Bug 507579 - 0% brightness is like 8% and GPU usage not displayed correctly
Summary: 0% brightness is like 8% and GPU usage not displayed correctly
Status: RESOLVED UPSTREAM
Alias: None
Product: plasmashell
Classification: Plasma
Component: Brightness and Color widget (other bugs)
Version First Reported In: 6.4.3
Platform: Fedora RPMs Linux
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: 1.0
Assignee: Plasma Bugs List
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2025-07-28 06:16 UTC by easy_lad
Modified: 2025-08-12 13:19 UTC (History)
5 users (show)

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


Attachments
stuck at 50% (56.92 KB, image/png)
2025-07-28 06:16 UTC, easy_lad
Details
"GPU 2 usage" is 0% and GPU 3 usage is 100%" always (16.62 KB, image/png)
2025-07-28 06:24 UTC, easy_lad
Details
attachment-1897271-0.html (1.95 KB, text/html)
2025-08-11 17:04 UTC, Marko Jokinen
Details

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Description easy_lad 2025-07-28 06:16:11 UTC
Created attachment 183584 [details]
stuck at 50%

SUMMARY

After updating to 6.4, setting brightness to 0% is like 8%, increasing to 1% make it dimmer (actually what 0% should have looked like).


STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1.  set brightness to 0%

OBSERVED RESULT

0% is very bright (like 8% brightness) than it is supposed to be.


EXPECTED RESULT

normal, 0% is very dim and gets bright when increasing the slider.


SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Operating System: Fedora Linux 41
KDE Plasma Version: 6.4.3
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.16.0
Qt Version: 6.8.3
Kernel Version: 6.15.7-100.fc41.x86_64 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Not sure if relevant, but I think the issue is with GPU, after updating (I was on 6.3.3), it worked normally, but I think I was using an integrated graphics (AMD), when I was checking "About this system" in settings, it didn't show the discrete GPU (Nvidia). Now it does show both. I also checked "System Monitor" and it is stuck on 50% whatever I do, and in "History" tab "GPU 2 usage" is 0% and GPU 3 usage is 100%" always.
Comment 1 easy_lad 2025-07-28 06:24:00 UTC
Created attachment 183585 [details]
"GPU 2 usage" is 0% and GPU 3 usage is 100%" always
Comment 2 TraceyC 2025-07-28 20:44:30 UTC
Moving to the right category
Comment 3 TraceyC 2025-07-28 22:03:10 UTC
I'm not able to reproduce this on git-master or Plasma 6.4.3, with laptops or external monitors

Can you run the following command and paste the output into this report?

kscreen-doctor -o

Thanks!
Comment 4 easy_lad 2025-07-29 02:39:03 UTC
(In reply to TraceyC from comment #3)
> I'm not able to reproduce this on git-master or Plasma 6.4.3, with laptops
> or external monitors
> 
> Can you run the following command and paste the output into this report?
> 
> kscreen-doctor -o
> 
> Thanks!

Output: 1 eDP-1 527ef525-8b69-4e0c-92c2-2047b9686be7
        enabled
        connected
        priority 1
        Panel
        replication source:0
        Modes:  1:1920x1080@60*!  2:1920x1080@40  3:1680x1050@60  4:1280x1024@60  5:1440x900@60  6:1280x800@60  7:1280x720@60  8:1024x768@60  9:800x600@60  10:640x480@60  11:1600x900@60  12:1368x768@60 
        Geometry: 0,0 1536x864
        Scale: 1.25
        Rotation: 1
        Overscan: 0
        Vrr: Automatic
        RgbRange: unknown
        HDR: incapable
        Wide Color Gamut: incapable
        ICC profile: none
        Color profile source: sRGB
        Color power preference: prefer efficiency and performance
        Brightness control: supported, set to 4% and dimming to 100%
        Color resolution: automatic (10), range: [8; 16] bits per color
        Allow EDR: always


Thanks for looking into it, really annoying to have to deal with it after expecting a better experience after updating :)
Comment 5 TraceyC 2025-07-29 19:38:04 UTC
Thanks. I'll let the plasmashell folks take a closer look.
Comment 6 Marko Jokinen 2025-07-31 08:58:23 UTC
i have the same issue basically on my Hybrid dell where i see my IGPU is actually even disabled and Nvidia is always enabled

