HOWTO: Adjust screensaver settings in Dapper

[Campitor]

Hi.

Hope this thread is still alive. I don't care much about settings, I just want to disable a bunch of savers that are very hardware demanding, and some that are just plain ugly. How can I easily do this?? I've tried to find a conf.file that will allow me just to comment out the savers I don't want. Maybe I've been looking in the wrong places...I'm not too savy when it comes to modifying files, so please don't ommitt the obvious.

thanks in advance

[Bil-E-daKid]

Hey there,

From what I can tell, the list of available screensavers directly relates to files in the /usr/lib/xscreensaver location.

As a test, I moved out all the files starting with m and then started the screensaver panel and, lo, all the screensavers starting with m had disappeared.

It looks like you just need to remove the files for the screensavers that you want to go away. Perhaps move them to another location just in case you want them back at some point....

[Cariboo1938]

Hi all,
I hope this thread is still alive, because I want to know if I can apply the instructions (HOWTO: Adjust screensaver settings in Dapper) for for Edgy too?

[23meg]

Yes it does; the only difference is that the screensaver themes are stored in /usr/share/applications/screensavers .

[Cariboo1938]

Yes it does; the only difference is that the screensaver themes are stored in /usr/share/applications/screensavers .

Hello 23meg,
I was away for a few days and found this today...I think it's the answer two my question. Thanks a lot...I try tonight!
Cariboo

[dief-eh?]

(Update - 17.12.06: This guide works in Edgy as well.)

As you're probably aware, the gnome-screensaver GUI that ships with Dapper's GNOME 2.14.1 doesn't give the user any control on individual screensaver settings. I had previously posted a guide on replacing gnome-screensaver with xscreensaver,
<snip>

Hello,

Thank you for both your how-to guides. I'm afraid I'm still a bit confused. I've got Edgy working great, and the screensaver cycling through a stripped-down Pictures folder, but occasionally, I'd really like to be able to use Melchior Franz' excellent clock screensaver, which exists in /usr/share/applnk/System/Screensavers.

Can I just copy/move that file into /usr/share/applications/ screensavers?

Could it really be that simple? Or will I break something? :c)

[carney1979]

The suggested "fix" does not on Edgy because of this issue!! The directory you should be looking at is /usr/share/applications/screensaver

Now to find out how to copy and modify the glslideshow.desktop file so that I can create several screensavers that use different directorys as the source.

I only wanted to modify Euphoria on my Edgy machine, so I first opened a terminal and typed:

man euphoria

I was able to determine the switches I needed to make Euphoria run as I liked so I then opened the Euphoria file with:

sudo gedit /usr/share/applications/screensavers/Euphoria

After using 'man euphoria' I knew that changing the following line:

Exec=euphoria -r

to:

Exec=euphoria -r -p 1

..would give me the desired results.

Hope this example helps my fellow Edgy users out there.

David

[Cariboo1938]

Hi,
I'm still struggling with meg23's HOWTO.

Here is what I do:

1. Install xscreensaver.
Code:
sudo apt-get install xscreensaver

After this two new packages were installed: xscreensaver and xscreensaver-data!

2. When you want to adjust the settings of a particular screensaver, launch the xscreensaver preferences dialog with
Code:
xscreensaver-demo
and when asked whether you want to launch the daemon, click "Cancel".

After this command the preview window opens but I never was asked if I want to launch the daemon!

3. Open the gnome-screensaver theme file that corresponds to your selected screensaver in
/usr/share/applications/screensavers. For the Phosphor screensaver you'd have to do
Code:
sudo gedit /usr/share/gnome-screensaver/themes/Phosphor

On my system there is no such directory as /usr/share/gnome-screensaver/themes/!


Here I gave up because I can't figure out what went wrong!
Can somebody help, please!

[khedron]

Are the files in
/usr/share/applications/screensavers/
instead? There was a change with Edgy.

[Cariboo1938]

Are the files in
/usr/share/applications/screensavers/
instead? There was a change with Edgy.

Yes, the files are in /usr/share/applications/screensavers.
In /usr/share/gnome-screensaver are only the text files "gnome-screensaver-preferences.glade" and 'lock-dialog-default.glade". Do I have to transfer the files to this /usr/share/gnome-screensaver/themes/ location?