Dim screen when user is idle

You can make the computer screen dim after the computer has been idle (not used) for some period of time.

Dim screen on idle computer

  1. Create the user profile which contains the following lines:

    /etc/dconf/profile/user

    user-db:user
system-db:local

    local is the name of a dconf database.

  2. Create the directory /etc/dconf/db/local.d/ if it does not already exist.

  3. Create the key file /etc/dconf/db/local.d/00-power to provide information for the local database.

    /etc/dconf/db/local.d/00-power

    # Specify the dconf path
[org/gnome/settings-daemon/plugins/power]

# Enable screen dimming
idle-dim=true

# Set brightness after dimming
idle-brightness=30

  4. Create the key file /etc/dconf/db/local.d/00-session to provide information for the local database.

    /etc/dconf/db/local.d/00-session

    # Specify the dconf path
[org/gnome/desktop/session]

# The number of seconds of inactivity before the session is considered idle
idle-delay=uint32 300

    You must include the uint32 along with the integer key values as shown.

  5. To prevent the user from overriding these settings, create the file /etc/dconf/db/local.d/locks/power-saving with the following content:

    /etc/dconf/db/local.d/locks/power-saving

    # Lock screen dimming and idle timeout
/org/gnome/settings-daemon/plugins/power/idle-dim
/org/gnome/settings-daemon/plugins/power/idle-brightness
/org/gnome/desktop/session/idle-delay

    If you want to let the user change these settings, skip this step.

  6. Update the system databases:

    # dconf update

  7. Users must log out and back in again before the system-wide settings take effect.