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https://github.com/maximbaz/wluma

Automatic brightness adjustment based on screen contents and ALS
https://github.com/maximbaz/wluma

adaptive adaptive-brightness adaptive-learning ambient-light ambient-light-sensor backlight backlight-dimming brightness brightness-adjustment brightness-control brightness-level dark-mode dark-theme dimmer night-mode screen sway swaywm vulkan wlroots

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Automatic brightness adjustment based on screen contents and ALS

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README 

        
# wluma



A tool for Wayland compositors to automatically adjust screen brightness based on the screen contents and amount of ambient light around you.



## Supported screen capture protocols



With default config, `wluma` will automatically detect which protocols are supported, and pick the most appropriate one. See "Configuration" section below for more information and how to force a specific protocol.



The list of supported protocols:



- `ext-image-capture-source-v1` - the newest protocol that potentially is (or will be) supported by any modern Wayland desktop environment.

  - At the time of writing, it's not supported by any compositor yet.

  - requires `ext-image-capture-source-v1` and `linux-dmabuf-v1` protocol to be supported as well.

- `wlr-screencopy-unstable-v1` - supported by any `wlroots`-based compositors (e.g. `sway`), as well as Hyprland.

  - requires `linux-dmabuf-v1` protocol to be supported as well.

- `wlr-export-dmabuf-unstable-v1` - supported by any `wlroots`-based compositors (e.g. `sway`).



## Idea



The app will automatically brighten the screen when you are looking at a dark window (such as a fullscreen terminal) and darken the screen when you are looking at a bright window (such as web browser). The algorithm takes into consideration the amount of ambient light around you, so the same window can be brighter during the day than during the night.



With permission of [Lumen](https://github.com/anishathalye/lumen)'s author (the project that inspired me to create this app), I'm reusing a demo GIF:



![demo](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1177900/82347130-8bd22b80-99f7-11ea-8545-0d311240a30d.gif)



## Usage



Simply launch `wluma` and continue adjusting your screen brightness as you usually do - the app will learn your preferences.



`wluma` will not do anything on the first launch! You have to adjust the brightness by hand a few times, in different environment and/or with different screen contents, that way `wluma` will learn your preferences and only then it will begin to automatically change your screen brightness for you.



## Performance



The app has minimal impact on system resources and battery life even though it is able to monitor screen contents several times a second. This is achieved by using Wayland protocols to get access to the screen contents and doing computations entirely on GPU using Vulkan API.



## Installation





  Packaging status




Use one of the available packages and methods below:



- Alpine Linux: [wluma](https://pkgs.alpinelinux.org/packages?name=wluma) (from Alpine Edge; it will be available in stable branches since Alpine v3.16)

- Arch Linux: [wluma](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/wluma/) or [wluma-git](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/wluma-git/)

- NixOS: [wluma](https://search.nixos.org/packages?channel=unstable&show=wluma&from=0&size=50&sort=relevance&type=packages&query=wluma)

- Build the app yourself using the instructions below and install it via `sudo make install`



## Build



[![CI](https://github.com/maximbaz/wluma/actions/workflows/ci.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/maximbaz/wluma/actions/workflows/ci.yml)



If you want to build the app yourself, make sure you use latest stable Rust, otherwise you might get compilation errors! Using `rustup` is perhaps the easiest. Ubuntu needs the following dependencies: `sudo apt-get -y install v4l-utils libv4l-dev libudev-dev libvulkan-dev libdbus-1-dev`.



Then simply run `make build`.



## Permissions



In order to access backlight devices, `wluma` must either:



- have direct driver access: install the supplied `90-wluma-backlight.rules` udev rule, add your user to the `video` group and reboot (fastest, most likely a requirement for smooth transitions)

- run on a system that uses `elogind` or `systemd-logind` (they provide a safe interface for unprivileged users to control device's brightness through `dbus`, no configuration necessary)

- run as `root` (not recommended)



## Configuration



The `config.toml` in repository represents default config values. To change them, copy the file into `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/wluma/config.toml` and adjust as desired.



### ALS



Choose whether to use a real IIO-based ambient light sensor (`[als.iio]`), a webcam-based simulation (`[als.webcam]`), a time-based simulation (`[als.time]`) or disable it altogether (`[als.none]`).



Each of them contains a `thresholds` field, which comes with good default values. It is there to convert generally exponential lux values into a linear scale to improve the prediction algorithm in `wluma`. Keys are the raw values from ambient light sensor (maximal value depends on the implementation), values are arbitrary "profiles". `wluma` will predict the best screen brightness according to the data learned within the same ALS profile.



