{"id":48876,"date":"2025-05-11T15:22:20","date_gmt":"2025-05-11T15:22:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/?p=48876"},"modified":"2025-05-11T15:22:20","modified_gmt":"2025-05-11T15:22:20","slug":"configure-hidden-options-for-built-in-break-reminders-in-gnome-48","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/2025\/05\/configure-hidden-options-for-built-in-break-reminders-in-gnome-48\/","title":{"rendered":"Configure Hidden Options for Built-in Break Reminders in GNOME 48+"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/clock-timer.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-48877\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/clock-timer-250x250.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/clock-timer-250x250.webp 250w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/clock-timer-300x300.webp 300w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/clock-timer-700x700.webp 700w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/clock-timer-768x768.webp 768w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/clock-timer.webp 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>GNOME 48, the default desktop for Ubuntu 25.04 &amp; Fedora 42, introduced built-in break reminders support to protect your eyes from eye strain. The <i>Settings<\/i> (aka GNOME Control Center) however offers only few configure options for it.<\/p>\n<p>For those who like this feature, there are more configure options about it, though hidden by default. And, this tutorial will show you how to configure them.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/break-reminders.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-48878\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/break-reminders-700x522.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"455\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/break-reminders-700x522.webp 700w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/break-reminders-300x224.webp 300w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/break-reminders-768x572.webp 768w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/break-reminders.webp 1138w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>First of all, GNOME offers following hidden options for configuring the break reminders feature:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>countdown<\/b> &#8211; display a countdown timer in top-left notifying that a break is due.<\/li>\n<li><b>delay-seconds<\/b> &#8211; screen break can be delayed, and, this option configures how long it will be delayed when you choose the action.<\/li>\n<li><b>duration-seconds<\/b> &#8211; set custom duration of each break.<\/li>\n<li><b>fade-screen<\/b> &#8211; dim screen (turn screen light down) during break.<\/li>\n<li><b>interval-seconds<\/b> &#8211; set custom time interval between breaks.<\/li>\n<li><b>lock-screen<\/b> &#8211; By default, it dims screen during breaks, and a mouse click can skip! Enable lock-screen will turn off &amp; lock screen during breaks, in some way forcing you to take a break.<\/li>\n<li><b>notify<\/b> &#8211; send notification when a break is due.<\/li>\n<li><b>notify-overdue<\/b> &#8211; send notification when a break is overdue.<\/li>\n<li><b>notify-upcoming<\/b> &#8211; send notification when a break is upcoming.<\/li>\n<li><b>play-sound<\/b> &#8211; play a sound when a break finished.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And, you can configure them either in either graphical way or by running commands in terminal.<\/p>\n<h3>Option 1: Configure Break Reminders with Dconf Editor (Graphical)<\/h3>\n<p>The advanced <i>Dconf Editor<\/i> configuration tool offers a graphical way to configure most hidden options in GNOME desktop.<\/p>\n<p>First, launch App Center, then search and install <i>Dconf Editor<\/i> (filter by Debian package).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/appcenter-dconfeditor.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-48879\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/appcenter-dconfeditor-700x461.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"402\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/appcenter-dconfeditor-700x461.webp 700w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/appcenter-dconfeditor-300x197.webp 300w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/appcenter-dconfeditor-768x505.webp 768w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/appcenter-dconfeditor.webp 991w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Then, launch Dconf Editor, and navigate to org -&gt; gnome -&gt; desktop -&gt; break-reminders -&gt; eyesight. There, you can configure time interval, duration, lock screen, etc. for the short break.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/dconfeditor-eyesight.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-48880\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/dconfeditor-eyesight-700x584.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"509\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/dconfeditor-eyesight-700x584.webp 700w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/dconfeditor-eyesight-300x250.webp 300w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/dconfeditor-eyesight-768x641.webp 768w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/dconfeditor-eyesight.webp 852w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>For long break, aka movement, go to org -&gt; gnome -&gt; desktop -&gt; break-reminders -&gt; movement. All the changes you make will take effect immediately.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/dconfeditor-movement.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-48881\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/dconfeditor-movement-700x547.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"477\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/dconfeditor-movement-700x547.webp 700w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/dconfeditor-movement-300x235.webp 300w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/dconfeditor-movement-768x600.webp 768w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/dconfeditor-movement.webp 852w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Option 2: Use gsettings command<\/h3>\n<p>If you want to configure the options in command line, or use for scripting purpose, then press <code>Ctrl+Alt+T<\/code> to open terminal, and run the commands below instead.<\/p>\n<p><b>First<\/b>, to enable both <code>movement<\/code> (aka long break) and <code>eyesight<\/code> (aka short break), use command:<\/p>\n<pre>gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.break-reminders selected-breaks [\"'movement', 'eyesight'\"]<\/pre>\n<p>If you just want to enable one of them, <code>movement<\/code> for example, use command:<\/p>\n<pre>gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.break-reminders selected-breaks [\"'movement'\"]<\/pre>\n<p>To configure options for <code>movement<\/code>, you may first run the command below to list all available keys (options):<\/p>\n<pre>gsettings list-keys org.gnome.desktop.break-reminders.movement<\/pre>\n<p>Then, choose a key to configure. For example, set <code>interval-seconds<\/code> (time interval between breaks) to 1200 (20 minutes):<\/p>\n<pre>gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.break-reminders.movement interval-seconds 1200<\/pre>\n<p>After that, you may verify by using <code>get<\/code> option to get the current value of the key:<\/p>\n<pre>gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.break-reminders.movement interval-seconds<\/pre>\n<p>Similarly, you may run <code>gsettings set<\/code> commands to configure other options. For example, enable screen-lock for long break:<\/p>\n<pre>gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.break-reminders.movement lock-screen true<\/pre>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/gsettings-breakreminders.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-48882\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/gsettings-breakreminders-700x534.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"465\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/gsettings-breakreminders-700x534.webp 700w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/gsettings-breakreminders-300x229.webp 300w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/gsettings-breakreminders-768x585.webp 768w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/gsettings-breakreminders.webp 770w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>For short break <code>eyesight<\/code>, just replace <code>movement<\/code> in commands above accordingly and enjoy!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>GNOME 48, the default desktop for Ubuntu 25.04 &amp; Fedora 42, introduced built-in break reminders support to protect your eyes from eye strain. The Settings (aka GNOME Control Center) however offers only few configure options for it. For those who like this feature, there are more configure options about it, though hidden by default. And, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2343,689],"class_list":["post-48876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-howtos","tag-break-reminder","tag-gnome"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}