Monitor dimming¶

Real dimming depends on what your display supports. Dashboard Assistant detects the best available method once per session and uses one of three:

1. Backlight. Internal panels that expose /sys/class/backlight (an eDP laptop or tablet screen) are dimmed at the hardware backlight. This is the ideal case and gives true brightness control.
2. DDC/CI. External monitors that speak DDC/CI are dimmed over that channel (ddcutil). Your monitor has to support DDC/CI and have it enabled in its on-screen menu, and it needs to be reachable over the video connection.
3. Software gamma. If neither of the above is available, a software fallback dims the rendered output instead of the physical backlight. It works on any display or VM, but the panel itself keeps drawing power at full backlight, so it never goes fully dark.

By default the method is picked automatically (backlight, then DDC/CI, then software). If your monitor supports hardware dimming but isn't detected, check that DDC/CI is turned on in the display's settings.