Update: This post is fairly dated. I’ve gotten one report that the indicator applet (recommended installation on Flux website) now works fine on Mint. Use the instructions below only if you couldn’t get the indicator applet to work, because it is certainly more intuitive than the alternative. Original text follows…
Recently, I decided to re-install Linux and give it a try as a development environment. I’m on Linux Mint; while this isn’t really the best platform to develop on, it was ridiculously easy to install and it gives me access to what I need. I’ll probably switch to another distro more suited to development at some point, but that’s outside of the scope of this post.
Anyway, I ran into a problem - why couldn’t I get flux to work? It’s a great piece of software; makes my eyes hurt a lot less at the end of the day. It’s a must install for anyone who sits in front of a computer. That being said, though, their recommended installation for Linux doesn’t work (i.e. Killan Valkhov’s indicator). It doesn’t change color unless you hit the “preview” button, and even then, it only seems to change halfheartedly. Even the last time I installed Linux (Ubuntu) I couldn’t get it to work.
I looked around in vain for a long, long time on how to get flux to work. Somehow, though, throughout all of this, I ignored the little link at the bottom for xflux. Probably because it has, in parentheses: for older distros. This is patently untrue; it seems like the only real good way to get flux to work. So, just download xflux. It may not be as nice to use as an indicator, but it sure works better. Here’s how you do it:
Download xflux. The indicator applet hasn’t worked on any system I’ve tried it on. Instead, download the appropriate daemon for your system - 32 or 64 bit. Unarchive the file using a GUI unarchiver or tar -xvzf xflux.tgz. Then, open up a console, cd to the directory you untarred it to, and type:
xflux -z YOUR_ZIPCODE
This should start xflux. If you don’t want to type that every time you start up, you’ll have to search for the appropriate method for your system; on Arch Linux, all I have to do is stick that command in my ~/.xinitrc file. On Ubuntu or Mint, you’ll have to go through the appropriate system menus, or write your own autostart script. On other systems… well, you’re on Linux, so go look it up yourself!