Xfce Forum

gilgamesh

Member

Registered: 2023-06-06

Posts: 41

[ SOLVED] Power Manager : Brightness reduction

hello ,

I would appreciate some advice about the way I set up a workaround to simulate "Put to sleep after" which is normally handled by Display power anagement ( it results in a black screen on my laptop ) .

I figured a workaround : set Brightness reduction at 4% ( changed to 0 ) and "Reduce after 180s" . What I did and what I got :

:~$ xfconf-query -c xfce4-power-manager -p /xfce4-power-manager/brightness-on-ac -t int -s 180  --create

and , consequently , the setting values are as follow

:~$  xfconf-query -c xfce4-power-manager -lv

/xfce4-power-manager/blank-on-ac                        0
/xfce4-power-manager/blank-on-battery                   0
/xfce4-power-manager/brightness-level-on-ac             4 --> 0
/xfce4-power-manager/brightness-level-on-battery        6
/xfce4-power-manager/brightness-on-ac                   180
/xfce4-power-manager/brightness-on-battery              119

ps 1 :  I used this thread https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=16686 where I had to change the numerical values for the time ( in seconds instead of minutes )

ps 2 : It's working but there is something odd happening : "Power Manager" screen does not indicate 3 min or 180 s or ..? , but it displays "never" .

Last edited by gilgamesh (2023-07-11 15:20:33)

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,485

Re: [ SOLVED] Power Manager : Brightness reduction

ps 2 : It's working but there is something odd happening : "Power Manager" screen does not indicate 3 min or 180 s or ..? , but it displays "never" .

What exactly do you mean by this?

---

Please remember to mark your thread [SOLVED] to make it easier for others to find
--- How To Ask For Help | FAQ | Developer Wiki  |  Community | Contribute ---

gilgamesh

Member

Registered: 2023-06-06

Posts: 41

Re: [ SOLVED] Power Manager : Brightness reduction

ps 2 : It's working but there is something odd happening : "Power Manager" screen does not indicate 3 min or 180 s or ..? , but it displays "never" .

What exactly do you mean by this?

what I mean is this :

1) as shown above I used xfconf-query -c xfce4-power-manager -p command to set [ Power Manager / Brightness reduction ] :
* "On inactivity reduce to" = "0"
* "Reduce after" = "180"

2) the display Power Manager does not take into account those values , it displays "80%" and "Never" .

But there is something else that I was not aware of until I rebooted my laptop this morning : brightness is only very slightly reduced after 180 s and goes to "0" only after exactly 243 s !! After I rebooted three times it's still 243 s . I checked the values I entered yesterday : they still are "0" after "180" s . I don't mind if the real value is 243s instead of 180s , what I mind is the recurrent problem I have from Debian 11 onwards  : the kernels's power management is not adapted to my laptop .  There is some kind of mismatch between the two of them .

Edit 1 : I've just found the reason why there is a "very slight decrease in brightness after 180s" : it's because the Power Manager was set at 80% . I set it at 1% and after 180s the brightness was almost 0 , but not quite , and it went to 0 after 240s ( not 243s this time) .

Edit 2 : I might have understood what's going on = "0" is a forbidden value and if I try to enter this value using a command then the Power Manager ignores it and takes its value from the "Brightness reduction / on inactivity reduce to" line . Is it a plausible explanation ? I will change from "0" to "1" to avoid this conflict .

Still : where does this 240 s ( or 243s ) come from ? The difference between 240 and 180 is intriguing: 1 minute flat

Last edited by gilgamesh (2023-07-11 09:48:27)

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,485

Re: [ SOLVED] Power Manager : Brightness reduction

Run the power manager in debug mode and see what, if anything, is displayed at the 180s or 240s elapsed time frame:

xfce4-power-manager -q

...then to run it in debug mode:

xfce4-power-manager --no-daemon --debug 

---

Please remember to mark your thread [SOLVED] to make it easier for others to find
--- How To Ask For Help | FAQ | Developer Wiki  |  Community | Contribute ---

gilgamesh

Member

Registered: 2023-06-06

Posts: 41

Re: [ SOLVED] Power Manager : Brightness reduction

Run the power manager in debug mode and see what, if anything, is displayed at the 180s or 240s elapsed time frame:

xfce4-power-manager -q

...then to run it in debug mode:

xfce4-power-manager --no-daemon --debug 

Here are the results of theses commands , but I erased quite a lot of verbose ( at the beginning )  that didn't seem related to the problem :

:~$ xfce4-power-manager -q
mm@ldlc:~$ xfce4-power-manager --no-daemon --debug 
TRACE[xfpm-main.c:210] xfpm_start(): Starting the power manager
TRACE[xfpm-xfconf.c:166] xfpm_xfconf_load(): Using default configuration for general-notification
.........
TRACE[xfpm-power.c:897] xfpm_power_add_device(): Battery device type 'battery' detected at: /org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/battery_BAT0
TRACE[xfpm-button.c:180] xfpm_button_xevent_key(): Grabbed key 124 : ((XfpmButtonKey) BUTTON_POWER_OFF)

