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Idea #185: Add screensaver settings in gnome-screensaver

Written by gooz the 28 Feb 08 at 20:08. Category: System. Related project: Nothing/Others. Status: New
Rationale
Since I don't think many people would be scared of an extra button to configure their selected screensaver, it would be really nice if it could be included (like it is in xscreensaver-settings).
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Solution #1: Auto-generated solution of idea #185
Written by gooz the 28 Feb 08 at 20:08.
Ubuntu Brainstorm was updated in January 2009. Since the idea #185 was submitted before this update, its rationale and solution are not separated. Please vote accordingly, and if you have the necessary rights, please separate the rationale from the solution. Thanks!
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Solution #2: Package Xscreensaver by default.
Written by qwerty800 the 20 Aug 09 at 13:10.
Seriously, why in hell were the developpers thinking when they included gnome-screensaver by default?

*It causes full-screen games to crash with Compiz enabled
*It don't have any way to set preferences
*It needs patches for everything!

And what does the main developper of this project say about that?
"I'm not paid to do this and, anyway, that's the way I want gnome-screensaver to work."

Man, Canonical's crew was probably on crack when they decided to include a such immature software BY DEFAULT!!

Xscreensaver is better in EVERY WAYS, change it back!

Propose your solution

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keen101 wrote on the 28 Feb 08 at 20:09
It would be nice. Currently I have to remove Gnome Screensaver and install Xscreensaver to get screensaver prefrences.

pt123 wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 02:17
Please fix this non sense, it gives new users impressions of how limited the OS is.

mikedep333 wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 02:27
Yes most definitely. Removing commonly desired features is not how you are supposed to make things easy.

Cybercod wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 03:04
Agreed.

What is the point of having cool screensavers if you can't configure them at all... I mean, heck, there is a slideshow screensaver for pictures... and you can't even customize what pictures are used! LAME!

This should have been fixed 3 versions ago.

Zyith wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 04:03
I agree. I also currently install xscreensaver over it.

Hiding options from users is stupid. If I want three random screensavers, then I should be able to set this up without having to go through the weird "screensaver themes" thing Gnome expects.

Just give me a checkbox.

lluisanunez wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 08:28
Just get xscreensaver back!

gcc wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 11:23
Yes! xscreensaver back!!!

caustic wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 14:21
Cut down on the number of screensavers, too. Just keep the best of the best. I nominate (the names need to be better, t hough):

Circuit
Cosmos
Endgame
Euphoria
Flux
Flurry
F-Spot Photos
GLSlideshow
GLText
Pipes
Plasma
Regular 4D Polytopes

Also, integrate the photo savers to use the same engine with different selections (like the Mac does).

Zyith wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 18:46
Caustic, the problem is, your best of the best may not be what everyone else wants. In fact, most of the ones I use aren't on your list.

I like goofy screensavers like Phosphor and BSOD.

1338h4x wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 20:32
The more the better, and that's what having options are all about. I hate gnome-screensaver with a passion due to how it lacks options and how the author thinks options are evil and unnecessary.

WamBamBoozle wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 23:20
xscreensaver doesn't handle messages from full screen applications such as watching movies that disable it while the movie is playing. The sad thing is this used to work and then gnome *improved it* by changing the protocol ever so slightly thus rendering xscreensaver useless. Some kind person needs to port xscreensaver to follow gnome conventions for suspending the screensaver.

adelie wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 23:32
While I think their reasoning is COMPLETELY ABSURD, and that is all that needs to be said, there are two things that should be realized.

1) Gnome is its own seperate project, like, well, everything. Gnome WILL NOT EVER put this feature in. There is an explaination in their forums that, again, I disagree with. 1338h4x mentions this too.

Sure, easy solution and I am sure EVERYONE (nearly) agrees that x-screensaver is WAY better and as that author states, is everything the gnome-screensaver author is too bull headed to listen to anyone about, which is what makes open source so wonderful, which brings me to item #2: Why not put in xscreensaver by default, and it falls on one of Ubuntu's strengths, even if to a fault.

2) Ubuntu supports a solid and complete system. Linux will comtinue to explode with growth as hardware / driver developers won't feel screwed by the world of possibilities (how man packages are there, even just IN the repository, let alone all that is not). Canonical / Ubuntu has delivered on its promise of 'develop for ubuntu, and your drivers / software will work everywhere in the Linux world. Vendors NEED that type of confidence, and they ARE coming around as a result. So, what does this have to do with using the obvious BAD gnome-screensaver over X-screensaver? Its gnome, and ubuntu's support for gnome being clear and complete. Ubuntu / Canonical can say "We are an X windows based disto with the gnome desktop environment". For better or worse, for he sake of getting companies to support linux, ubuntu CAN'T be "well, its is kinda our own mix of X and xfree86 with parts of gnome but done this other way". Business look at that and say, as they should, "Well, you just get back to us when you got all that mess figured out while we develop for the consistently and reliably M$WXP/V.

ethana2 wrote on the 2 Mar 08 at 07:31
Caustic, that is a bad idea.

