Looking for a screensaver or screen blanker that does not totally stop sending signal

[bullwinkle2]

EDIT: I am redefining my request, since the word "screensaver" seems to have some negative connotations. So now I am looking for something that will let me launch a full screen static image (.png or .jpeg or similar file) and display it until I come back and hit a key or something. That will do what I need and in particular it will not lock the screen or turn off the signal to the display or activate power management or anything like that.

(This is what I had written previously, please ignore it as it seems to inspire "solutions" that won't work for me and that kind of miss the whole point, I am only leaving it here so the discussion that follows in the first few messages makes sense and because some of the proposed solutions may work for other, even if they don't work for me).

I just started using Ubuntu 24.04 as my main desktop computer and I am looking for a screensaver that turns the full screen area black (or very dark grey) after some period of inactivity but does NOT completely turn off the signal to the display, and that still allows popup notifications to be displayed. So nothing involving lock screens, power management or anything like that, just something that sends a static black or dark grey image to the full screen area until there some activity with the keyboard or mouse. The privacy/security setting in Ubuntu isn't suitable because it stops sending any signal at all; I need it to send an all-black or very dark image to the display.

[TheFu]

xscreensaver doesn't work?
Run the xscreensaver-demo to tweak the settings. https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/ has more details, if you need them. The trick is the "Advanced tab" and choosing the glSlideShow screen saver.

To be clear, Wayland probably won't work with xscreensaver.

[ActionParsnip]

Could just turn the monitor off.....

[bullwinkle2]

xscreensaver doesn't work?
Run the xscreensaver-demo to tweak the settings. https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/ has more details, if you need them. The trick is the "Advanced tab" and choosing the glSlideShow screen saver.

To be clear, Wayland probably won't work with xscreensaver.

Ubuntu 24.04 runs Wayland, And yes I know it is possible to boot into X but that increases the bootup time significantly and I am not sure what else it might break. There's no screensaver or screen blanker that works with Wayland?

[bullwinkle2]

.

[bullwinkle2]

Could just turn the monitor off.....

Thank you, Captain Obvious.

[Holger_Gehrke]

Most - if not all - screen savers and screen lockers are meant for an environment where there are people around who are not meant to read your screen, so they hide notifications by basically putting an undecorated window on top of everything. Letting notifications get on top of that window would be considered a security breach in such an environment (think of an email notification giving the sender and topic of the mail ...).

Holger

[TheFu]

https://www.jwz.org/blog/2023/09/way...screen-savers/ has some statements about Wayland and screen savers.

[bullwinkle2]

Most - if not all - screen savers and screen lockers are meant for an environment where there are people around who are not meant to read your screen, so they hide notifications by basically putting an undecorated window on top of everything. Letting notifications get on top of that window would be considered a security breach in such an environment (think of an email notification giving the sender and topic of the mail ...).

Holger

I have no idea why you would assume that, I know plenty of home users that run screensavers. That said I could live without the notifications being visible, as long as it sends some kind of signal to the display so I don't get the bouncing warning that there is no signal.

[bullwinkle2]

https://www.jwz.org/blog/2023/09/way...screen-savers/ has some statements about Wayland and screen savers.

Well I almost wish you had not posted that, because I did not understand much of it (the technical parts - I am not a programmer so those are pretty meaningless to me) but the rest of it just kind of made me angry. Why are the Gnome developers on such high horses about screensavers? That is the sort of thing that turns people into distro hoppers. I have been using Ubuntu on my home theater PC for years and always had to turn off the screensaver on it, now I finally decide to make the jump to using Ubuntu on the desktop (having left MacOS) and I keep running into these little issues where the problem always seems to be Wayland, OR the combination of Gnome and Wayland. I'm starting to feel really sorry I did not choose Linux Mint with the Cinnamon desktop; only reason I didn't was because I don't like the "Windows look" of Mint and I don't like that it comes pre-loaded with all kinds of software I'd never use. I think Gnome with X Windows would have been fine (and still would be if it didn't take so damn long to boot, what's with that?) or maybe Wayland and some other desktop, but it seems to me that the combination of Wayland and Gnome is kind of toxic and now from what I have been reading I think that may be more on Gnome than on Wayland.

That said, even though I am not a programmer, I really don't see why a screen blanker should be so difficult. I could probably figure out some way to make a very long, low res video that is solid black with no sound and play it full screen in VLC, but seems like that would waste a lot of power just to turn the screen black But if VLC can go full screen and Firefox can go full screen, isn't there anything that can just display an image file full screen? I can create a solid black image in GIMP, if it comes to that. Maybe because I used the term "screensaver" people are overthinking this, I just want a way to turn the screen black for short periods. Other people might want a way to put up a particular picture on their screen while they are away. Are you seriously saying there is no way to do that in Ubuntu, and that it is because the Gnome developers have some kind of bug up their butts about screensavers?