How To Comfortably Use A Linux PC At Night With Desktop Dimmer

Using your computer during the night is very bad for your eyes, and can often interrupt your sleeping schedule. On Linux, many people have been trying to solve this issue with tools like “Nightlight”, “Redshift“, and others. These programs are useful, but tinting your PC to a warmer color during the night isn’t the only solution.

An alternative solution for protecting your eyes is “dimming.” When it comes to dimming the screen, nothing does it better than Desktop Dimmer. It’s an application that when installed, lets users get a darker dim, something that isn’t possible with your desktop environment alone. This makes for a more comfortable experience when you use your Linux PC at night.

Install Desktop Dimmer

Desktop Dimmer has many different downloadable packages available for all of the mainstream Linux distributions. Open up a terminal, install the “wget” download program and follow the instructions to learn how to install the application for your operating system.

Ubuntu And Debian

The Desktop Dimmer application is installable on Ubuntu, Debian, and their derivatives by way of a downloadable Debian package. To install this package, you’ll first need to open up a terminal window and use the wget downloader tool to grab the package.

wget https://github.com/sidneys/desktop-dimmer/releases/download/v4.0.4/desktop-dimmer-4.0.4-amd64.deb

Desktop Dimmer also has a 32-bit version, which is available for download on your Ubuntu or Debian PC with the following command.

wget https://github.com/sidneys/desktop-dimmer/releases/download/v4.0.4/desktop-dimmer-4.0.4-i386.deb

Now that the package is on your PC use the dpkg tool to load Desktop Dimmer into the system.

sudo dpkg -i desktop-dimmer-4.0.4-*.deb

During the package installation process, errors may occur. These errors are dependency resolution failures. Without getting into it, your Linux PC wasn’t able to install the package fully, as it can’t find the programs that Desktop Dimmer needs to run. Thankfully, this problem is quickly taken care of by running the following operation in a terminal.

sudo apt install -f

Or, on some Debian installations:

sudo apt-get install -f

With the dependencies taken care of, Desktop Dimmer should be working on your Ubuntu or Debian PC!

Arch Linux

Desktop Dimmer is available to Arch Linux users, as the developer officially supports it. Better yet, you won’t need to compile and build an AUR package (unless you prefer to). Instead, users can download and load up a convenient Arch package.

The Desktop Dimmer Arch Linux package is easy to download, thanks to wget. Grab it with the following command.

wget https://github.com/sidneys/desktop-dimmer/releases/download/v4.0.4/desktop-dimmer-4.0.4.pacman

Need Desktop Dimmer on the 32-bit version of Arch? Try this one:

wget https://github.com/sidneys/desktop-dimmer/releases/download/v4.0.4/desktop-dimmer-4.0.4-i686.pacman

To load up the Desktop Dimmer package into Arch, use the Pacman upgrade command.

sudo pacman -U desktop-dimmer-4.0.4.pacman

Load up the 32-bit package with this command, as the 64-bit one won’t work.

sudo pacman -U desktop-dimmer-4.0.4-i686.pacman

Fedora And OpenSUSE

Fedora and OpenSUSE can run Desktop Dimmer thanks to the RPM on the project’s GitHub release page. Much like a lot of the other operating systems on this list, you’ll need to use the wget downloading tool before installing anything.

wget https://github.com/sidneys/desktop-dimmer/releases/download/v4.0.4/desktop-dimmer-4.0.4.x86-64.rpm

A 32-bit RPM is available if you prefer to use it over the 64-bit version.

wget https://github.com/sidneys/desktop-dimmer/releases/download/v4.0.4/desktop-dimmer-4.0.4.i686.rpm

At this point, it’s safe to start the installation. Follow the instructions to get Desktop Dimmer working on your Fedora or OpenSUSE system below.

Fedora

sudo dnf install -y desktop-dimmer-4.0.4.*.rpm

OpenSUSE

sudo zypper install desktop-dimmer-4.0.4.*.rpm

Generic Linuxes via AppImage

Desktop Dimmer has a version of its software that works on all other Linux distributions. There’s no need to install anything, as the AppImage technology lets it work just like an EXE file on Windows. To set up the Desktop Dimmer AppImage, download the file with wget. Then use the chmod command to update its permissions.

wget https://github.com/sidneys/desktop-dimmer/releases/download/v4.0.4/desktop-dimmer-4.0.4-x86-64.AppImage

Like all other formats of the software, the Desktop Dimmer application is also available in 32-bit. Grab it with wget, if you need it instead of the 64-bit one.

wget https://github.com/sidneys/desktop-dimmer/releases/download/v4.0.4/desktop-dimmer-4.0.4-i386.AppImage

chmod +x desktop-dimmer-4.0.4-*.AppImage

Now that the Desktop Dimmer AppImage has the correct permissions use the mkdir command to make a new folder to store it in. Storing Desktop Dimmer here will ensure that you don’t accidentally delete it from your /home/username/ folder.

mkdir -p ~/AppImages

mv desktop-dimmer-4.0.4-*.AppImage ~/AppImages

cd ~/AppImages

Execute the program for the firsttime with the command below.

./desktop-dimmer-4.0.4-*.AppImage

After you run it, Dimmer will create a new application shortcut in your app menu on the desktop. Look for it in the “Utilities” section.

Set Up Desktop Dimmer

Desktop Dimmer is a straightforward application with not a lot of setup involved. To start using it, browse for the app in the program menu on your Linux PC. Once you’ve found it, look to the system tray and right-click on it to reveal the options menu. In the menu, click the “show Desktop Dimmer” button.

When you click the “show Desktop Dimmer” button, a popup with a slider will appear. Drag the slider back or forwards to instantly adjust the brightness and dim the screen to your liking. Then click the gear icon to open the Preferences area. In preferences, choose the option to allow the program to run at startup.