screen_timed

Ubuntu doesn't come with a screen time tracker and much of the software available is too complex or doesn't provide a nice UI. This project aims to provide a screen time tracker and desktop app for Linux by monitoring the active windows.

Project Structure

There are 2 folders:

• daemon
• desktop-app

The daemon folder contains a Linux daemon that tracks and records time spent on active applications. The Linux daemon also comes with features such as sending screen time reminders every x minutes.

The desktop app folder contains the desktop app which process screen time data to make it viewiable through graphs, etc.

Set up of daemon

1. Install Rust and cargo

2. This has been tested on Wayland and x11, (find out by doing echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE):

More About x11 and Wayland

• This program has worked on a PC using wayland and Ubuntu but I run this daily on a PC using x11 and Ubuntu.
  • If you have a Nvidia graphics driver, you should probably use x11 over wayland if you aren't already (greater compatability). I was using wayland leading to errors getting the active window.

To switch to x11 on Ubuntu:

- Go to settings > Colours (Device Colour Profiles) > Select `Standard Space - sRGB`
- Edit `/etc/gdm3/custom.conf` and uncomment `WaylandEnable=false`
- `sudo reboot`

If anything goes wrong, just undo this line: - Edit /etc/gdm3/custom.conf and uncomment WaylandEnable=false and you should be back on wayland.

3. To test if your env display works, in the main() of main.rs, insert into main.rs so:

fn main() {
    // screen_timed::run().unwrap();

     match Command::new("xclock").output() {
         Ok(output) => {
             println!("output: {:?}", output);
         }
         Err(err) => {
             println!("Error: {}", err);
         }
     }
}

4. Run cargo run and see if xclock opens. If it does, you're good to go. Go ahead and return main.rs to its original state.

5. Now in the root, run sudo python3 daemon_setup.py. This requires sudo as it creates a systemd service.

6. If you would like to remove the daemonm run sudo python3 daemon_removal.py.

7. To view logs: sudo journalctl -u screen_timed.service | less To view the status: sudo systemctl status screen_timed.service

8. To run the tests for the daemon:

• cd daemon
• cargo test or cargo test -- --nocapture to see stdout.

Set up of desktop-app

1. Refer to the latest release on the GitHub releases page for the .deb file. To install a .deb file:

• sudo dpkg -i /path/to/deb/file

2. Building from source / Just running the desktop app:

• Install Rust and cargo

• Install Tauri

• Install node

• cargo install tauri-cli

• To run: cargo tauri dev

• To bundle: cargo tauri build

• You can now find the appimage or the deb here: <pwd-to-screen_timed>/desktop_app/src-tauri/target/release/bundle/