screen savers on 18.1 kde? [Solved]

[wutsinterweb]

Ok, I think I saw something about this, a post somewhere that said that Mint was obviating the use of screensavers?

Anyways, couldn't find a configuration anywhere for turning them on, so I downloaded xscreensaver and the add on, but don't know how to make them work beyond actually choosing to run them. Is this what they call a chronjob?

I tried searching for some answers but didn't have much luck. I'd like to learn the commands to make various screensavers and other programs load when I want them to or associate them as needed. Also, is the setting one that is hard to find in a configuration setting somewhere?

[DangerousmaN]

This is an interesting subject, and I'm afraid I honestly don't know how to help.

I'm thinking that using a cronjob to fire off a screensaver would be a real poweruser move from the point of view that cronjobs are tied to explicit times rather than relative times, so to set up a cronjob to fire off in 10 minutes, you would have to calculate what the time will be in ten minutes and then submit a cronjob for that explicit time. Then you'd have to monitor keybords/mice in order to recalculate the time in 10 minutes and replace the old cronjob with the new one.

A power user could probably pull it off with a certain amount of elegance, but I'm no power user, and all of that sounds pretty Kludgy to me.

There are sure some nice screensavers in the opensource realm, it would be a shame if they are unavailable to 18.1 KDE.

[wutsinterweb]

For me, my computer experience partly involves being happy, happy that I can not only do somethings, but happy with how it feels, and pretty graphics make one feel good, they are fun and relazing and pleasing to the eyes, same reason I ogle Halley Barry.

Would love to be able to find a way to make a screen saver possible for this.

[ralplpcr]

Screensavers appear to have been removed by default in KDE Mint 18 & up, and have been replaced with simply a "lock screen".
It is possible to re-add them in, if you wish, however.

Simply install xscreensaver from the software manager. It involves a little configuration to make it work as an automatic screensaver, but fortunately the hard part of figuring it all out has been done for you.

See the discussion I found on this forum: http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php?topic=138037.0

Hope this does the trick for you!

[Jim Hauser]

I miss having screen savers too... But I love KDE 18.1!

So instead of an actual screen saver I switch to my Imaging activity. It has rotating wallpaper that changes every minute. With over 1500 images (so far) it never gets boring. In the past I have used Xscreensaver and it worked quite well on KDE. I do not know how well it works on the current version...

Cheers!

Jim

[wutsinterweb]

Works! Great! Man I love learning how to do these things.

[phd21]

Hi "wutsinterweb",

Welcome to the wonderful world of Linux Mint and its excellent forum !

It does appear that some of the previous screen saver options are not available in Linux Mint KDE 18.x like they were for previous versions. But maybe you can use the "Screen Locking" in the Systems Settings-> Desktop Behavior-> Screen Locking-> Wallpaper Tab-> Wallpaper Type, then choose "Slideshow" and add folder(s) where the pictures and images you want to see are located on your system, select "Change Time" to what you want.

Obviously, you can just have your desktop change the wallpaper in a similar way, right click desktop, select last option "Configure Desktop", select Wallpaper Type of "Slideshow", add folder(s), set timers, etc...

"Xscreensaver" look good and all its options in the Software Manager or Synaptic Package Manager (SPM). I tried this last night, and it worked great, some really nice screen savers too.

Maybe "kde-artwork-active", "light-locker-settings"? I added "kde-artwork-active" last night to a newer install of Linux Mint KDE 18.1, but I do not see any new options for screen savers anywhere yet. I have not added the "light-locker-settings" before, so I do not know what effect that may have, if any.

There is also an interesting option called "Variety wallpaper" changer that can be installed. I have not tested this on my KDE yet, which they have instructions for.
Variety is an open-source wallpaper changer for Linux
http://peterlevi.com/variety/


Hope this helps ...

[wutsinterweb]

This PCLinux forum tutorial works, but make sure you put in the -nosplash as they say and also xscreensaver-command -lock in customer shortcuts, action tab.

Also, I added all the xscreensaver add ons, don't know what makes a difference, but the opengl stuff is so cool!

[Solved]