intel_backlight setting brightness to 0 permanently turns off screen

When setting the brightness to 0, either on kde with the brightness controls or with brightnessctl s 0 the screen turns off. Then when trying to turn it back on with the brightness controls, it does not turn on again.

The OS didn't get the OFF signal somehow. All the values in /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight seem to indicate this.

I attached the output of grep -r . /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/ for the three scenarios:

1. Screen max on 1_screen_on.txt
2. Screen brightness 0 2_screen_off.txt
3. Screen should be on, but still off. 3_screen_should_be_on.txt

inxi output:

CPU: 8-core 11th Gen Intel Core i9-11900H (-MT MCP-)
speed/min/max: 836/800/4900:4800 MHz Kernel: 5.15.7-1-MANJARO x86_64 Up: 12m<
Mem: 3232.2/31829.3 MiB (10.2%) Storage: 953.87 GiB (1.0% used) Procs: 328
Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.11

Laptop model: Dell XPS 9510 (2021) with OLED screen.

I suspect it is related to OLED. The bug doesn't present itself too much in GNOME as this DE doesn't lower brightness to 0.

Screens can be turned on again by playing with dpms off. Issue presents itself in both wayland as X.

changed the description

Is this different from #3657 (closed), or is it a duplicate?

It's the same, but for the other there has been no answer or reply for over 6 months, so I was hoping filing this one it would trigger some more attention or a reassignment of the other.

In my experience, intentionally filing duplicates to attract attention usually just annoys people and it makes them want to interact with you or fix your issue less, not more. I don't think it's an effective strategy.

Alright closing it. Not sure what else to do then

closed

Options would include:

• Wait patiently
• Add a comment on the original bug report page
• Try to fix the issue yourself
• Try to convince a technical friend or colleague to fix the issue
• Create a bug bounty for Real Money™ (like $1000 or more) to incentivize random wandering developers to fix the issue

I'm experiencing the same issue. I created a stopgap solution while the core issue is being worked on. https://github.com/carlicious/intel_backlight_fix