I can't control my off-brand external monitor brightness connected from my laptop on w11, but I can just fine on Linux out of the box no fucking around needed
*White magic. It's open, not secretive.
this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2026
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Go to windows updates, click the little “optional updates” text.
Usually weird display stuff is in there.
What distro has ddc/ci support out of the box? I've always had to install a DKMS module to get an external monitor to show up in /sys/class/backlight.
CachyOS (so basically that other user’s arch + kde comment, lol)
Arch + KDE does that
I used Monitorian when I was using Windows years ago, you can find it in the Microslop Store (if it's still available)
Windows power toys added a thing to control the monitor. It lets you do brightness and contrast like monitorian. But it also gives you changing inputs, changing color temperature, and a few other things.
Either Linux's built-in display drivers are black magic or microslop is incompetent
Why not both :) ?
I just realized that since switching to cachyos 4 months ago I have never had to install any driver or driver updates (outside of just running the system update).
Even during initial setup I don't think I installed anything driver related.
It's really a step up from Microslop. Last time I installed my W10 I had to prepare all the necessary drivers and collect them on each manufacturers websites.
It is so much more streamlined on Linux.
I am no expert at all, but I am reminded of what a buttload of drivers are included in the package group linux-firmware. Maybe that's why. 🤔🪛🔧
Yeah maybe, and it's only under 1gb to download, this show how bad and bloated w11 is
Yeah, I only use Windows every now and then in a VM to flash Android devices, because I can't figure out how to use the CLI version of Odin on Linux. 😫 Even then, I use Tiny10 and debloat it with The Ultimate Windows Utility.
When I still had a Samsung phone I used Heimdall, but apparently it was not touched for 5 years, so I'm not sure if it still works for newer phones.
Does windows let you control external monitor brightness at all? I don't think ive ever seen the option for external displays on windows.
Windows doesn’t let you do this natively. But you can do this via PowerToys (third-party add-on): https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/power-display
It's not third-party -- MS themselves published it. I like it and use it often for work!
https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys
DevToys is third-party, but also very good.
It show a grayed out slider on mine
Can you enable DDC/CI in the monitors on-screen menus?
If so, and if there aren't drivers available (I can't find drivers when searching MF2208-A), then if you can enable DDC/CI you can use 3rd party tools to control the brightness. Display Dimmer and ClickMonitorDDC are 2 I found on a quick google.
If Linux can control the monitor, then it sounds like a lack of drivers for Windows but the display should still support DDC/CI; 3rd party tools do sometimes still work in this scenario for DDC/CI in Windows.
No ddc/ci in the monitor menus
afaik windows has no native capability to control brightness setting on external displays. an optional driver for the display may be available via windows update which might allow a third-party utility to control the setting directly.
Isn’t this a driver issue?
Don't think so, this monitor doesn't even have a driver to download
Gpu driver.