´´´
phatle@kinoite:/var/home/phatle$ kscreen-doctor -o
Output: 1 eDP-1 80b8cc53-968d-458c-90df-ee8a161970ff
        disabled
        connected
        priority 0
        Panel
        replication source:0
        Modes:  1:3456x2160@60*!  2:1600x1200@60  3:1600x1200@60  4:1280x1024@60  5:1280x1024@60  6:1024x768@60  7:1024x768@60  8:2560x1600@60  9:2560x1600@60  10:1920x1200@60  11:1920x1200@60  12:1280x800@60  13:1280x800@60  14:3200x1800@60  15:3200x1800@60  16:2880x1620@60  17:2880x1620@60  18:2560x1440@60  19:2560x1440@60  20:1920x1080@60  21:1920x1080@60  22:1600x900@60  23:1600x900@60  24:1368x768@60  25:1368x768@60  26:1280x720@60  27:1280x720@60 
        Geometry: 0,0 2765x1728
        Scale: 1.25
        Rotation: 1
        Overscan: 0
        Vrr: incapable
        RgbRange: Automatic
        HDR: enabled
                SDR brightness: 400 nits
                SDR gamut wideness: 0%
                Peak brightness: 617 nits
                Max average brightness: 400 nits
                Min brightness: 0.0046 nits
        Wide Color Gamut: enabled
        ICC profile: none
        Color profile source: sRGB
        Color power preference: prefer accuracy
        Brightness control: supported, set to 6% and dimming to 100%
        Color resolution: automatic (16), range: [6; 12] bits per color
        Allow EDR: always
Output: 2 DP-3 f404a99e-ead0-4fbe-9f3a-a5e7e926a041
        enabled
        connected
        priority 1
        DisplayPort
        replication source:0
        Modes:  28:3440x1440@60*!  29:3440x1440@50  30:3440x1440@30  31:2560x1080@60  32:1920x1080@60  33:1920x1080@60  34:1920x1080@60  35:1920x1080@50  36:1680x1050@60  37:1600x900@60  38:1280x1024@60  39:1280x800@60  40:1152x864@60  41:1280x720@60  42:1280x720@60  43:1280x720@60  44:1280x720@50  45:1024x768@60  46:800x600@60  47:720x576@50  48:720x480@60  49:720x480@60  50:640x480@60  51:640x480@60  52:640x480@60 
        Geometry: 0,0 3440x1440
        Scale: 1
        Rotation: 1
        Overscan: 0
        Vrr: incapable
        RgbRange: Automatic
        HDR: enabled
                SDR brightness: 295 nits
                SDR gamut wideness: 0%
                Peak brightness: 344 nits
                Max average brightness: 295 nits
                Min brightness: 0.391 nits
        Wide Color Gamut: enabled
        ICC profile: none
        Color profile source: sRGB
        Color power preference: prefer accuracy
        Brightness control: supported, set to 100% and dimming to 100%
        DDC/CI: allowed
        Color resolution: automatic (16), range: [6; 12] bits per color
        Allow EDR: unsupported
´´´
Comment 7 karolbienkowski 2025-08-07 17:12:18 UTC
I have :

```
KDE Plasma Version: 6.3.6
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.16.0
Qt Version: 6.9.1
Kernel Version: 6.15.7-1-MANJARO (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 8 × AMD Ryzen 5 3500U with Radeon Vega Mobile Gfx, iGPU-only
```

