Please switch to Xscreensaver!

Crashmaxx · Post by **Crashmaxx** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 5:26 pm

Gnome switched to gnome-screensaver a while back, and if you have ever used xscreensaver, you'll see why this sucks. They are similar, but xscreensaver lets you adjust which screensavers you want and all the settings. Since it is integrated into gnome, the end-user can't do much about this.

So can you have it to where mint will use xscreensaver instead of gnomescreensaver? And while you are making this automatic graphics settings program, you should have it deactivate any screensavers that won't work with your graphics settings. Which should be something much easier to do and manage with xscreensaver. This would be something that would really set mint apart from ubuntu and most other gnome distros.

Crashmaxx · Post by **Crashmaxx** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 4:27 pm

Can someone at least explain why this is an unreasonable request instead of just ignoring me? Does no one here remember having a normal working screensaver, and not just this "defaults only" one?

AFAIK there is no good way for me to change this myself, but it shouldn't be a big issue at the source level. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Post by **clem** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 4:44 pm

Hi,

I don't know much about it. After you posted that suggestion I tried xscreensaver and saw that it had more features but also that it was less integrated. Personally I don't need these additional features and I'd rather use something with a better Gnome integration.

Clem

Crashmaxx · Post by **Crashmaxx** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 5:30 pm

That is my point, it use to be the default screensaver gnome used. And it was integrated the same that gnome-screensaver is now. But gnome switched it and all the additional features went with it. So my hope was that you would be compiling gnome source to make the distro and it could therefore be integrated back it, presumably by just changing when it calls gnome-screensaver to instead call xscreensaver. I'm not a programmer so I really don't know. But I can't get this kind of integration myself, so I basically am stuck, and I feel it is a shame.

Anyway, thanks for the reply, I just wanted to know I wasn't being ignored. Its not a high priority or anything, but I just can't imagine it is that hard to integrate back in, since it was originally the default.

I wish gnome had never made the switch, it is very annoying to upgrade and lose features. It wouldn't be such a big deal if gnome-screensaver was being developed to match xscreensaver, but it appears to be dead, more or less.

Post by **clem** » Sat Dec 16, 2006 5:22 pm

Please, there's no need to be aggressive. There's nothing wrong with suggesting something.

Crashmaxx · Post by **Crashmaxx** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 9:38 pm

mahlerfan wrote:It would probably be easier if you yourself simply remove gnome-screensaver and install xscreensaver with apt-get or synaptic instead of demanding the entire distro go down your path because you don't like gnome-screensaver. I can't believe you actually asked them to rebuild gnome with your pet favorite app! Do you know how many hours it takes to compile gnome? And how many days it would take of testing to make sure that nothing was inadvertently broken?

I have done what you suggest, but that does not work. It is integrated and built into gnome. So it is not something I can change at a user level. I would be more then happy to recompile gnome myself and do all that work, and I would be happy to then share it with everyone that would want it. But I do not have the kind of knowledge to even consider such a thing. I made the assumption, that in the gnome source, it somehow simply calls upon gnome-sceensaver to do things, and to fix this would require only changing those calls to be xscreensaver instead.

I am not a programmer of any sort, so I have no clue how to actually change this. But since they made the switch some time ago from xscreensaver almost without thought, I could only assume it was not a difficult change at the source level.

I state again, that this only bothers me, because I lost a ton of customization, that is common everywhere else, and was present in gnome, just to have the "official" screensaver. And to try to replace it, I lose all integration and manage little more then to break many other functions. It makes no sense, and I would love to fix it, not just for me, but for everyone.

Am I wrong to feel that this was a step backwards for gnome? They broke the screensaver, for no perceivable reason, or benefit, for that matter. I only wish to fix what they chose to break.

If you have any info how to recompile gnome with xscreensaver instead, I would love to hear it. I have no idea, but I would be willing to give it a try, if anyone was willing to help. I'm happy to do all the legwork to do this, I just don't have the expertise, or even a clue where to start.