I'm no expert but a working command you can use to change the display brightness temporarily as a normal user is: echo somevalue | sudo tee /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness
For example if you want to set the brightness to 2, run following: echo 2 | sudo tee /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness If the command is run as root (like it's done if added to rc.local), you can just use the echo x > ... command. If this doesn't work during startup, it's very likely that the case is what Steve Langasek describes in another bug report: "And even if you get it to work at the commandline, this setting may be getting overridden by the desktop after rc.local runs." -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/923940 Title: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS set max lcd brightness on every boot To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-power-manager/+bug/923940/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs