xscreensaver error during use

[RainyCityDiver]

Mint 20.2 XFCE.

I am experiencing an intermittent error

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The XScreenSaver daemon doesn't seem to be running on display ":0.0". Launch it now?

when using xscreensaver. Normally XScreenSaver runs without issue when manually triggered, but once in a while I'll come back to the PC and it's stopped, and when I try to open XScreenSaver from the programs menu it'll open, and also open a window with the above error. After restarting the daemon it'll work again. There appears to be no pattern to the failure (but I haven't tracked it closely).

Do I need to add

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xscreensaver -nosplash

to startup? I already see two un-editable screensaver-related entries in my startup list.

[karlchen]

Hello, RainyCityDiver.

The cause of your trouble may be that you added the ancient obsolete xscreensaver to your LM 20.2 xfce system.
All my Mint systems with xfce use the newer xfce4-screensaver, which is part of the xfce.
Running 2 screensavers in parallel would, of course, trigger unexpected side effects. After all both screensavers would try to manage the same tasks, thus getting in each other's way.

What does the terminal command

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LC_ALL=C dpkg --list '*screensaver'

display?

Here only one of the 2, xfce4-screensaver and xscreensaver, is installed:

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$ LC_ALL=C dpkg --list '*screensaver'
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name                        Version            Architecture       Description
+++-===========================-==================-==================-===========================================================
ii  xfce4-screensaver           0.1.8-1~18.04      i386               screen saver and locker that is integrated with the xfce4 d
un  xscreensaver                <none>             <none>             (no description available)

Share your output with us, please.

Regards,
Karl

[donten]

xscreensaver has been running well on my past ubuntu boxes, and is running well on this mint box. It is likely the native screensaver is still running as karlchen suggests.

[smurphos]

The cause of your trouble may be that you added the ancient obsolete xscreensaver to your LM 20.2 xfce system.

Ancient, yes, obsolete no - very much a project under continual and active development - https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/changelog.html

[RainyCityDiver]

What does the terminal command

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LC_ALL=C dpkg --list '*screensaver'

display?

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(base) user@Grell:~$ LC_ALL=C dpkg --list '*screensaver'
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name              Version             Architecture Description
+++-=================-===================-============-=======================================
un  xfce4-screensaver <none>              <none>       (no description available)
ii  xscreensaver      5.42+dfsg1-1ubuntu1 amd64        Screensaver daemon and frontend for X11
(base) user@Grell:~$ 

[karlchen]

Hello, RainyCityDiver.

As can be told from your dpkg output, there is only xscreensaver on your LM 19.3 xfce system, not xscreensaver plus xfce4-screensaver .

When I noticed so, this was the moment, when I realized that I made you chase the wrong suspect.

By default, LM 19.3 xfce does not come with xfce4-screensaver. This one has been added on my LM 19.3 xfce systems by me. Almost forgot so. That was back in 2019.
By default LM 19.3 xfce comes with the software light-locker, displayed as Screen Locker in the list of Automatic Startup Programs.
This is the default "screensaver" on LM 19.3 xfce.

It will be started automatically everytime after you have logged in.
Please, check whether the process named light-locker is present in the list of loaded processes.

You can do so
a) either with the help of the graphical xfce taskmanager (invokable from the Mint application menu)
b) by executing the terminal command ps axu | grep -v "grep" | grep "light-locker"

The potential conflict in your case is not between xfce4-screensaver and xscreensaver, but rather between light-locker and xscreensaver.

I just verified that here on my LM 19.3 xfce system, light-locker has been disabled by
a) creating the text file ~/.config/autostart/light-locker.desktop
b) putting the following 2 lines in it, which prevent light-locker from starting up automatically.

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[Desktop Entry]
Hidden=true

Instead of light-locker only xfce4-screensaver starts up automatically. In your case it would be xscreensaver, which should start up automatically.

Regards,
Karl