Veld Monitor Controls
Open source for GNOME 49–51

Every monitor, right in Quick Settings.

Real DDC/CI brightness, contrast, input, color and audio controls for your external monitors — without another panel icon or dimming overlay.

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Veld Monitor Controls per-monitor menu in GNOME Quick Settings

Native where it matters

Built for the way GNOME Quick Settings works, not bolted on as a separate app.

☀

Master brightness

A single slider above volume that adjusts all external monitors together.

▣

Per-monitor control

Each display gets its own brightness slider, current percentage and controls.

⇄

More than brightness

Contrast, monitor volume and mute, input source, color preset and optional RGB gain.

⚡

Fast backend

Uses ddcutil-service when available and automatically falls back to the ddcutil CLI.

✎

Yours to arrange

Friendly display names, per-monitor visibility, shortcuts and OSD feedback.

◉

Local only

No telemetry, no analytics, no account, no network access. Just your monitors.

Designed to stay out of the way

Per-monitor controls are grouped under each display. Global actions have their own section.

Contrast and monitor volume controls
Contrast, volume and mute are one click away.
Input source selection for a monitor
Switch inputs and color presets without reaching for the monitor.
Master brightness slider above volume
The master slider sits next to GNOME's own controls.
Display preferences with custom names and visibility
Name, hide and refresh your monitors.

Up and running in a minute

You need a DDC/CI-capable monitor and ddcutil. The extension never runs privileged commands.

Install ddcutil

sudo pacman -S ddcutil on Arch, sudo dnf install ddcutil on Fedora, or sudo apt install ddcutil on Debian/Ubuntu.

Check permissions

Make sure your user can access /dev/i2c-*. On many systems, add yourself to the i2c group and log back in.

Verify

Run ddcutil detect. If your monitors appear, install the extension and open Quick Settings.

ddcutil detect
# optional, for much faster slider response:
# install ddcutil-service from https://github.com/digitaltrails/ddcutil-service

DDC writes can take time. For the smoothest experience install ddcutil-service; the CLI fallback works everywhere ddcutil does, but starts a process per change.

Compatibility

  • GNOME Shell 49, 50 and 51
  • External monitors with DDC/CI enabled
  • ddcutil installed and working for your user
  • Optional: ddcutil-service for faster writes
  • Native GNOME Quick Settings integration

Good to know

  • Minimum brightness defaults to 1% so a monitor cannot go fully black
  • Input switching can blank a monitor when the target input has no signal
  • Some KVM switches and USB-C hubs do not pass DDC/CI
  • No telemetry, no analytics, no account

Questions

Why is my monitor not detected?

Run ddcutil detect as your normal user. Enable DDC/CI in the monitor menu, check your i2c permissions, and try another cable or port.

Does this work without ddcutil-service?

Yes. The extension detects the service and falls back to the ddcutil command automatically. The service is optional but noticeably faster.

Can I use it with a laptop display?

This extension is for external monitors over DDC/CI. GNOME's built-in brightness control remains the right choice for internal laptop panels.

What happens if a monitor gets stuck at zero brightness?

The default minimum is 1%. If a monitor does go dark, use its physical buttons or run ddcutil setvcp 10 50 --bus <bus>.

Where are my settings stored?

In GSettings under org.gnome.shell.extensions.veld-monitor-controls. Nothing leaves your computer.