For the last year or so I compiled powerdevil with DHAVE_DDCUTIL=On flag, so that I can change brightness on my desktop displays (as explained here: reddit. com/r/kde/comments/epgs13/kde_my_journey_to_get_a_brighness_slider_for_my/).
After this update something broke and I cannot control the brightness from KDE Plasma UI.
Starting /usr/lib/org_kde_powerdevil gives:
org.kde.powerdevil: No outputs have backlight property
org.kde.powerdevil: Xrandr not supported, trying ddc, helper
org.kde.powerdevil: org.kde.powerdevil.chargethresholdhelper.getthreshold failed "Charge thresholds not supported"
org.kde.powerdevil: org.kde.powerdevil.backlighthelper.brightness failed
org.kde.powerdevil: Handle button events action could not check for screen configuration
org.kde.powerdevil: The profile "AC" tried to activate "DimDisplay" a non-existent action. This is usually due to an installation problem, a configuration problem, or because the action is not supported
org.kde.powerdevil: org.kde.powerdevil.chargethresholdhelper.getthreshold failed "Charge thresholds not supported"
Anyone has any idea why? powerdevil wasn’t even updated. I have tried re-compiling my PKGBUILD and it yet didn’t solve :\
In case you cannot read, Fabby told me that few people use ddcutil as it is a tool still under development. Although since the release of ddcutil 1.0.0 the team says they "reached production status”. If that is true, would you consider compiling powerdevil with -DHAVE_DDCUTIL=On flag? I assure you that having a GUI slider in order to change the actual brightness of my displays is a major help!
Many seemed thankful for knowing the how-to when I posted this workaround on Reddit.
I understand that 1.0.1 may be still too early for a tool to be stable, but I would be content to inform you of this possibility and to know whether you would consider the option to support kde+ddcutil anytime in the future
Yeah, actually it is. Fabby told me he “flagged the conversation for moderator’s attention” so I thought you could read it. Sorry.
What do you mean? Is it up to the KDE guys?
I see from their CMakeLists.txt that they support ddcutil. Isn’t it a choice of the package maintainer of a certain distribution to choose whether to compile it with or without DHAVE_DDCUTIL flag?
Yes, he did. I can see one post of yours that was originally in the Stable Update thread, but not the full conversation. No one was invited to the conversation so it’s still private, apparently.
It’s off by default, not sure I would consider that supported. Maybe it’s still an experimental feature?
(Oh, on a side note: the title of the thread is misleading. Charge threasholds has nothing to do with me as I am on a Desktop PC. The following are the interesting lines)
org.kde.powerdevil: org.kde.powerdevil.backlighthelper.brightness failed
org.kde.powerdevil: Handle button events action could not check for screen configuration
org.kde.powerdevil: The profile "AC" tried to activate "DimDisplay" a non-existent action. This is usually due to an installation problem, a configuration problem, or because the action is not supported
What I think @Yochanan is trying to say here is: You would be better off raising a bug with the package maintainer as Manjaro doesn’t change package defaults set by the maintainer
Oh, okay. Sorry. At this point in the thread we didn’t talk much other then how I found the bug (I used an old program I did years ago: pacmanlogger)
From a quick search I see that it was merged and acknowledge the following limitations (not actual bug behaviours. I can vouch it has worked for me all this time, aside when ddcutil hit a major release):
I actually have a dual display setup and both of the displays (from 2013 and 2019) react to a single slider. I don’t see it as a downside as one is better then none, really!
I don’t know about this one… Maybe, since it’s permission related, a distro can actually do something? Otherwise yeah, I can understand why you aren’t convinced yet. Though I can assure you that if ddcutil stops working/is never setup powerdevil just works like it always has: not showing the slider. That’s exactly what happened to me today.
I just hope to bring a light to this feature with no apparent straight downsides ^^
I must’ve gotten lost in the mail, I didn’t receive anything.
Not in this case, no. Apparently Powerdevil needs to make some upstream changes to adapt to ddcutil >=1.0.0. I know other projects like Clight did.
I wouldn’t, no. The official way is to file a bug report when a package is broken or is lacking a feature. Either way, DO NOT mention you’re using Manjaro or you will be completely ignored.
Maybe that is an additional problem, but my original issue was due to ddcutil itself. The developer already answered on GitHub, so once it is fixed we will see if powerdevil actually need to be adapted. If that’s the case I will file an issue to the KDE people!
I figured that
For now I tried reaching out on the AUR. If none replies in a few hours/days I will try to file a bug report as you said!
Thanks a lot for the help you are giving me, guys. Appreciate a lot!
I’ve marked this answer as the solution to your question as it is by far the best answer you’ll get.
However, if you disagree with my choice, please feel free to take any other answer as the solution to your question or even remove the solution altogether: You are in control! (If you disagree with my choice, just send me a personal message and explain why I shouldn’t have done this or or if you agree)
P.S. In the future, please don’t forget to come back and click the 3 dots below the answer to mark a solution like this below the answer that helped you most:
so that the next person that has the exact same problem you just had will benefit from your post as well as your question will now be in the “solved” status.
Yes, you are right! I am sorry.
Can we open the the issue for a little longer, though? I just realised that Manjaro shipped ddcutil 1.0.0-1not1.0.1, which actually fixes my problem!
Should I open another issue specifically for ddcutil?
)
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or 