Give us choice; we shouldn't have to seek it out.
If gnome won't do this, give us the X screensaver thing instead.

ethana2 wrote on the 2 Mar 08 at 07:32
Also, I use the screensavers as my desktop background, and if I didn't have to use the terminal to do that, it'd be that much cooler.

shadowfirebird wrote on the 2 Mar 08 at 21:21
+1. Bring xscrensaver back.

Granted, Ubuntu Gnome. But Ubuntu could spend a little time making Xscreensaver gnome compatible. And every other distro would love us for it...

HDave wrote on the 4 Mar 08 at 02:43
Great idea. Way overdue!

christian.convey wrote on the 4 Mar 08 at 10:21
ethena2,

Are you saying that you're able to have a live screensaver as your desktop background while you're using your desktop? I could never find info on how to do this - mind sharing?

sebsauvage wrote on the 10 Mar 08 at 15:13
While waiting for a solution, there is a workaround:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=195557&page=5

It works great under Ubuntu 7.10.

I hope next releases will fix this non-sense.

muecker wrote on the 12 Mar 08 at 22:24
I would really like the ability to easily disable a screensaver from the GUI. I have had issues with screensavers locking up and not allowing me to get back to my desktop. I would like to be able to turn those screensavers off and leave the others active.

XerxesXS wrote on the 18 Mar 08 at 13:23
Whilst I do not use the Gnome-Screensaver (mostly to do with the restrictions on the settings we are allowed; ie, NONE) it would be nice to actually allow users to change the settings. Many of the (nicer) screensavers look awful on large screens, mainly attributable to the fact that the resolution is set at one low value.

To my mind, this is rediculous. I understand Gnome's reasoning, but a large proportion of users are crying out for this to be implemented- especially those coming from windows, this seems especially arcane and un-necessary.

I would have thought that Canonical would want to limit the amount of areas that users can say 'I can do that better in windows'...

zooounds wrote on the 7 Apr 08 at 13:46
It's just stupid to remove the settings.

Narasinha wrote on the 12 Apr 08 at 15:19
I think the maintainer of the gnome-screensaver package is going down the wrong road with this idea. I would like to see the settings for individual screensavers put back. When I use the "phosphor" screensaver, for instance, it would be nice to be able to change where it gets its text from. The screensavers themselves were created to be configurable. It's pretty sad when one simple part of Gnome is making me seriously think about switching to KDE permanently. Removing the settings was a bad idea from the start.

volvoguy wrote on the 15 Apr 08 at 12:20
I totally miss being able to configure the screensavers (and didn't know about switching to Xscreensaver). A lot of the 3D screen savers especially need to be tweaked to run optimally on a given system - and often I just plain like other presets better than the ones picked for me. I specifically have the RSS screensavers in mind, but I'd like to be able to tweak any of them.

If everyone wants to stick with the current package, is it really that difficult to add a "configure" button and offer a GUI to the .xscreensaver configuration file?

This may seem like a trivial issue, but it's usually the first thing I go check when a new release comes out... "Is the configure button back yet?!" :-)

Ubuwu wrote on the 18 May 08 at 01:33
xfx screensaver settings which does this is now available at: http://software.xfx.net/utilities/sss/

drinkypoo wrote on the 15 Jun 08 at 14:50
@christian.convey look for "xwinwrap". However due to a stupidity of the GNOME desktop it is not currently possible to disable GNOME's control of the desktop background without either patching nautilus or disabling desktop icons (no great loss to my mind, but whatever.)

@volvoguy the configure button will NEVER come to gnome-screensaver (barring a new, more intelligent maintainer taking over the project.)

@Ubuwu there is no need whatsoever for that. We already have "xscreensaver" which is where all the screensavers come from already! (You think those are from GNOME? h0 h0 h0) jwz (xscreensaver's author) says that gnome-screensaver is bad, wrong, and stupid and let's face it, jwz is not known for being full of crap. Here's the citation: http://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/faq.html#gnome-screensaver

A REAL SOLUTION: Let's eliminate gnome-screensaver by default, and just install xscreensaver. Free tip: If you remove gnome-screensaver, then the "Screensaver" icon in preferences will run xscreensaver-demo. At least, the change happened automatically on my Hardy system. The simple truth is that having screensaver configuration is not too confusing for users on windows, so there's no reason it should be too complicated for users on Linux either.

ilektron wrote on the 16 Jul 08 at 08:35
I would like settings for my screensavers very much. I will never win a 'KDE vs Gnome' argument until this issue has been fixed.

+1

keen101 wrote on the 31 Jul 08 at 04:36
Yeah i remember Ubuntu 5.10 had xcreensaver by default.

+1 to bring it back as the default.





Sure it has way too many screensavers, but choice is good.

AleRi8 wrote on the 3 Aug 08 at 11:37
+1 for me too the screensavers should have a choice of set screensaver as wallpaper too

johonbravo wrote on the 2 Jan 09 at 06:33
This has bugged me since 5.10, I want to customize what pictures folder it gets its slideshow from!

aliam13_2 wrote on the 2 Jan 09 at 19:08
+1 This is my only criticism about a design decision of gnome - I do not think screen saver settings are even a remote version of an advanced feature.

qwerty800 wrote on the 20 Aug 09 at 13:11
Yeah, let's include Xscreensaver by default!


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