[Solved] Xsct command does not work in autostart

Odysseus · 2026-01-11 17:24:42

Hello,

I am completely new on Xfce (my daily driver is LMDE 6 Cinnamon) but I would like to know how to use Xfce and so installed Debian 13 Xfce on another partition.

I went to Settings / Session and Startup / Automatic start of application, then add a line with the command xsct 4000.

It does not work though it does when I type the command in a terminal.

Would someone have an idea?

Thank you.

System:
  Kernel: 6.12.63+deb13-amd64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 14.2.0
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.20.1 Distro: Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie)

Last edited by Odysseus (2026-01-12 09:46:28)

CwF · 2026-01-11 18:14:57

I'm unfamiliar with xsct, what package?

Odysseus · 2026-01-11 19:13:06

Hello CwF.
Here is the result of apt show:

philippe@Odysseus:~$ apt show xsct
Package: xsct
Version: 2.3-1
Priority: optional
Section: x11
Maintainer: Mike Gabriel <sunweaver@debian.org>
Installed-Size: 34,8 kB
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.34), libx11-6, libxrandr2 (>= 2:1.2.99.2)
Homepage: https://github.com/faf0/sct
Download-Size: 9848 B
APT-Manual-Installed: yes
APT-Sources: http://deb.debian.org/debian trixie/main amd64 Packages
Description: réglage de la température de couleur de l’écran
 xsct (X11 set screen color temperature) est un petit programme en C pour
 modifier la température de couleur de l’écran. Il peut être utilisé pour
 augmenter ou diminuer la lumière bleue produite par l’écran.
 .
 L’outil xsct définit la température de l’écran à l’aide d’xrandr comme
 redshift. Au contraire de redshift, il est composé de 80 lignes en C et ne
 modifiera pas la température de l’écran automatiquement.

philippe@Odysseus:~$

eriefisher · 2026-01-11 23:42:13

If you run

xsct 4000

in the terminal does it work?

merazi · 2026-01-12 00:02:21

Open a terminal, execute this command:

mousepad ~/.config/autostart/xsct.desktop

That should open the text editor (if you don't have mousepad you can change it to any text editor you have installed), then paste the following text in that file:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Type=Application
Name=XSct
Comment=redshift alternative
Exec=xsct 4000
OnlyShowIn=XFCE;
StartupNotify=false
Terminal=false
Hidden=false

Save the file and close the text editor and the terminal, log out and the command should run on login.

There's an interesting post about .desktop files in the arch wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Desktop_entries

Odysseus · 2026-01-12 00:48:57

Hello Merazi,

Thank you for your answer.

It did what you wrote, deactivate my own entry in the GUI for the session autostart, logged out and in, but it does not work.

Actually it appears that the change in colour is displayed for a fraction of a second in both cases (my entry and yours).

Last edited by Odysseus (2026-01-12 00:53:29)

merazi · 2026-01-12 01:16:31

If you see it for a fraction of a second then maybe some xfce setting is overwriting it, the simplest workaround could be to create a script (you can save it on ~/.local/bin/ for example) with a delay before running the xsct command:

#!/bin/bash

sleep 1
xsct 4000

After that, save it and make it executable:

chmod +x ./your_script.sh

And finally you can add it to the autostart by either using Session and Startup or by creating a .desktop file and using the script as the Exec parameter.

Try if that works. 🙏

Odysseus · 2026-01-12 09:46:05

Hello Merazi,

It works perfectly!
It is a pity that one cannot add a delay in Creating the command in Session (that is the case in Cinnamon).

I thank you very much!

eriefisher · 2026-01-12 11:12:22

You can. You can use it in the command entry line.

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#1 2026-01-11 17:24:42

[Solved] Xsct command does not work in autostart

#2 2026-01-11 18:14:57

Re: [Solved] Xsct command does not work in autostart

#3 2026-01-11 19:13:06

Re: [Solved] Xsct command does not work in autostart

#4 2026-01-11 23:42:13

Re: [Solved] Xsct command does not work in autostart

#5 2026-01-12 00:02:21

Re: [Solved] Xsct command does not work in autostart

#6 2026-01-12 00:48:57

Re: [Solved] Xsct command does not work in autostart

#7 2026-01-12 01:16:31

Re: [Solved] Xsct command does not work in autostart

#8 2026-01-12 09:46:05

Re: [Solved] Xsct command does not work in autostart

#9 2026-01-12 11:12:22

Re: [Solved] Xsct command does not work in autostart

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