Bug 500041 - Monitor brightness set in Brightness applet results in a different actual brightness on display
Summary: Monitor brightness set in Brightness applet results in a different actual bri...
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: plasmashell
Classification: Plasma
Component: Power management & brightness (other bugs)
Version First Reported In: 6.3.0
Platform: Fedora RPMs Linux
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: 1.0
Assignee: Plasma Bugs List
URL:
Keywords: regression
: 501510 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2025-02-14 04:15 UTC by David Warner
Modified: 2025-06-16 04:32 UTC (History)
9 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:


Attachments
kscreen-doctor output (2.57 KB, text/plain)
2025-03-05 20:01 UTC, TraceyC
Details

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Description David Warner 2025-02-14 04:15:34 UTC
SUMMARY
Setting monitor brightness via the system tray applet results in a maximum actual brightness of 30%.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Change a monitor's brightness via the system tray applet.

OBSERVED RESULT
Setting the brightness to 100% sets the actual brightness to 30% (as seen on the monitor OSD). Setting the brightness to 50% sets the actual brightness to 15%.

EXPECTED RESULT
The applet brightness matches the OSD brightness.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
KDE Plasma Version: 6.3.0
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.10.0
Qt Version: 6.8.2

Fedora 41
Wayland
Kernel 6.12.11

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
2 monitors connected via DisplayPort, 1 by HDMI (all exhibit this behaviour)
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT
Mesa 24.3.4
Comment 1 Kath 2025-02-15 15:59:57 UTC
I can reproduce this bug, but with an interesting detail: Only on one of my two identical screens.

Similar to David, I can set my Applet to 100%, but it only corresponds to 20% of the monitor brightness as shown on the monitor OSD. Like David if I then change the applet to 50%, it is actually 10% brightness

If I then change the monitors OSD brightness to 100%, the applet "controls" correctly, but it does not update the montior OSD or knowledge of the changes, showing still at 100% brightness and full power use, regardless of the applet setting,

On my other monitor it works as intended, applet settings directly update and adjust the Monitor OSD brightness settings, and correspond correctly.

Operating System: Fedora Linux 41
KDE Plasma Version: 6.3.0
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.10.0
Qt Version: 6.8.2
Kernel Version: 6.12.11-200.fc41.x86_64 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 16 × Intel® Core™ i9-9900K CPU @ 3.60GHz
Memory: 31.1 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti

2x Dell U2515H monitors, connected via Display port

I am happy to help investigate further if I am given information for how to diagnose or next steps to try.
Comment 2 David Warner 2025-02-16 04:43:23 UTC
I should mention tbat my monitors are all Dell S2721QS models, in case it's relevant. Also, I should emphasise that this is a regression from Plasma 6.2.

> If I then change the monitors OSD brightness to 100%, the applet "controls" correctly, but it does not update the montior OSD or knowledge of the changes, showing still at 100% brightness and full power use, regardless of the applet setting,

This is a bit different for me - if I set the monitor to 100% brightness via the OSD, it goes straight back to a value between 0% and 30% when I use the applet controls again.

I've disabled the feature with POWERDEVIL_NO_DDCUTIL=1 for now.
Comment 3 i 2025-02-16 12:51:08 UTC
I'm having the same issue with a HP OMEN 27q monitor as my primary monitor. Whenever the system wakes from sleep, the primary monitor will set its brightness to 30%, but the "Brightness and Colour" widget will show it as 100%. This does not seem to effect my secondary monitor, which is a smaller monitor from the same brand. This did not occur in 6.2.

---

Operating System: Fedora Linux 41
KDE Plasma Version: 6.3.0
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.11.0
Qt Version: 6.8.2
Kernel Version: 6.12.11-200.fc41.x86_64 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Graphics Processor 1: AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT
Comment 4 John Kizer 2025-02-28 06:23:53 UTC
Hi - I can't reproduce this issue myself, but leaving a comment for possible reference by others - I wonder if this is potentially related to the following bug: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=495003 (since the bug mentioned by Kath seems to be slightly different)?
Comment 5 TraceyC 2025-02-28 17:01:24 UTC
I'm able to replicate this on a laptop with Plasma 6.3.2 and an nvidia GPU
2 monitors are attached via a dock (One over DisplayPort, the other over HDMI)
I set the brightness of all displays to 100% via the Brightness applet

Actual brightness shown in monitor settings
LG 34GK950F - DisplayPort - 90 (It looks noticeably less bright than the other two displays)
LG Ultragear - HDMI - 100
Comment 6 Zamundaaa 2025-03-04 23:24:38 UTC
Please attach the output of kscreen-doctor -o while the issue is present.
Comment 7 TraceyC 2025-03-05 20:00:37 UTC
Monitor brightness right now:
| Screen |  Widget %  | Monitor settings  |
| Laptop  |  70  | 70 |
| Mon 1  |  50  |  90 |
| Mon 1  |  50  |  100 |

