LightMe 2.5
LightMe version 2.5
switch on/off your LCD, auto brightness control and mac hibernation
NOW FOR BOTH TIGER AND LEOPARD
LightMe 2.0 is a small preferences panes and background daemon that allows you to change brightness and power of your monitor with customizable keyboard shortcut. Using Lightme you will can reduce to a preset value the brightness, restore it to the last value (and with anther click of your restore shortcut you can switch to the max value) and poweroff the monitor.
Lightme core is a little lightweight background daemon compatible both with Intel and PPC processor. You can install it at login, activate or deactivate it with a simple click from preferences pane.
Since version 2.0 you can also hibernate your computer (read more at the bottom of this page).
This is a screenshot of the preferences pane:
Click to enlarge
SUPPORT
LightMe is an opensource free program but if you like consider to make a small donation in order to support other future software developments (well you can also send to me a postcard from your country; contact me so I’ll send to you my address).
Enjoy!
CHANGES IN 2.x:
- Standard Hibernation support (deepsleep)
- Safe hibernation aganist media data loss
- Fixed some bugs
- Guide
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS/DOWNLOADS
It should work both on Mac OS X 10.3 and 4 (or later) however I’ve tested it only on 10.4. You can compile it for your system using XCode. It runs as universal binary both on Intel and PPC processors.
LightMe 2.0 (Last Available for 10.4 or previous):
DOWNLOAD 2.0 (June 22, 2007)
LightMe 2.5 (Leopard Compatible 10.5):
DOWNLOAD 2.5 (December 2, 2007)
SOURCE CODE
LightMe 1.5
LightMe 2.0
LightMe 2.5 (will be released soon)
MCBrightnessControl Classes
MORE ABOUT MAC HIBERNATION
The state of a computer is stored into its main memory, which is also called RAM. When a computer is powered off, the contents of this memory are irremediably wiped out. Hibernation works in the following way: before being powered off, the computer saves all the contents of the memory to a file on the hard disk drive. On wake up, data stored in this file is read out and restored to the memory. Therefore, the RAM contents are the same before and after the hibernation process, and the state of the computer is also the same. The saved file is named sleepimage, and is located in the /private/var/vm directory. Hi bernation is sometimes also called “software suspend” or “suspend to disk”.
The default suspension feature of Mac OS X, called sleep works in a different way. When entering sleep, every subsystem of the computer is shut down, except the main memory which is still powered. This process preserves the contents of the memory, and allows the computer to wake up quickly. However, a sleeping computer still consumes a small amount of power. Sleep is sometimes also called “hardware suspend” or “suspend to
RAM”.
Apple introduced the safe sleep feature in Mac OS X 10.4.3 for the Powerbook HD line of laptops. This feature is a variation of the default suspension behavior. The main memory is still powered during the sleep, but the contents of the memory are also saved to the disk at the beginning of the operation. The saved file will only be used if the laptop runs out of battery power while sleeping, in order to restore the original state of the computer.
This safe sleep feature is what makes hibernation possible in Mac OS X 10.4.3 and above.
HIBERNATION IS NOT AN OFFICIAL SUPPORTED FEATURE OF MAC OS X 10.4/10.5 OR PREVIOUS RELEASE. USE THIS SOFTWARE AT YOUR OWN RISK. I’M NOT RESPONSIBLE ABOUT POSSIBLE DATA LOSS, KILLED PEOPLE AND UNGRY CATS.