### Displays



Multiple outputs are supported, using `backlight` (common for internal laptop screens) and `ddcutil` (for external screens). DDC is known to often be problematic, always consider trying out [ddcci-driver-linux](https://gitlab.com/ddcci-driver-linux/ddcci-driver-linux) first if you can.



Each output is identified by compositor using model, manufacturer and serial number (e.g.`eDP-1 'Sharp Corporation 0x14A8 0x00000000' (eDP-1)`.



The `name` field in the output config will be matched as a substring, so you are free to put simply `eDP-1`, or a serial number (if you have two identical external screens). It is your responsibility to make sure that the values you use match **uniquely** to one output only.



_Tip:_ run `wluma` with `RUST_LOG=debug` to see how your outputs are being identified, so that you can choose an appropriate `name` configuration value.



The `capturer` field will determine how screen contents will be captured. Currently supported values are `wayland` (works only on Wayland compositors that support protocols listed in the top) and `none` (ignores screen contents and predicts brightness only based on ALS). The value `wayland` will automatically choose the most appropriate protocol, but if you want to force a specific one, you can also use `ext-image-capture-source-v1`, `wlr-screencopy-unstable-v1` or `wlr-export-dmabuf-unstable-v1` as the value.



_Tip:_ run `wluma` with `RUST_LOG=debug` and `capturer="wayland"` to see which protocols are supported by your Wayland compositor, and which one `wluma` chooses to use.



#### Algorithm



The default algorithm that `wluma` uses is called `adaptive`, which is when it learns from you as you continue adjusting brightness manually. It will eventually figure out patterns in how you tend to adjust brightness in dark and lit conditions and depending on what is currently being displayed on the screen, and will beging to do it automatically for you.



If you instead want to preserve control over absolute brightness value, but let `wluma` only do relative adjustments, there is an alternative algorithm called `manual`. It can be useful if you feel like `wluma` is unable to learn the patterns, for example because you don't have a real ambient light sensor, and neither of the alternative ALS inputs are able to capture the real light conditions precisely enough.



Here's how you enable the manual algorithm in the config:



```toml

[als.time]

thresholds = { 0 = "night", 8 = "day", 18 = "night" }



[[output.backlight]]

name = "eDP-1"

path = "/sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight"

capturer = "wayland"

[output.backlight.predictor.manual]

thresholds.day = { 0 = 0, 100 = 10 }

thresholds.night = { 0 = 0, 100 = 60 }

```



In other words, you activate the predictor for a given `output` using `[output.backlight.predictor.manual]`, and then you define thresholds for each ALS condition using the following syntax:



```

thresholds. = { = }

```



- `luma` is the "whiteness" of your screen contents, measured in percentage, from `0` to `100`.

- Current screen brightness (that you set manually) will be reduced by the corresponding `brightness reduction percentage` based on what is currently being displayed on the screen.

- `als threshold name` is the custom name that you define in ALS thresholds. When using `[als.none]`, the `als threshold name` is `none`.

- You can define as many entries within each threshold as you want (up to 100, for every single `luma` value). The algorithm will interpolate between the values you define.



The example config above expresses the following intention:



- During the day, the screen brightness will be reduced upmost by 10% of the value you set - fully black screen does not reduce the brightness at all, fully white screen reduces it by 10%, screen contents with "whiteness" of 70% will reduce the brightness by 7%, etc.

- During the day, the screen brightness will be reduced upmost by 60% of the value you set - using the same logic as above.



## Run



To run the app, simply launch `wluma` or use the provided systemd user service.



## Debugging



To enable logging, set environment variable `RUST_LOG` to one of these values: `error`, `warn`, `info`, `debug`, `trace`.



For more complex selectors, see [env_logger's documentation](https://docs.rs/env_logger/latest/env_logger/#enabling-logging).



## Known issues (help wanted!)



Help is wanted and much appreciated! If you want to implement some of these, feel free to open an issue and I'll provide more details and try to help you along the way.



- Support for frames with custom DRM modifiers (e.g. multi-planar frames) is currently not implemented. This was [implemented in mesa](https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/merge_requests/1466) and can finally be added to `wluma`. Until then, a workaround is to export `WLR_DRM_NO_MODIFIERS=1` before launching your wlroots-based compositor.

- Plugging in a screen while `wluma` is running. Workaround: restart `wluma`.



## Relevant projects



- [lumen](https://github.com/anishathalye/lumen): project that inspired me to create this app