Ubuntu
gnome-screensaver package

Screensavers in Ubuntu 11.10

Asked by Neal Gamradt

I know that in Gnome 3 it was decided that screensavers are no longer needed. Though I get the theory, in practice it sucks you can't even have a simple slideshow going by when the screen is locked. During the few times when I am focusing on paper documents and have my screen locked, it is nice to not just have two blank screens adding to the blandness of my work cube. Is it possible to have basic support for a clock or slideshow?

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Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said : 		#1

The package xscreensaver installs a bundle of screen savers (even more with the additional packages xscreensaver-data-extra and xscreensaver-gl-extra).

The only problem is the 'lock' command (ctrl-alt-l) if you want that to work you have additionally to enter the command
sudo ln -s /usr/bin/xscreensaver-command /usr/bin/gnome-screensaver-command
see also http://www.tuxgarage.com/2011/10/installing-xscreensaver-in-11-10-ubuntu.html

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Neal Gamradt (ngamradt-d) said : 		#2

Hello Manfred,

Thank you for the information. I am aware of xscreensaver, but for my work purposes xscreensaver is not sufficient. From what I was reading, windows can still pop up above xscreensaver because it isn't tightly integrated with Gnome.

Also, if Gnome truly isn't going to support a screensaver, they should give an option to actually change what the "lock" command points to, doing the symlink is a hack that shouldn't have to be done. If Gnome isn't going to support this feature (which they previously supported), they should make it easier to set up an alternative. And make sure there is at least one alternative that is tightly integrated so that no message windows can appear above the screensaver.

Again, I do thank you for the details, but it doesn't fully solve the issue.

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Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said : 		#3

Seems that you have to wait for upcoming releases (or updates).
A blueprint https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/desktop-o-screensaver as well as several bug reports and question documents confirm that this is a hot topic that is not solved yet.

If the workaround with xscreensaver does not meet your needs you most probably have to live with the blank screen for the time being.

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