How can I change or install screensavers?

Question

I want to change the default screen saver in Ubuntu 11.10/12.04. On 11.04 I just did a

sudo apt-get install xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod

And then I could change it in the control center -> screen saver options.

Now there seems to be no other option to change the default screen saver.

score 95 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 05 '13 at 16:46

95

Background

The Gnome 3 Devs dumped the old gnome-screensaver. The replacement screensaver is just a blank screen.

The Canonical Devs thought it was a useful idea to continue and raised a blue-print for implementation in Oneiric.

A few ideas were raised such as a Compiz specific implementation or reusing a Lubuntu/Xubuntu screensaver implementation.

However, at the time of writing, no implementation has been started.

XScreenSaver

installation

Potential workaround - installing xscreensaver

sudo apt-get install xscreensaver xscreensaver-gl-extra xscreensaver-data-extra

Now remove gnome-screensaver

sudo apt-get remove gnome-screensaver

Now start the xscreensaver configuration tool - from a terminal:

xscreensaver-demo

or search from the Dash:

enter image description here

Click OK to both prompts asking to turn-off Gnome Daemon and to start xscreensaver-daemon respectively.

dash search

starting xscreensaver from login

Now to start the xscreensaver daemon on login you need to search in Dash for startup applications

Create a new entry running the command xscreensaver -nosplash

Locking the screen

If you want to manually lock the screen with the keyboard combination CTRL+ALT+L then you will need to run the following to repoint the old gnome-screensaver lock to xscreensaver

sudo ln -s /usr/bin/xscreensaver-command /usr/bin/gnome-screensaver-command

Logout or reboot for all changes to take effect.

edited Jun 05 '13 at 16:46

belacqua

23,120

answered Oct 03 '11 at 18:53

fossfreedom

172,746

1

This works great for me :) ... thanks for the help i now got the good old bsod again – tinuz Oct 03 '11 at 21:22
2

I wish I could upvote this more than once.... – belacqua Nov 07 '11 at 20:34
This works in 13.05. :) – Simon May 27 '13 at 09:42
I recommend also Really Slick Screen Savers sudo apt-get install rss-glx – Mariuz Sep 18 '14 at 15:44
1

For 14.10 this doesn't work :( – Danatela Nov 25 '14 at 07:20
What's the command name of the GUI on the screenshoot? screensaver says «command not found», and xscreensaver is just a command line tool. – Hi-Angel Jul 14 '16 at 10:17
This works but it even shows the screensaver when I watch a movie on the browser. I don't want that! What should I do to make it show screensaver only when I'm not having anything going on? – RawCode Apr 26 '22 at 09:43

Tachyons · Answer 2 · 2012-03-17T22:42:32.367

Ubuntu 11.10 doesn’t come with screensaver package installed. You must install xscreensaver if you want screensavers activated when your computer becomes idled.

sudo apt-get remove gnome-screensaver
sudo apt-get install xscreensaver xscreensaver-gl-extra xscreensaver-data-extra

Links

Disclaimer

Above method works in 11.10 ,i didn't tried in 12.04

Tried it on 12.04 and i works like a charm!! – tinuz Aug 13 '12 at 08:25 — tinuz, Aug 13 '12 at 08:25

carnendil · Answer 3 · 2013-06-05T17:28:09.997

Please take note that, for Ubuntu 12.04 and in order to be able to run several screensavers using images from the harddisk (e.g., Carousel, Gleidescope, GLSlideshow, Jigsaw, or XAnalogTV) , I had to install some additional packages.

These are:

libxss-dev
libxss1-dbg
libxss1
kdelibs-bin
kdelibs5-data
kdelibs5-plugin

Many others might get installed automatically together with the ones listed, particularly KDE libraries.

I found the instructions in this blog.

score 1 · Answer 4 · edited Jun 04 '12 at 21:47

If you sudo apt-get remove gnome-screensaver but then sudo apt-get install rss-glx (see this Ubuntu Forums post and this one), the Really Slick Screensaver (GLX) effects will run on top of a screen that has not been blanked under Unity in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, not just in xscreensaver-demo but also when the real screensaver kicks in.

Hence, a solution is required that does (even in the absence of gnome-screensaver) blank the screen prior to running the xscreensaver (which does work fine under LXDE for one thing).

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 17 '12 at 22:32

0

There is no screensaver by default in Ubuntu. You can install xscreensaver from the archives.

I'm not entirely sure screensavers actually do save screens anymore, though I'm inclined to think they don't. But they do consume large amounts of energy that could be better used for other things.

answered Mar 17 '12 at 22:32

Jo-Erlend Schinstad

29,531

They prevent image burn-in on LCDs. And the amount of energy consumed by CPU is less than what Flash applets in a browser consume during normal day. – Victor Sergienko Dec 04 '13 at 15:10
Switching off a monitor is a more efficient way to save both energy and the screen, wouldn't you say? This wasn't always possible. – Jo-Erlend Schinstad Dec 04 '13 at 16:18
Indeed. Though, there's a corner case - I don't want to warm up the monitor every time I'm away for less than 10 minutes, but would like it to auto-lock my screen. Blank screen is still there in Gnome, and why not replacing it with some fun pictures. – Victor Sergienko Dec 04 '13 at 17:28
It encourages people to not power down their monitors, is one answer. – Jo-Erlend Schinstad Dec 05 '13 at 11:22

How can I change or install screensavers?

5 Answers5

Background

XScreenSaver

Linked

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