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Asked: 2024-09-27T13:39:50+05:30 In:

How can I enable the night light feature on just one monitor in a dual display configuration on Ubuntu?

I’ve been trying to figure out how to enable the night light feature on just one of my monitors in a dual display setup on Ubuntu, and I’m really stuck. I love that the night light can reduce eye strain, especially late at night, but I only want it to be on my second monitor. The first one is primarily for work during the day, and it seems silly to have both screens dimmed when I only need it for one.

I’ve searched online and found lots of info about enabling night light in general, but most of it seems to apply to the entire desktop, which isn’t what I need. I’ve been experimenting with the settings through the Display options, but it looks like I can only apply night light universally rather than on a per-monitor basis. I even tried tweaking the settings in the brightness and lock menu, but that didn’t help.

There, I encountered a bit of confusion since I can’t find a clear way to target just the second monitor. I wonder if anyone’s faced this problem or if there’s a trick that I’m missing? I mean, I love tinkering with system settings, but at this point, I’m ready to pull my hair out!

It would be great if someone could walk me through the steps or maybe suggest an alternate method—like using a terminal command or some specific tool that allows for more granular control over night light settings. I’ve heard of Redshift and other third-party apps, but I really want to know if there’s a straightforward solution using the built-in features of Ubuntu.

I’m running Ubuntu 22.04, which I believe has improved settings for the night light feature. If you have a dual monitor setup like mine, your insights would really help. Any tips on how to get this working would be much appreciated! I’m eager to find a way to make my late-night coding sessions more comfortable without messing up my workflow on the other screen. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

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    2 Answers


    1. To enable the Night Light feature on just one of your monitors in a dual display setup on Ubuntu 22.04, you can utilize a command-line tool called Redshift, which offers more granular control than the built-in settings. You can install it by running the command sudo apt install redshift redshift-gtk in the terminal. After installation, you can configure Redshift to target the second monitor specifically. Run the command redshift -O 4000 -m randr -r where 4000 is the color temperature you prefer, and the -m randr option is used for managing multiple monitors. By default, Redshift applies to all screens, but you can specify your second monitor with additional flags based on your display configuration using either the --screen or --output options.

      If you prefer using the built-in functionality of Ubuntu, you may unfortunately find that the standard Night Light settings apply universally across all displays. However, you could adjust the color temperature of your second screen using its settings if your GPU supports this through tools like xrandr. An example command would be xrandr --output HDMI-1 --gamma 1:0.5:0.5, where HDMI-1 is your second monitor’s identifier (you can find this with xrandr command alone). This approach allows you to manipulate the warmth of the colors displayed without affecting your main display. While not as straightforward as a dedicated toggle, these solutions should help optimize your setup for late-night coding sessions effectively.


    2. Okay, I totally get where you’re coming from! It can be super frustrating when you’re trying to adjust settings in Ubuntu, especially with dual monitors. So, here’s the deal with the night light feature.

      Unfortunately, the built-in night light feature in Ubuntu doesn’t allow for settings on a per-monitor basis. When you enable it, it applies to all screens, which can be a bummer if you want it on just one. But don’t worry, there are a couple of options you can try!

      Option 1: Using Redshift

      Redshift is a great tool you can use for more granular control. Here’s how to set it up:

      1. First, you need to install Redshift. Open your terminal and type:

        2. sudo apt install redshift redshift-gtk

      2. Once it’s installed, you can launch it by typing redshift in the terminal or finding it in your applications.
      3. To configure it for just one monitor, you can specify the display in a config file. Create or open the Redshift configuration file:

        4. nano ~/.config/redshift.conf

      4. Add these lines to the file to set the color temperature and apply it only to your second monitor. For instance, if the second monitor is connected as HDMI-1, it would look like this:
        5.         [redshift]
        temp-day=5700
        temp-night=3600
        adjustment-method=randr
        
        [randr]
        screens=HDMI-1
      5. Save the file and run Redshift again!

      Option 2: Use xrandr for manual control

      If you’re feeling a bit more adventurous with command-line, you can also tweak your monitor settings with xrandr. You can create a script that adjusts the color temperature of your second monitor. Here’s a simple example:

          #!/bin/bash
    # Set color temperature for HDMI-1 (your second monitor) to 4000K
    xrandr --output HDMI-1 --gamma 1:0.8:0.8

      Just change “HDMI-1” to whatever your second monitor is. You can adjust the gamma values to get the warmth you want!

      Final Thoughts

      Keep in mind that these adjustments won’t be as integrated as the native night light feature, but they will allow you to customize your setup. Just make sure to revert or disable this if you’re doing anything critical on your main screen!

      Good luck with your late-night coding sessions! Hope this helps clear up some of the confusion!

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