[lewmur]

Originally Posted by FLUDD

When I use the keyboard controls, nothing happens. I see the lighting gauge going up and down but the screen isn't changing.

Sounds to me like a hardware problem but the only way to prove it would be to boot a LiveCD of another distro and then try the keyboard. Too bad there is no way to boot a Windows CD to try it. But I doubt seriously that it is a Linux problem because I've installed Linux on dozens of laptops and have never had the problem.
edit: I just checked a couple of laptops and on both of them the keyboard brightness keys work as soon as the first boot screen appears. That is before any OS and its drivers are loaded so the problem is obviously hardware related.

[Elvandil]

You'll need to have the proper drivers in order to control brightness and contrast. If there are none available in the "non-free" section of Synaptic, you may be out of luck. Some Windows drivers can be installed and used in a Linux-based OS, and it was not too long ago that I ran a distro that easily converted/installed drivers meant for Windows in the Linux distro. But I don't remember what distro it was. Someone with more familiarity with Linux-based OS's may be able to tell you whether that was an installable software program that made those conversions. In any case, drivers are the method that the kernel uses to communicate with hardware, so if you don't have them, options such as brightness will not be controllable.

Also, look around at www.linux-drivers.org and Using NDISWrapper To Convert Windows Drivers In Ubuntu.

(I doubt very much that you have a hardware problem if your graphics card worked normally in 7.)

[lewmur]

[QUOTE=Elvandil;8313918]You'll need to have the proper drivers in order to control brightness and contrast. If there are none available in the "non-free" section of Synaptic, you may be out of luck. Some Windows drivers can be installed and used in a Linux-based OS, and it was not too long ago that I ran a distro that easily converted/installed drivers meant for Windows in the Linux distro. But I don't remember what distro it was. Someone with more familiarity with Linux-based OS's may be able to tell you whether that was an installable software program that made those conversions. In any case, drivers are the method that the kernel uses to communicate with hardware, so if you don't have them, options such as brightness will not be controllable.

Also, look around at www.linux-drivers.org and Using NDISWrapper To Convert Windows Drivers In Ubuntu.

(I doubt very much that you have a hardware problem if your graphics card worked normally in 7.)[/QUOTEI've never of ]ndiswrapper working with anything but wireless adaptors. And as I showed in the edit of my prevsious post, the keyboard brightness controls are a hardware function that are independent of any drivers. Otherwise they wouldn't work at the boot menu prior to any drivers being installed.

Now, if he gets to the boot menu and the keyboard controls work there and then stop working once the laptop finishes booting, it would indicate that somehow the drivers are overiding the keyboard controls.

[FLUDD]

I have gone into safe mod without drivers and was never able to adjust the brightness. That is why I assume it is a software problem other than hardware.

Edit:I'm going to be switching to a Zorin operating system. I'll see if I could change the brightness on there.

[lewmur]

Originally Posted by FLUDD

I have gone into safe mod without drivers and was never able to adjust the brightness. That is why I assume it is a software problem other than hardware.

Edit:I'm going to be switching to a Zorin operating system. I'll see if I could change the brightness on there.

What safe mode? Safe mode is a Windows thing.
Have you tried what I suggested by trying the keyboard at the boot menu? If you can't adjust the brightness there, then it MUST be hardware.

BTW, Zorin is just Ubuntu with stuff added on top to make it LOOK more like Windows. It is functionally the same as Ubuntu at the hardware level. Going to a much earliar or later version of Ubuntu, which would bring into play different Linux kernel versions, would make more sense. Afterall, the "drivers" are in the kernel.

[FLUDD]

When I had Windows and all the drivers, I wasn't able to adjust the brightness is safe mode.

In the boot menu? I'll try.

I'm getting Zorin because regular Ubuntu is way too confusing for me. It took me a hour to figure out how to install a game that would take me five minutes on Windows 7.
Edit: I tried and the screen is the same.

[DaveBurnett]

You must remember there are two ways of adjusting the screen brighness.

1) Is software controlled through the video driver (whatever that be)

2) Is hardware where you actually "fiddle the knobs" on the screen or press the keys on the keyboard.