(xfce4-power-manager:5916): xfce4-power-manager-WARNING **: 13:07:14.906: could not map keysym 1008ffa8 to keycode

TRACE[xfpm-button.c:180] xfpm_button_xevent_key(): Grabbed key 213 : ((XfpmButtonKey) BUTTON_HIBERNATE)
TRACE[xfpm-button.c:180] xfpm_button_xevent_key(): Grabbed key 150 : ((XfpmButtonKey) BUTTON_SLEEP)
TRACE[xfpm-button.c:180] xfpm_button_xevent_key(): Grabbed key 233 : ((XfpmButtonKey) BUTTON_MON_BRIGHTNESS_UP)
TRACE[xfpm-button.c:180] xfpm_button_xevent_key(): Grabbed key 232 : ((XfpmButtonKey) BUTTON_MON_BRIGHTNESS_DOWN)
TRACE[xfpm-button.c:180] xfpm_button_xevent_key(): Grabbed key 244 : ((XfpmButtonKey) BUTTON_BATTERY)
TRACE[xfpm-button.c:180] xfpm_button_xevent_key(): Grabbed key 238 : ((XfpmButtonKey) BUTTON_KBD_BRIGHTNESS_UP)
TRACE[xfpm-button.c:180] xfpm_button_xevent_key(): Grabbed key 237 : ((XfpmButtonKey) BUTTON_KBD_BRIGHTNESS_DOWN)
....................
TRACE[xfpm-power.c:1449] xfpm_update_blank_time(): Prev Timeout: 0 / New Timeout: 600
TRACE[xfpm-power.c:1449] xfpm_update_blank_time(): Prev Timeout: 600 / New Timeout: 0
TRACE[xfpm-manager.c:650] xfpm_manager_inhibit_sleep_systemd(): Inhibiting systemd sleep: handle-power-key:handle-suspend-key:handle-hibernate-key:handle-lid-switch

** (xfce4-power-manager:5916): WARNING **: 13:07:15.004: No outputs have backlight property
xfce4-power-manager-Message: 13:07:15.064: Set kernel brightness switch to 0
TRACE[xfpm-backlight.c:269] xfpm_backlight_brightness_on_ac_settings_changed(): Alarm on ac timeout changed 180
TRACE[xfpm-backlight.c:290] xfpm_backlight_brightness_on_battery_settings_changed(): Alarm on battery timeout changed 119

(xfce4-power-manager:5916): xfce4-power-manager-WARNING **: 13:07:15.072: Failed to get keyboard max brightness level : GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownMethod: L’objet n’existe pas à l’emplacement « /org/freedesktop/UPower/KbdBacklight »

(xfce4-power-manager:5916): xfconf-WARNING **: 13:07:15.073: Failed to set property "xfce4-power-manager::/xfce4-power-manager/brightness-switch": L’opération a été annulée
xfce4-power-manager-Message: 13:07:15.119: Set kernel brightness switch to 0
TRACE[xfpm-polkit.c:237] xfpm_polkit_free_data(): Destroying Polkit data
TRACE[xfpm-manager.c:491] xfpm_manager_alarm_timeout_cb(): Alarm inactivity timeout id 2
TRACE[xfpm-manager.c:491] xfpm_manager_alarm_timeout_cb(): Alarm inactivity timeout id 1
TRACE[xfpm-backlight.c:133] xfpm_backlight_dim_brightness(): Current brightness level before dimming : 84178, new 960
TRACE[xfpm-manager.c:491] xfpm_manager_alarm_timeout_cb(): Alarm inactivity timeout id 3

** (xfce4-power-manager:5916): WARNING **: 13:11:14.754: No outputs have backlight property
TRACE[xfpm-backlight.c:217] xfpm_backlight_reset_cb(): Alarm reset, setting level to 84178
^CTRACE[xfpm-main.c:68] xfpm_quit_signal(): sig 2         ---->  I stopped the process with Ctrl + C
TRACE[xfpm-manager.c:942] xfpm_manager_stop(): Stopping
TRACE[xfpm-manager.c:261] xfpm_manager_quit(): Exiting
xfce4-power-manager-Message: 13:11:43.743: Restored brightness switch value to: 1

Edit 1 : as I have a second laptop (2) with exactly the same Debian 12 / Xfce installation , I configured it to have the same parameters for Power Manager / Display power management = Off and Brightness reduction ( same settings as this laptop ) . If I reboot (2) it still works the same way as before rebooting and as expected . So it's my laptop which is peculiar and goes into "suspend mode " after 240s ( I can see that because there is a green LED which starts blinking as if the laptop enters suspend mode .

Edit 2 : I think I'll leave the things as they are because even if my laptop behaves strangely that's fine with me . So , if you are interested in resolving the case we can go on investigating , otherwise thank you for your help .

Last edited by gilgamesh (2023-07-14 06:53:54)

Dr.Powers

Member

Registered: 2023-07-13

Posts: 6

Re: [ SOLVED] Power Manager : Brightness reduction

I know this is solved, but for someone else 3 years from now with this issue, I had the same issue only I had somehow not installed xfce4-power-manager. once installed logging in and out got it working, once I added the applet to the panel.