Disabling the screensaver

[Tom_SPQR]

Billyswong: I tried to keep the size of the photo as small as possible for the reason you state. This morning I was unable to take a photo of the menu's “All Applications” (the camera decided to stop cooperating), but I was able to take photos of the “System” and “Settings” folders that I see in my menu. I am now told those are too large to post here, so I attempt to replicate your ideas about grayscale and jpg (if I can get the camera to function).

[billyswong]

Billyswong: I tried to keep the size of the photo as small as possible for the reason you state. This morning I was unable to take a photo of the menu's “All Applications” (the camera decided to stop cooperating), but I was able to take photos of the “System” and “Settings” folders that I see in my menu. I am now told those are too large to post here, so I attempt to replicate your ideas about grayscale and jpg (if I can get the camera to function).

Another trick of getting smaller size screenshot file:

If one have GIMP installed, one can, after getting screenshot from computer internally, "copy to clipboard", paste it into GIMP, in Toolbox click "Rectangle Select Tool", drag the rectangle, then Image > Crop to Selection. Then one can try Image > Mode > Indexed...

From there, one can select a low value for example "Maximum number of colors: 16", then "Convert". This kind of compression usually work quite well for non-photo images that one only care the black-and-white text. After conversion, go File > Export As... and type the filename as anything.png
Such png files are more often than not, even smaller than grayscale jpg in this kind of screenshot scenario.

[Tom_SPQR]

All good to know, billyswong. At the moment I have to turn my attention to getting a refund on this P.O.S. and buying another camera. I received two incoherent replies from customer support and nothing since after repeated inquiries. But once I have something that actually works, I will definitely look into what looks to be very good information that you have given me.

[Tom_SPQR]

I apologize for this delayed response; I am recovering from a bout of health issues. Rumors to the contrary aside, my health does not appear to be improving with the passage of several decades.
 
After getting a refund on the non-compatible camera I bought a couple of months ago, I (finally) remembered good old ebay. Just got a functioning camera -- identical camera to my old (and recently dead) one. It is, in fact, plug-and-play. The manual speaks of photo resolution and pixel sizes. So I will be playing around with those to see what works on the forum. Looks like I can keep snapshots as small as 2 by 1.5 inches, so I think I will start with that size, at a high resolution, and take a photo of the portion of Menu > All applications where Screensaver should appear. Hopefully what I send will be legible to the reader AND of small enough size to send as an attachment (perhaps as jpg or png) . If the attachment is too large, I will try a lower resolution. Anyway, that’s the current plan.
 
Billyswong: Per your September 23 posting . . . Unfortunately, I do not see GIMP or clipboard anywhere in my menu.

[Tom_SPQR]

Well, that seemed to go well enough, once I got the flash turned off. The image (Menu > All Applications) seems clear enough on my end. [Screensaver is not listed.]

[billyswong]

Well, that seemed to go well enough, once I got the flash turned off. The image (Menu > All Applications) seems clear enough on my end. [Screensaver is not listed.]

Your screenshot shows that your computer is running Xfce Mint, not Cinnamon / Mate Mint. I think many of us wasted a lot of time by miscommunication in this aspect. Maybe click on the "Settings Manager" and see if there are screensaver setting there?

[Tom_SPQR]

Yes, I recall someone (perhaps you) pointing out my Xfce Mint system some time back. Obviously my misunderstanding.
I found "Settings Manager" and used the Menu's search engine for "screensaver". No results.
Here's a photo of what I see in the Settings Manager.

[Tom_SPQR]

Attached are photos of my Menu/System and Menu/Settings where the screensaver application should be listed (in alphabetical order). I hope these are helpful.

[billyswong]

I took some extra search in Google and it pointed me back to some old posts in this forum. Looks like Xfce screensaver setting in default Linux Mint is indeed confusing!

Since I don't have Xfce desktop... let try these 2 places (picked up from those old posts):
1) Power Manager. Any setting on turning off the screen / screen locking after idle there?
2) Session and Starup. Any item named Screen Locker or similar for us to disable in Application Autostart?

[Tom_SPQR]

You may be on to something here.

Xfce Power Manager > Security says:
Light locker
Automatically lock session (pulldown menu) when the screensaver is activated. [The only other option is "when the screensaver is deactivated."]
Delay locking after screensaver for 43 seconds.
Lock screensaver after the system is going to sleep. [This checkbox is checked.]

Session and Startup > General shows:
Shutdown
Lock screen before sleep

[billyswong]

Your issue finally won my curiosity enough that I setup'd QEMU and play the LM Xfce .iso in it.