❯ kscreen-doctor -o | grep -E "Output|Geometry|Scale|Bright"
Output: 1 eDP-1
        Geometry: 0,0 2560x1600
        Scale: 1.5
        Brightness control: supported, set to 70% and dimming to 100%
Output: 2 DP-9
        Geometry: 6000,80 3440x1440
        Scale: 1
        Brightness control: supported, set to 50% and dimming to 100%
Output: 3 DP-10
        Geometry: 2560,80 3440x1440
        Scale: 1
        Brightness control: supported, set to 50% and dimming to 100%

Full output attached
Comment 8 TraceyC 2025-03-05 20:01:07 UTC
Created attachment 179150 [details]
kscreen-doctor output
Comment 9 Zamundaaa 2025-03-05 20:09:05 UTC
hmm, that looks more like the brightness isn't getting applied at all, rather than the maximum being wrong.
Comment 10 John Kizer 2025-03-27 18:50:29 UTC
*** Bug 501510 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 11 David Warner 2025-04-15 11:10:07 UTC
Unfortunately a fresh install of KDE Plasma 6.3.4 (Fedora 42) hasn't improved this behaviour on my machine - my monitors are all still capped at 30% brightness when using the software controls (incidentally, the controls weren't actually visible until I restarted plasma-powerdevil.service).
Comment 12 Roke Julian Lockhart Beedell 2025-06-01 10:59:12 UTC
(In reply to David Warner from comment #11)

> *** Bug 501510 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

This has been remediated for me with my AOC Q3279WG5B, since I posted that bug:

> ~~~
> Operating System: Fedora Linux 42
> KDE Plasma Version: 6.3.5
> KDE Frameworks Version: 6.14.0
> Qt Version: 6.9.0
> Kernel Version: 6.14.8-300.fc42.x86_64 (64-bit)
> Graphics Platform: Wayland
> ~~~

I didn't even need to reinstall.
Comment 13 i 2025-06-02 04:04:50 UTC
This also seems to be fixed for me on my Omen 27Q and Fedora 42. I have noticed sometimes they brightness sliders don't show up at all, but can't remember if that was before or after I applied the 6.3.5 update.

That being said, I can't see a commit listed for 6.3.5 that would have actually addressed the issue, and the kwin/powerdevil changes for 6.3.4->5 don't seem be relevant, so not sure if it's resolved or just hiding!

> ===
> Operating System: Fedora Linux 42
> KDE Plasma Version: 6.3.5
> KDE Frameworks Version: 6.14.0
> Qt Version: 6.9.0
> Kernel Version: 6.14.8-300.fc42.x86_64 (64-bit)
> Graphics Platform: Wayland
> ===
Comment 14 John Kizer 2025-06-02 13:33:18 UTC
Hi David - just checking, as the original reporter of this issue, are you seeing it still occur with Plasma 6.3.5?
Comment 15 David Warner 2025-06-16 00:46:48 UTC
(In reply to John Kizer from comment #14)
> Hi David - just checking, as the original reporter of this issue, are you
> seeing it still occur with Plasma 6.3.5?

Sorry for the delay - happy to confirm it's working as intended. 100% brightness in the applet maps to 100% brightness in the OSD controls again.
Comment 16 David Warner 2025-06-16 01:55:54 UTC
(In reply to David Warner from comment #15)
> (In reply to John Kizer from comment #14)
> > Hi David - just checking, as the original reporter of this issue, are you
> > seeing it still occur with Plasma 6.3.5?
> 
> Sorry for the delay - happy to confirm it's working as intended. 100%
> brightness in the applet maps to 100% brightness in the OSD controls again.

Unfortunately I might have spoken too soon - everything was working perfectly after restarting, but after letting the monitors go to sleep, Powerdevil got into a bad state and the applet stopped displaying brightness settings entirely. In the logs I see things like

> Jun 16 11:43:46 fedora org_kde_powerdevil[2907]: org.kde.powerdevil: [DDCutilDisplay]: ddca_open_display2 -3030
> Jun 16 11:43:46 fedora org_kde_powerdevil[2907]: org.kde.powerdevil: [DDCutilDisplay]: "DELL S2721QS" failed to set DDC/CI brightness
> Jun 16 11:48:29 fedora org_kde_powerdevil[2907]: org.kde.powerdevil: Adjust screen brightness step failed: no displays available to adjust

This might be a separate issue altogether.
Comment 17 i 2025-06-16 04:32:54 UTC
(In reply to David Warner from comment #16)
> Unfortunately I might have spoken too soon - everything was working
> perfectly after restarting, but after letting the monitors go to sleep,
> Powerdevil got into a bad state and the applet stopped displaying brightness
> settings entirely. In the logs I see things like
> 
> > Jun 16 11:43:46 fedora org_kde_powerdevil[2907]: org.kde.powerdevil: [DDCutilDisplay]: ddca_open_display2 -3030
> > Jun 16 11:43:46 fedora org_kde_powerdevil[2907]: org.kde.powerdevil: [DDCutilDisplay]: "DELL S2721QS" failed to set DDC/CI brightness
> > Jun 16 11:48:29 fedora org_kde_powerdevil[2907]: org.kde.powerdevil: Adjust screen brightness step failed: no displays available to adjust
> 
> This might be a separate issue altogether.

Heya, I reported that issue here: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=505190