Ubuntu
redshift package

Redshift starts, shows up in the top bar for about three seconds, then disappears.

Asked by Ethan Waterson

Redshift isn't working. Its starts and looks promising then vanishes.
I've tried re installing it. I'm new to Ubuntu and don't know what else to do.

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Ubuntu redshift Edit question
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Solved by:
Edward Donovan
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This question was originally filed as bug #1080526.

Revision history for this message
Ethan Waterson (elwaterson) said : 		#1

Redshift isn't working. Its starts and looks promising then vanishes.
I've tried re installing it. I'm new to Ubuntu and don't know what else to do.

Revision history for this message
Edward Donovan (edward.donovan) said : 		#2

Hi -

My first guess is that redshift doesn't have the location info that it needs. It tries to get this automatically, but on my machine it fails. If I run it from a terminal, I see the error message:

  $ redshift
    Started Geoclue provider `Geoclue Master'.
    Using provider `geoclue'.

    ** (process:18457): WARNING **: Could not get location, 3 retries left.

    ** (process:18457): WARNING **: Could not get location, 2 retries left.

    ** (process:18457): WARNING **: Could not get location, 1 retries left.

    ** (process:18457): WARNING **: Provider does not have a valid location available.
    Unable to get location from provider.

I have to give it the lat/long, like this:

  redshift -l 40:-40

(if I was in the middle of the Atlantic. :)

In fact, in my use it has not been adjusting the redness according to the time of day at my location; I toggle it manually. But it still doesn't want to start without that info. So that's the first thing I'd try.

For what it's worth, I run the GUI command, that puts an indicator in Unity's top panel. It's 'gtk-redshift', and it takes the same arguments. I have it run on login, and can explain that too, if you're interested.

Hope this helps.

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Ethan Waterson (elwaterson) said : 		#3

Thank you!
And I would like to have that explained.
I'm also looking for some good intro guides to Ubuntu.

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Best Edward Donovan (edward.donovan) said : 		#4

Hi again Ethan - I'm glad that helped. For intros, I don't know that stuff well. I've been using Debian, then Ubuntu, for a long time, and I guess I don't look at thoses. I know where some are, but I haven't looked at them.

* http://help.ubuntu.com/
* http://ubuntu-manual.org/
* http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntuguide

Or if you asked that as another question here, or on http://askubuntu.com , or at http://ubuntuforums.org , you'd probably get people who know more than me.

Now, for the specifics I can answer. The startup apps in Unity are managed by the program "gnome-session-properties". (Unity is built with existing Gnome components as much as possible.) You can run that name from a terminal, or just in the Dash. In the dash, it can also be called by the more descriptive name "Startup Applications".

That window has a list of apps that could be run at login, in addition to the usual components. There may already be some there. If you have already run gtk-redshift successfully, it may show up on the list; I'm not sure. If so, you can hit Edit, if you want to change the command line options.

If it's not there yet, hit Add. The Name and Comment can really be anything; just Redshift, and a blank, if you want. The Command part should be

  gtk-redshift -l <your lat>:<your long>

And any other arguments you want. I change the temperature setting to not get so very red; maybe this looks better 'cause I have CF bulbs, not incandescent anymore.

  gtk-redshift -t 5500:4200 -l lat:long

Also! I said above that I had not gotten it to change properly over the course of the day; I just toggled it. In the course of answering, I realized I needed a minus sign on my longitude, and now that works fine. So thanks! :)

I can give this another try if there's gaps in my explanation.

Ed

Revision history for this message
Ethan Waterson (elwaterson) said : 		#5

Thanks Edward Donovan, that solved my question.