In Power Manager > Display, one can push all the "blank after", "put to sleep after", 'switch off after" to the leftmost as "never".
In Power Manager > Security, one can choose the "automatically lock the session" as "never".
In Light Locker Settings, one can switch the "enable light-locker" to off.

All these looks like potential solution to your problem. And of course you may also uncheck the "lock screen when system is going to sleep"

The most promising setting in my eyes is the "blank after". Maybe it is just enough for setting that to solve your issue.

[Tom_SPQR]

This is great. You've suggested several possibilities here. My initial thought was to execute everything, but then I thought I go about it more slowly to see what is causing the problem. So I am going to
1. uncheck the "lock screen when system is going to sleep", and
2. set the slides (for both battery and plugged in) in Power Manager > 1.isplay > Display power management > Blank after to the far left (i.e., "Never").
And if that does not show positive effect, I will continue with your suggestions.

[Tom_SPQR]

I had typos in my last posting. More clearly stated:
1. In Xfce Power Manager > Security, I unchecked the "lock screen when system is going to sleep", and
2. I set the slides (for both battery and plugged in) in Xfce Power Manager > Display > Display power management > Blank after to the far left (i.e., "Never").

Restarted my computer today, hoping to see Screensaver show up in my menu but it is, unfortunately, not to be found. So I will execute another of the suggested actions.

[billyswong]

Restarted my computer today, hoping to see Screensaver show up in my menu but it is, unfortunately, not to be found. So I will execute another of the suggested actions.

No, "Screensaver" is NOT going to show up in your menu. The Xfce Mint don't have any standard screensavers installed but just blank your screen and lock your computer via Light Locker. So Power Manager and Light Locker settings, while with confusing wordings, are all you have to enable / disable "screensaver". What we can test is let the computer idle and see if the computer still fire up "screensaver" automatically after the config.

[Tom_SPQR]

"No, 'Screensaver' is NOT going to show up in your menu." After writing that it struck me that it was kinda weird for me to be thinking that.
"The Xfce Mint don't have any standard screensavers installed but just blank your screen and lock your computer via Light Locker." Okay, I think this is what I described doing in my last (Nov. 9) post.
"So Power Manager and Light Locker settings, while with confusing wordings, are all you have to enable / disable 'screensaver'. What we can test is let the computer idle and see if the computer still fire up 'screensaver' automatically after the config." Does "idle" mean let the computer rest in shutdown mode for X number of days? And (sorry) I am unclear by what you mean by "after the config."

[billyswong]

"idle" means a computer, when turned on and logged in, nobody touch its mouse or keyboard for X number of minutes. (and nobody is playing video on it)
"after the config" means what we do/did for the disabling screensaver attempt.

[Tom_SPQR]

Thank you for explaining those terms. So you know, when I am dealing with this forum I start with a freshly rebooted computer.

[Tom_SPQR]

I've never looked into it before, but out of curiosity, I opened the software manager application and searched for "screensaver", which yielded a number of results. The one that stood out to me (because my 'Welcome to Linux Mint' screen shows "Xfce 64-bit" in fine print) was an application called Xfce-screensaver. (It has 0 reviews.)
Mt recent research has revealed that Xfce means "Xtra fine computing environment" and that some describe it as "a lightweight and modular desktop environment". (Does "lightweight" mean that Xfce is not a full-fledged version of Linux Mint and that for that reason Screensaver is not to be found on my menu?)
I am wondering: Would installing Xfce-screensaver would be a wise move toward achieving my objective?

[billyswong]

Xfce is modular enough such that the proper screensaver module is not compulsory. The Linux Mint Xfce variant, positioned to be the lighter variant of Linux Mint, turns out choosing to skip it and put Light Locker in place of it. If your objective is seeing good-looking screensaver, then replacing Light Locker back to Xfce-screensaver worths a try. But since your goal is disabling screensaver altogether, I skipped discussing any solution that involve this path.

Does "screensaver" (screen blackening) still show up after you "never'ed" all the items in Power Manager?

[Tom_SPQR]

You speak of seeing a "good-looking screensaver". That gave me food for thought.
I used to have on my Windows computer decades ago that included a "screensaver" program in which one could choose among various options of images that kept moving around. I hadn't thought about that program in quite awhile. When screensaver was first mentioned on this thread I was not sure what type of program it was. I'm thinking now it is a Linux version of the old Windows screensaver. Except that I do not recall ever seeing that type of screensaver (constantly moving images) on this computer.
As to what I've done to disable the screensaver altogether [FYI: this more is merely a note to myself], on Nov. 8 (per your suggestions) I unchecked the "lock screen when system is going to sleep", and set the slides (for both battery and plugged in) in Power Manager > Display > Display power management > Blank after to the far left (i.e., "Never").