Xscreensaver issues

[neogeo]

Hi there. I’m not sure i 'm picked right subforum form my question but need HELP.

• How to properly autostart installed xscreensaver on my Manjaro KDE Plasma (x11) ???!!!

I put it in AutoStart with the parameter in Arguments xscreensaver --no-splash but the screensaver doesn’t load with the system, I changed the nosplash parameter in several different versions but nothing happens. . .

Any HELP please.

[cscs]

Probably see the wiki. There are especially caveats for plasma.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/XScreenSaver#Usage

[linux-aarhus]

@neogeo

How to properly autostart installed xscreensaver on my Manjaro KDE Plasma

In the system settings → workspace behavior → screen locking

That is likely to change when Plasma 6 is released next year.

[doctorx]

incorrect… in order to run xscreensaver, you need to disable the screen blanking and monitor power management nside of plasma… otherwise they will clash with each other.

I am to assume you installed xscreensaver from pamac or similar? Then in startup and shutdown click add application and add xscreensaver. edit the properties and add -no-splash to the arguments.

I use xscreensaver and let it control all the powermgmt. I also created a keyboard shortcut to xscreensaver-command -lock to meta-L (ie the windows-L) to lock immediately. run xscreensaver-demo to set options. If you need to start the daemon you can do it from there, The daemon has to be running in order to run the screensavers.

[neogeo]

That’s the point.
All disabled in Screen Locking and Power management so i only need a proper syntax to autostart xscreensaver splashed. Just that

[cscs]

I take it you have not followed/read the link?

edit the plasma-ksmserver.service user unit:

~/.config/systemd/user/plasma-ksmserver.service.d/override.conf

[Service] 
ExecStart= 
ExecStart=/usr/bin/ksmserver --no-lockscreen

Then logout and login again, and XScreenSaver should work properly now. See xscreensaver(1) § INSTALLING XSCREENSAVER ON KDE for more information.

And that link which has

In System Settings, un-check the following items, as these are controlled by xscreensaver-settings(1) now:

“Workspace Behavior / Screen Locking / Lock automatically”
“Workspace Behavior / Screen Locking / After waking from sleep”
“Workspace Behavior / Screen Locking / Keyboard shortcut”
“Hardware / Power Management / Screen Energy Saving”
“Hardware / Power Management / Suspend session”
"Hardware / Power Management / Laptop lid closed" = Do Nothing

If there are multiple tabs, you may need to change these settings on all three of them: “On AC power”, “Battery” and “Low Battery”.

2: Launch XScreenSaver at login.
Copy the file /usr/share/applications/xscreensaver.desktop into the directory ~/.config/autostart/
3: Make KDE’s “Lock” icon use XScreenSaver.
Find the “kscreenlocker_greet” program. It might be in “/usr/lib//libexec/*”, or it might be somewhere else. Delete that file and replace it with a file containing these two lines. Make it executable (chmod a+x).

#!/bin/sh xscreensaver-command --lock &

This change will get blown away when you upgrade.
4: Turn off KDE’s built-in locking on suspend, even harder.
Even after disabling KDE’s screen locking, above, it is possible that KDE will still use its built-in locker when you close your laptop’s lid. If that is happening, double-check the settings above, but if those are correct, try the following. First, ensure you are running KDE 5.21 or newer. Next, enable “systemd user sessions” for KDE so that you can edit the parameters for ksmserver:

kwriteconfig5 --file startkderc --group General \ –key systemdBoot true

Log out and back in.

Next, edit the plasma-ksmserver service to change how ksmserver is launched:

systemctl edit --user plasma-ksmserver.service

Replace the contents of the file that lets you edit with this:

[Service] 
ExecStart= 
ExecStart=/usr/bin/ksmserver --no-lockscreen

Then log out and back in again.

Notably the launch part you are after is:

2: Launch XScreenSaver at login.
Copy the file /usr/share/applications/xscreensaver.desktop into the directory ~/.config/autostart/

[neogeo]

@cscs
I have read everything you sent/wrote, but I don’t have more than half of those folders and files, especially on this newest Manjaro KDE installation, so I can’t manage it on proper way, unfortunately

[cscs]

The override file is not expected to exist - you create it.

