KLcdDimmer icon KLcdDimmer

A KDE Applet to adjust LCD brightness

by Lorenzo Bettini

KLcdDimmer Screenshot

To adjust the brightness simply click with the mouse left button and use the slider

Notice that this applet relies on an external program to get/set the brightness.

For instance, I've used

SmartDimmer http://www.acc.umu.se/~erikw/program/
NVclock http://www.linuxhardware.org/nvclock/

but it is supposed to work also with others, since you can configure the applet. In order to do this, click with the mouse right button and choose configure:

The configuration dialog

You have to set the right command line argument for setting and getting the brightness (you have to check the documentation of the program you're using for setting the brightness).  If the program you're using does not support the "get" argument (e.g., nvclock), just leave that field empty. As for the minimum, maximum and step values, again, you have to check the documentation of the program (you'll already find all the correct values for smartdimmer).

If you check the "Save the current brightness value", the current value will be saved, and restored when you enter kde again.

Download (License: GNU GPL)

KlcdDimmer's Sources can be downloaded from http://sourceforge.net/projects/klcddimmer.

You can also find details about new features on my blog, in this area: http://tronprog.blogspot.com/search/label/klcddimmer.

Installation

When you run configure, you should pass the KDE root directory as --prefix (in my system it is /usr). If you don't know about this directory, you can get the right value by running:
tde-config --prefix

The steps to perform for the installation are standard for packages in source form: once you have unpacked the sources in a directory, `cd' to the directory containing the package's source code and execute the following steps:

./configure --prefix=<your KDE directory>
Or, to automatically get the KDE root directory (notice it is ` and not '):
./configure --prefix=`tde-config --prefix`

and then:

make
make install (as root)

Then you'll be able to add the applet to the panel, by using your KDE panel.