Bug 508982

Summary: Screen brightness sometimes updates automatically (without user input). When this happens, the system seems to think the brightness is still at 100%, even though the actual brightness is lower.As a result,pressing the increase brightness key hasn't effect
Product: [Plasma] plasmashell Reporter: Alessandro Botta <alexduemila04>
Component: Power management & brightnessAssignee: Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs-null>
Status: NEEDSINFO WAITINGFORINFO    
Severity: minor CC: kdedev, nate
Priority: NOR    
Version First Reported In: 6.4.4   
Target Milestone: 1.0   
Platform: Arch Linux   
OS: Linux   
See Also: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=508434
Latest Commit: Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Alessandro Botta 2025-08-31 19:02:34 UTC
SUMMARY
Screen brightness sometimes updates automatically (without user input). When this happens, the system seems to think the brightness is still at 100%, even though the actual brightness is lower. As a result, pressing the "increase brightness" key has no effect.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Set brightness to 100% (using keyboard shortcut or brightness slider).
2. Wait until the system automatically lowers brightness (not triggered by user).
3. Try to increase brightness again using the keyboard shortcut.

OBSERVED RESULT
Brightness does not increase because the system still thinks it is at 100%.
The only workaround is to first lower brightness (e.g., to 95%) and then raise it again to 100%.

EXPECTED RESULT
The brightness should increase to the actual maximum brightness when requested, even after automatic adjustments.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
- KDE Plasma: 6.4.4
- KDE Frameworks: 6.4.4
- Qt Version: 6.9.1
- Kernel: 6.16.1-arch1-1
- Distribution: Arch Linux (x86_64)

HARDWARE
- Laptop model: LG Gram 16Z90P (Intel i7-1165G7)
- GPU: Intel TigerLake-LP GT2 [Iris Xe Graphics] (i915 driver)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
It seems that the automatic brightness process does not update the internal brightness state variable correctly, causing the UI to believe it is still at 100%. This results in the system refusing to increase brightness above the incorrectly assumed maximum.
Comment 1 TraceyC 2025-10-01 17:29:23 UTC
Thanks for the bug report. Could you check entries for org.kde.powerdevil in your system logs for just before and just after the brightness changes by itself?

Also, what version of ddcutil is installed on your system?
Comment 2 TraceyC 2025-10-06 17:09:41 UTC
This may be a duplicate of bug 508434