How To Install Redshift In Linux Mint

One of the first few things to do after installing Linux Mint 18 is to install Redshift. Not only Linux Mint, in fact, Redshift has become an integrated part of my computing life.

This little app changes the screen temperature according to the time of the day. At night, it reduces the temperature so that you see a pale yellow screen which is easier on eyes at night. Similar feature has been introduced in iOS recently as Nightshift but Linux and Android had it available for a long time.

There is also an alternative application f.lux that provides more configuration options in the GUI. Redshift, on the other hand, is install and forget kind of program. Install it and run it. No configuration required. I have written about using  f.lux to get Nightshift feature in Linux in a separate article, in case you want to have a look at that.

Install Redshift in Linux Mint

Installing Redshift in Linux Mint is very easy. You can search for Redshift in Software Manager to install it.

Alternatively, open a terminal and use the following command:

sudo apt-get install redshift redshift-gtk

You might ask why am I writing an entire article about installing Redshift in Linux Mint when it is that easy to install and use it? Reason is that there is an issue with Reshift in Linux Mint 18 and we are going to see how to tackle it.

Possible troubleshoot:

Well, I installed Redshift and tried to run it. It gave me an error in my face:

Failed to run Redshift

Trying location provider `geoclue2’…

Unable to connect to GeoClue.

Unable to get location from provider.

I wanted to report this annoying bug to its developer as this is the right way to help Linux community. When I went to its Github page, I found that this is already a known bug and to fix this, we need to install geoclue2.

Open a terminal and use the command below:

sudo apt-get install geoclue-2.0

No need to restart. Just search for Redshift in the menu and start it. You won’t see the “failed to run Redshift” error anymore.

I hope this quick post helped you to install Redshift in Linux Mint and saved your eyes.