
A possibly relevant merge request was started @ https://invent.kde.org/plasma/powerdevil/-/merge_requests/527