DeadTOm's Journal: Laptop Brightness

My laptop is a Gateway NX560X that I bought in November of 2006. Naturally it came bundled with WinXP installed but I refused to allow it to be tainted by anything M$ and before even turning it on for the first time I popped in the Kubuntu Edgy live CD and installed Linux. With the exception of the modem, a winmodem which I've never needed to use anyway, it's always run beautifully. The only hitch I've run into was after upgrading from Gutsy to Hardy I could no longer adjust the display brightness using the function keys on the keyboard. A quick search of the Ubuntu.org forums turned up this post - http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=767374. The poster advised to remove /etc/acpi/video_brightnessup.sh and replace it with a new file of the same name containing the following code:
----------------------------------------
#!/bin/bash
CURRENT=$(grep "current:" /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCD/brightness |awk '{print $2}')
case "$CURRENT" in
100)
echo -n 100 > /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCD/brightness;
;;
87)
echo -n 100 > /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCD/brightness;
;;
75)
echo -n 87 > /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCD/brightness;
;;
62)
echo -n 75 > /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCD/brightness;
;;
50)
echo -n 62 > /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCD/brightness;
;;
37)
echo -n 50 > /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCD/brightness;
;;
25)
echo -n 37 > /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCD/brightness;
;;
12)
echo -n 25 > /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCD/brightness;
;;
*)
echo -n 100 > /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCD/brightness ;
;;
esac
----------------------------------------

Then do the same for /etc/acpi/video_brightnessdown.sh and replace it with this code:
----------------------------------------
#!/bin/bash
CURRENT=$(grep "current:" /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCD/brightness |awk '{print $2}')
case "$CURRENT" in
12)
echo -n 12 > /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCD/brightness;
;;
25)
echo -n 12 > /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCD/brightness;
;;
37)
echo -n 25 > /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCD/brightness;
;;
50)
echo -n 37 > /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCD/brightness;
;;
62)
echo -n 50 > /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCD/brightness;
;;
75)
echo -n 62 > /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCD/brightness;
;;
87)
echo -n 75 > /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCD/brightness;
;;
100)
echo -n 87 > /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCD/brightness;
;;
*)
echo -n 50 > /proc/acpi/video/VGA/LCD/brightness ;
;;
esac
----------------------------------------

Then be sure to make both of these files executable and you're back in business. No logout or reboot required, it works immediately.

Thanks AaronMT!