and I see the same issue. 

```
kscreen-doctor -o

Output: 1 eDP-1
        enabled
        connected
        priority 1
        Panel
        Modes:  1:1920x1080@60*!  2:1920x1080@48  3:1680x1050@60  4:1280x1024@60  5:1440x900@60  6:1280x800@60  7:1280x720@60  8:1024x768@60  9:800x600@60  10:640x480@60  11:1280x1024@60  12:1024x768@60  13:1280x800@60  14:1920x1080@60  15:1600x900@60  16:1368x768@60  17:1280x720@60 
        Geometry: 0,0 1536x864
        Scale: 1.25
        Rotation: 1
        Overscan: 0
        Vrr: incapable
        RgbRange: unknown
        HDR: incapable
        Wide Color Gamut: incapable
        ICC profile: none
        Color profile source: sRGB
        Color power preference: prefer efficiency and performance
        Brightness control: supported, set to 5% and dimming to 100%
Comment 8 Nate Graham 2025-08-08 16:45:20 UTC
One issue per bug report, please. Let's use this one to track the brightness issue, and then we'll see later if the GPU issue is related.

Affected people, please dim the screen to the lowest brightness possible using the brightness slider, and then paste the output of running `cat /sys/class/backlight/*/brightness` in a terminal window.

Thanks!
Comment 9 easy_lad 2025-08-09 05:14:11 UTC
1
Comment 10 karolbienkowski 2025-08-10 12:37:54 UTC
> Affected people, please dim the screen to the lowest brightness possible
0% is 1, 
1% is 615 and it is much dimmer than 0% now :p
Comment 11 TraceyC 2025-08-11 16:51:46 UTC
Thanks for the responses. 

Marko, can you also dim the screen to the lowest brightness possible using the brightness slider, and then paste the output of running `cat /sys/class/backlight/*/brightness` in a terminal window?

Thanks!
Comment 12 Marko Jokinen 2025-08-11 17:04:08 UTC
Created attachment 183956 [details]
attachment-1897271-0.html

here is the output

´ phatle@kinoite:/var/home/phatle$ cat /sys/class/backlight/*/brightness
400´

On 11/08/2025 19:51, TraceyC wrote:

> https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=507579
> TraceyC
> [<kdedev@tlcnet.info>](mailto:kdedev@tlcnet.info)
> changed:
>
>            What    |Removed                     |Added
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>          Resolution|WAITINGFORINFO              |---
>              Status|NEEDSINFO                   |REPORTED
>
> --- Comment #11 from TraceyC
> [<kdedev@tlcnet.info>](mailto:kdedev@tlcnet.info)
> ---
> Thanks for the responses.
>
> Marko, can you also dim the screen to the lowest brightness possible using the
> brightness slider, and then paste the output of running `cat
> /sys/class/backlight/*/brightness` in a terminal window?
>
> Thanks!
>
> --
> You are receiving this mail because:
> You are on the CC list for the bug.
Comment 13 Nate Graham 2025-08-11 19:16:58 UTC
(In reply to karolbienkowski from comment #10)
> > Affected people, please dim the screen to the lowest brightness possible
> 0% is 1, 
> 1% is 615 and it is much dimmer than 0% now :p

It seems that Plasma is doing the right thing here. If 616 is dimmer than 1, that doesn't make any sense and will end up being a GPU driver bug. Please report to the place where driver bugs are tracked for your GPU.

Intel and AMD: https://docs.mesa3d.org/bugs.html
NVIDIA: post it at https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/c/gpu-graphics/linux; run nvidia-bug-report.sh and attach the resulting file to the report.
Comment 14 easy_lad 2025-08-12 03:56:24 UTC
I created an issue here https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/issues/13690, affected people, please engage with this issue too.

btw, Nate Graham, have you seen if the other GPU issues related too? (see images attached). I also found my issue was reported here https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/plasma-6-4-review.html when I was researching for fixes. 

I think 6.4 is great it is just this bug is very annoying :P
Comment 15 Nate Graham 2025-08-12 12:17:13 UTC
There are unfortunately zillions of GPU-specific issues. Modern GPUs provide tons of power, but they suck for reliability.
Comment 16 Nate Graham 2025-08-12 12:19:09 UTC
Please improve your mesa bug report, though. It doesn't report the actual bug, just links here. That doesn't work, and it'll be ignored by everyone.

You have to actually report the bug in there, which is that the lowest backlight brightness level (1) is visibly brighter than higher levels. Screenshots or screen recordings would be helpful too/
Comment 17 easy_lad 2025-08-12 13:09:37 UTC
The problem is idk what exactly to write, people already shared their findings here. I don't think screenshots will show anything, however videos by external device (like a phone recording the issue will be helpful).
Comment 18 Nate Graham 2025-08-12 13:19:12 UTC
I told you exactly what to write: that the lowest backlight brightness level (1) is visibly brighter than higher levels

You need to write a real bug report that describes what you did, what you expected, what happened instead, and so on. A braindump of information or a link to somewhere else is just going to get the bug report ignored.