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Mate Screensavers

Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2012 11:14 pm
by CalebW
I'm using Linux Mint 13 and the mate-screensaver only has like 5 screensavers. I've looked around but I can't find any more for it. I tried install the xscreensaver but the daemon would have to be restarted after every reboot. Is there a way to convert xscreensavers to mate?

Re: Mate Screensavers

Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 12:05 am
by CalebW
Nevermind mind, I found out how.

You go to /usr/share/applications/screensavers/ and you open them up in a text editor. And at the bottom of the file should be something similar to this (this is out of an xscreensaver, but I think you can do this with any screensaver) :

OnlyShowIn=GNOME;

And what you do is make it look like this:

OnlyShowIn=GNOME;MATE

And it will appear in the mate-screensaver preferences.

Re: Mate Screensavers

Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 8:49 pm
by rmcellig
Worked for me. Thanks but how can I do all the screensavers at once instead of using nano to edit them one by one?

Re: Mate Screensavers

Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2012 4:58 pm
by krisberck
Thank you for suggestion how to edit screensavers. I edited all screensavers from xscreensaver 2d and opnegl. I attached them for all to easy use them.

Re: Mate Screensavers

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 1:08 pm
by JanAcc
If you want to edit the screensavers yourself you can use this:

Code: Select all

sudo find /usr/share/applications/screensavers -name "*.desktop" -print | sudo xargs sed -i 's/OnlyShowIn=GNOME;/OnlyShowIn=GNOME;MATE;/g'
In short, this will replace the string "OnlyShowIn=GNOME;" with "OnlyShowIn=GNOME;MATE" in all files ending on .desktop in the screensaver directory.

Cheers!
Janek

EDIT:
Make sure to backup the original contents of the directory first!

Re: Mate Screensavers

Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2012 3:36 pm
by Hawkeye_52
Another solution to this, if you prefer xscreensaver (like I do), is to alter the Startup Applications under Preferences. Your default settings will look like this:
Start-Up-1.png
If you select the Start Up item titled Screensaver, like above, you will see that the mate-screensaver is activated. Select the Edit button on the right of the window and you can change the settings. A window called 'Edit Startup Program' will pop up. Select the 'Browse' button on the right; this will bring up another window called 'Select Command'. Navigate this window by using the 'File System', under 'Places', on the left of the window until you get to /usr/bin. Scroll down until you find the file 'xscreensaver' and then select the command 'Open' at the bottom to the window.

If you have done the steps correctly, the remaining window should look like this:
Startup-Up-2.png
The next time you boot your computer, the xscreensaver logo will pop up momentarily at start up, and you will be operating under the xscreensaver demo permanently. I hope this hasn't been too complicated and that it helps anyone who prefers the xscreensaver over mate-screensaver (or gnome-screensaver for that matter)...

Hawkeye52

Re: Mate Screensavers

Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 6:19 pm
by manyroads
If you are as lazy as I am... I left the Mate Screensaver, installed two xscreensaver files via Synaptic (xcsreensaver-gl & xscreensaver-data). Then I edited all the .desktop files in usr/share/applications/screensaver. The edited desktop files are attached. Just drop them into your usr/share/applications directory. You should now have dozens of screensaver options.

NO WARRANTIES are Expressed, implied, given or even though about... :oops:

Enjoy.

Re: Mate Screensavers

Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2012 6:57 pm
by Lykopis
Serveral of the xscreensavers need to know where your pictures folders is at to function properly.
I discovered that this will make that happen for you.

Open the console (terminal) and type the following:

cat > .xscreensaver

grabDesktopImages: False
grabVideoFrames: False
chooseRandomImages: True
imageDirectory: /home/<user>/Pictures/<choosen folder>
mode: random
selected: -1

and press Ctrl+D to save the file.

Screensavers that are affected:
blitspin
carousel
decayscreen
distort
flipscreen3d
mirrorblob
photopile
ripples
rotzoomer
slidescreen
slip
spotlight
twang
zoom

Hope this helps, have fun!

Re: Mate Screensavers

Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 1:30 pm
by igor83
I have a collection of fourteen thousand paintings, natural landscapes, sculptures and buildings in high-resolution that look fantastic on a plasma monitor, and so a screensaver is important to me. The screensaver plays during parties while the computer is playing music and whenever the computer is idle for more than 5 minutes. I regard the screensaver as the most important component for the computer. In Windows XP I purchased a third-party utility known as gPhotoshow for its additional features. It is superior to the Windows default screensaver.

I want a screensaver that displays a random local image file for a user-configured number of seconds without special effects, but with the possibility of displaying title, filename and other info. I am not interested in any other types of screensavers and do not care about transitioning or special effects. Mate has a screensaver that is similar to these specifications, but it is preset to display each image for 20 seconds, no more and no less. I like to display each image for about 60 seconds, because the images may be masterpieces. I also want to be able to activate the screensaver immediately via a shortcut icon. I have not been able to make a working shortcut to activate the Mate screensaver. There is also a problem with the Mate screensaver turning on during video, but I was able to fix that problem with a clever hack that someone on the Linux Mint forum offered.

I tried xscreensaver and Gnomescreensaver and I think one other, but they seemed to have problems. I tried the edit to make xscreensaver load at boot, but it did not work on my install. At the moment I am configuring Linux Mint 13 KDE on a test computer to see whether it can replace Linux Mint 13 Mate, because KDE has a screensaver that permits changes to the amount of time each image is displayed. I need to determine whether KDE's screensaver can be activated via shortcut.

This afternoon, I searched for a slideshow for Mate using PackageKit. I evaluated Imageoporama, Pornview, and a couple of others and all of them seem to have something else in mind other than my purpose. Pornview is the closest to what I want, but it crashed trying to cope with a large dir of image files, and also does not appear to have any randomization function or automatic slideshow capability. A slideshow needs to have the ability to pick a random image. Imageoporama wants to make a video out of images rather than a slideshow.

Some of the packages that claim to have slideshow capability do not appear to have it, or at least the term "slideshow" is nowhere to be found in their front end. I was never able to get Pornview or Imageoporama to make a slideshow either. Both of them have difficulty dealing with a directory with many files in it. They are trying to read all the images and store all the information and create thumbnails. Thumbnails are not useful for a slideshow. Mate already has an image viewer / image browser that functions, so I uninstalled Pornview etc.

I found a solution by researching Mate screensaver. The solution is amazingly easy. Just create a launcher for this command line:

Code: Select all

mate-screensaver-command -a
That code will initiate a slideshow, if your screensaver is set to slideshow.

Next I'm going to work on getting the delay between pictures to about 60 seconds or so. I think that project will prove more difficult.