Monday, December 16, 2013

How to set default (startup) screen brightness in Ubuntu 13.10

Extending battery life can be achieved by limiting screen brightness. Ubuntu 13.10 (Saucy Salamander) by default sets screen brightness to 100%. I have found that 50% screen brightness is more than adequate for indoor viewing. Saucy currently doesn't save your screen brightness settings when you log out or shut down. Through some web searches, I discovered "xbacklight". It's a command-line utility to set your screen brightness. You install it, add it to your startup programs and set the screen brightness to a default level of your choosing.

xbacklight is available through Ubuntu Software Center or via the terminal ("sudo apt-get install xbacklight").

Search (super-key) for "Startup".
Click on "Startup Applications".
Click the "Add" button.

Name: xbacklight
Command: xbacklight -set XX (Where "XX" is the numerical percentage of screen brightness)

Here is a screen-shot:



Save your new Startup Application and restart to test your new default screen brightness!