My laptop has a different file for the illuminance sensor (/sys/bus/iio/devices/iio\:device1/in_illuminance_input)

[ChocolateLoverRaj]

The section "How to test befor install"

Run from a terminal sudo watch cat /sys/bus/acpi/devices/ACPI0008:00/iio:device0/in_illuminance_raw and check that number is changing (try close the sensor or add more light). If the number is still the same it means the sensor driver doesn't work. If you see file not found error try to find correct path for in_illuminance_raw inside /sys/bus/acpi/devices/.
For ZBook 15 G6, and may be others, sensor path is /sys/bus/iio/devices/iio:device0/in_illuminance_raw. So try sudo watch cat /sys/bus/iio/devices/iio:device0/in_illuminance_raw and change the config if it works for you.

doesn't work for my laptop (HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook, code name redrix), even though it does have an ambient light sensor which I can read with cat /sys/bus/iio/devices/iio\:device1/in_illuminance_input

Should the README be updated?

[mikhail-m1]

thanks for update, I will change the README. My last laptop with illuminance sensor is 10 years old now, and I don't have access to anything modern. What range of values do you see in this file?

[ChocolateLoverRaj]

Btw, after rebooting it's no longer device1, it's now device2. So I think /sys/bus/iio/devices/iio\:device*/in_illuminance_input should be checked.

Here are some tests

Condition	Value
Dark room	0
Room with some light from window	21
Well-lit room	55
Right next to a lightbulb	4000+

I can add a value for being outside when the brightness usually needs to be set to max.

[mikhail-m1]

I checked my laptop and I have the light sensor device in iio bus too, are you sure what you don't have it in acpi bus directory? I think acpi bus names are more stable than iio.

But if you have the sensor only in iio bus it will mean that I need to search for the illuminance sensor on the start. Can you also check which driver is used for it?

[ChocolateLoverRaj]

I don't think the light sensor is in the acpi bus.

cat: '/sys/bus/acpi/**/*illuminance*': No such file or directory

I'm not sure about which driver is used by it. It might be the cros_ec_light_prox kernel module. How do I check?

[mikhail-m1]

can you run ls -lR /sys > sys_content.txt and attach sys_content.txt file?

[ChocolateLoverRaj]

sys_content.txt

[mikhail-m1]

I looked at the file and only one alternative path is through /sys/dev/char/511:2 but I am pretty sure it's not stable either. So if you really want to use it and ready to test, I can add file mask support for device filename.

[ChocolateLoverRaj]

Yes, I would like to try illuminanced on my Chromebook.

[mikhail-m1]

I finally have found time to make and test the change, also created a branch for you with your path to the illuminance file.

[ChocolateLoverRaj]

I'm using NixOS so I can't test it rn. Sometime I'll test it on a normal Linux distro or create a Nix package for it.