Fade-Monitors-enhanced-dimming

Mouse-aware auto-monitor dimming with idle dim, day/night dim, and optional gamma control (X11)

This does not aim to replace password protected screen saver but to act as a quality of life addition to the computer experience.

This script will auto dim whatever monitor your mouse is not on, idle dim to user's preferred settings, has an auto day/night dim, and has gamma controls

-Mouse-based dimming and idle dim can be toggled on/off with a hotkey.

Requirements:

-x11 session

-xrandr - controls montior brightness/gamma

-xdotool - reads mouse position

-xprintidle - for idle dim

-bc - arbitrary precision calculator language

-hotkey toggle is required for both mouse-based and idle dim (this readme will use bindkeys)

Install requirements (copy, paste(ctrl + shift + v) commands into terminal)

Open menu and search for terminal.

Copy/paste then hit enter

sudo apt-get update

Then install

sudo apt-get install xprintidle bc xdotool x11-xserver-utils

(xrandr will be installed if not already)

Preferred hotkey method (we are using bindkeys):

sudo apt install xbindkeys

Installation:

1. Download the script

   -click on fade-monitors-enhanced-dimming script and to the right of where it says RAW click download raw file

   -files side panel may collapse. It will be next to repo name, in top left, below code.

2. Move it to ~/.local/bin

   -if you don't see (.local) right click and show hidden files

3. Make the script executable (open up a terminal and copy/paste commands then hit enter)

    chmod +x ~/.local/bin/fade-monitors-enhanced-dimming.sh
   

Using xbindkeys (recommended) (copy/paste commands into terminal)

1. Install bindkeys (if you haven't already)

    sudo apt install xbindkeys
   

2. Create (or open) the xbindkeys config file

    nano ~/.xbindkeysrc
   

3.Add this block (copy/paste)

"if [ -f ~/.fade_mouse_enabled ]; then rm ~/.fade_mouse_enabled; else touch ~/.fade_mouse_enabled; fi"
F10

"if [ -f ~/.idle_dim_enabled ]; then rm ~/.idle_dim_enabled; else touch ~/.idle>
	F9

4. Save and exit crtl + o, enter. crtl + x

5. Start or restart xbindkeys

    killall xbindkeys
    xbindkeys
   

Run the script

~/.local/bin/fade-monitors-enhanced-dimming.sh

Press the F10 (or hotkey of choice) to toggle mouse-based fading

Press F9 (or hotkey of choice) to toggle idle dim

How to stop the script

1. ctrl + c in terminal you started script or

2. close the terminal you started script in or

3. Open a new terminal, copy/paste then hit enter

    pkill -f fade-monitors-enhanced-dimming.sh
   

Mouse-based dim is off by default

Idle dim is off by default

Default inactivity time (idle dim) is set to (IDLE_TIMEOUT=60) second. Change in script.

IDLE_BRIGHTNESS, DAY_DIM_BRIGHTNESS, and NIGHT_DIM_BRIGHTNESS can be lowered to zero

Settings

Can be changed by opening, altering, and saving the script and are located near the top. eg change IDLE_TIMEOUT=1 to 30

To turn gamma on make ENABLE_GAMMA=false =true

ENABLE_IDLE, INSTANT_MOUSE_DIM, and INSTANT_IDLE_DIM can also be toggled on and off by making them =true or =false.

Day/Night brightness levels

DAY_ACTIVE_BRIGHTNESS=0.7
DAY_DIM_BRIGHTNESS=0.3
NIGHT_ACTIVE_BRIGHTNESS=0.5
NIGHT_DIM_BRIGHTNESS=0.2
IDLE_BRIGHTNESS=0.1

Time window (24h, HHMM format)

NIGHT_START=1700   # 17:00 PM
DAY_START=0730     # 07:00 AM

Gamma control (optional)

ENABLE_GAMMA=false
DAY_GAMMA="1.0:1.0:1.0"
NIGHT_GAMMA="1.0:0.85:0.1"

Idle settings

IDLE_TIMEOUT=1
ENABLE_IDLE=true

Run script at start up

WARNING setting script to run at start up and changing ACTIVE_BRIGHTNESS values to zero will blckout monitors and require you to do one of the recovery options in important information as restarting will just run the script.

Open Start up applications> click + then custom command>browse and select the script you downloaded

Do the same for xbindkeys (click + then custom command and search for .xbindkeys)

*Reset brightness command for xrandr if needed

xrandr --output <output-name> --brightness 1.0

Past releases without idle dim

Mouse-aware with day/night mode and gamma control

https://github.com/hisovereign/Fade-Monitors/tree/mouse-dim-auto-2d-stable-time-based

Important Information

Warning Blackout Monitor Warning MIN_BRIGHTNESS can be changed however changing Active brightness values to zero will blackout monitors when idle dim activates and if you set it to run at start up you will need to boot into a live USB session, mount system drive, nagivate to .local/bin and change the script

or

BLIND enter ctrl + alt + F2, put in your username, put in your password, then pkill -f fade-monitors-enhanced-dimming.sh, then (ctrl + alt + F1) or sometimes (ctrl + alt + F7).

FLASH WARNING Turning gamma on may conflict with other programns that alter gamma and can cause flashes

-The mouse polling interval is intentionally tuned for low CPU usage. Advanced users can adjust MOUSE_INTERVAL in the script to their preference

-Earlier versions sometimes caused brief flashes if multiple instances of Fade Monitors script ran simultaneously. This has been mitigated with single-instance locking however it is still possible if ran alongside a script without single-instance locking.