Redshift/F.lux not working on Ubuntu 16.04

Question

I have installed both Redshift and f.lux on my Ubuntu 16.04 machine to try to change the color temperature of my screen. I can open the apps, but neither of them has an effect on the screen color tone. On F.lux, when I try to preview the color temperature, nothing happens. Does anybody know what could be going on here? Why isn't this working?

Note, I am using an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti GPU.

Could you update your question with a screenshot of the Redshift panel applet open? — Andrea Lazzarotto, May 28 '16 at 18:36
See my answer. I fixed it by switching to the correct driver. — Sergei Wallace, May 28 '16 at 18:37
One solution that I found the easiest to implement (after searching for drivers and whatnot) was the one here, not related to RedShift or f.lux: switching to the built-in GNOME night-light in Ubuntu 17.10. Works very well with an Intel card and standard video driver. Just search for night light in Settings, can also be set for sunset/sunrise. — Martin Snåål, Feb 28 '18 at 21:01

Caustic · Answer 1 · 2017-02-28T01:50:15.057

12

In a console type

redshift -l list

then I typed

redshift -l geoclue2

then it just worked. I can even close and reopen it now and it works fine.

edited Feb 28 '17 at 01:50

answered Dec 21 '16 at 10:15

Caustic

749

I thought it was like a config but no, changed startup apps command to redshift-gtk -l geoclue2 and it worked, now it's info had non zero data, thx! Btw, geoclue also connected to internet, and I wasnt for a whole day, not sure if necessary tho. – Aquarius Power May 11 '19 at 14:55
confirmed: if you are going to be offline, only this works redshift-gtk -l manual -l -12.34:56.78 (use geoclue2 to get the correct latitude and longitute prior, and each can be negatives) – Aquarius Power May 11 '19 at 22:22

score 5 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 22 '18 at 09:55

5

I tried to get both f.lux and Redshift to work without any solution so I just opted to go another route. So I went to the Ubuntu Software Manager and installed Night Light slider as pictured below. It works and certainly isn't making me die from strained eyes and a headache from earlier in the evening due to no sleep.

Search for Night Light on Ubuntu Software:
Once installed, it just appears in your top right drop down menu and can be toggled to user preference.

edited Aug 22 '18 at 09:55

David Foerster

36,900
56
98
152

answered Aug 22 '18 at 06:05

radiostereo

51

This question is about Ubuntu 16.04. You should point out in your answer it applies to Ubuntu 18.04+ only. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Aug 22 '18 at 11:03

Sergei Wallace · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-28T18:42:11.677

4

So I figured out how to use Redshift with my system. Basically, I was using the wrong display driver. When I went to the Additional Drivers tab in the Software & Updates app, I noticed I was using default Nouveau driver instead of the latest NVIDIA driver, and had the other tab set to "Do not use the device".

Initial Driver Settings

when I switched it to the NVIDIA driver tab and HDMA Driver with DKMS Format (daily-dkms) tab, and restarted the machine, it finally worked.

New Driver settings

edited May 28 '16 at 18:42

answered May 28 '16 at 18:36

Sergei Wallace

401

1

At least redshift should work with the noveau drivers. Very curious to know what exactly went wrong there. – dobey Feb 28 '17 at 01:56
I am experiencing this issue as well on Kubuntu 16.10 with a GeForce GTX 670 - using the NVIDIA binary driver - version 367.57 from nvidia-367 (Recommended Driver). I haven't tracked it down yet. Edit - Looks like it's a known bug in my case: https://forum.justgetflux.com/topic/2373/sorry-we-only-support-8-and-10-bit-displays-right-now/16 – kjones Mar 11 '17 at 07:35

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered May 28 '16 at 18:32

Redshift is time-based. It will change the color of your screen provided the following two conditions are met:

It can determine where you are (either via the default network-based location service or if you started it with the -l switch giving it coordinates)
It is evening in your place (you can change the interval with the -t switch, see man redshift)

The f.lux website describes pretty much the same thing:

f.lux fixes this: it makes the color of your computer's display adapt to the time of day, warm at night and like sunlight during the day.

Right, but it just isn't working at all. There is no color temperature change, even after editing the configurations file to have a significant color temperature difference (2000s). — Sergei Wallace, May 28 '16 at 18:34

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 05 '17 at 09:03

I'm using Linux Mint 18.2, but it is based on Ubuntu 16.04 and I have many of the same problems pop up, including this one. I just managed to resolve this on my laptop running a GTX 940 on the Nvidia 384.90 Driver and I will test it on my desktop with a 1070 tomorrow.

As noted above I ran the following to list the Locations that redshift can use to base it's color:

redshift -l list

Then I ran

redshift -l geoclue2 which allowed me to start the redshift service and everything was working fine. I then moved on to making sure that it worked on startup by opening up 'Startup Applications' and adding the last command as a custom command there. By clicking 'run now' I was able to test that it still worked but also run it as a background service as opposed to directly in the CLI.

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 04 '22 at 21:27

0

For me changing the Adjustment Method in the settings menu from drm to randr made it work.

answered Jul 04 '22 at 21:27

zoltankundi

113

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Jul 01 '17 at 14:08

0

I just pause the f.lux and then un-pause it, and it worked for me.

answered Jul 01 '17 at 14:08

DKP

163

Redshift/F.lux not working on Ubuntu 16.04

7 Answers7