The xscreensaver desktop file is provided by the package, you should have it.

$ pacman -Fl xscreensaver | grep -i desktop
xscreensaver usr/share/applications/xscreensaver-settings.desktop
xscreensaver usr/share/applications/xscreensaver.desktop

…so what exactly is the problem ?

[neogeo]

I have to write later in the day because now I go to work on a morning shift that lasts until 03:00PM local time (and now it’s 04:45AM for me). I report everything that happens.
Bye.

[neogeo]

All well done.
I have created all override files and folders and now my XscreenSaver load with system and working like a charm!!!

THX A LOT FOR HELPING!

[neogeo]

I was thought it’s all well done but i still have a problem i don’t know how to solve but the post is closed for posting
My XScreenSaver daemon don’t autostarting
I have got a message “Daemon is not running on display 0” or something similar and i have run it manually from Konsole to start ‘xscreensaver-demo’ and run Daemon manually from that point.

I am loosing my religion (hair too ). . .

Any HELP?

[bedna]

I can tell you this:

Even if you get it to work, it will stop working when plasma 6 is out and most likely will not get fixed. Plasma 6 will be wayland only and xscreensaver is x11 only.

So maybe pick your “battles”?

[cscs]

I guess we could double check the file;

cat ~/.config/autostart/xscreensaver.desktop

[neogeo]

@cscs
Yes we could. Here is outout:

cat ~/.config/autostart/xscreensaver.desktop                                                                 ✔ 
[Desktop Entry]
Categories=Screensaver;Security;GNOME;GTK;KDE;Motif;Qt
Comment[en_GB]=XScreenSaver daemon: screen saver and locker
Comment=XScreenSaver daemon: screen saver and locker
Exec='xscreensaver -no-splash &'
GenericName[en_GB]=
GenericName=
Icon=xscreensaver
MimeType=
Name[en_GB]=XScreenSaver
Name=XScreenSaver
Path=
StartupNotify=true
Terminal=false
TerminalOptions=
Type=Application
X-KDE-SubstituteUID=false
X-KDE-Username=

[neogeo]

Till it comes i have enough time.

[cscs]

Sorry I forgot about this.

I noticed you were missing a dash

Maybe also try with full path

Exec=/usr/bin/xscreensaver "--no-splash &"

[neogeo]

With or without dash and with or without full path all is the same
No Xscreensaver at startup

cat ~/.config/autostart/xscreensaver.desktop                                                                 ✔ 
[Desktop Entry]
Categories=Screensaver;Security;GNOME;GTK;KDE;Motif;Qt
Comment[en_GB]=XScreenSaver daemon: screen saver and locker
Comment=XScreenSaver daemon: screen saver and locker
Exec=/usr/bin/xscreensaver "--no-splash &"
GenericName[en_GB]=
GenericName=
Icon=xscreensaver
MimeType=
Name[en_GB]=XScreenSaver
Name=XScreenSaver
Path=
StartupNotify=true
Terminal=false
TerminalOptions=
Type=Application
X-KDE-SubstituteUID=false
X-KDE-Username=

[cscs]

Maybe try trimming it down to what is roughly the upstream equivalent (I could find)

[Desktop Entry]
Exec=xscreensaver --no-splash &
Icon=xscreensaver
Name=XScreenSaver
Comment=XScreenSaver daemon: screen saver and locker
Type=Application
Categories=Screensaver;Security;GNOME;GTK;KDE;Motif;Qt
Terminal=false

And if that does not work try it the way we get around weird autostart parsin in xfce, etc;

[Desktop Entry]
Exec=/usr/bin/sh -c "xscreensaver --no-splash &"
Icon=xscreensaver
Name=XScreenSaver
Comment=XScreenSaver daemon: screen saver and locker
Type=Application
Categories=Screensaver;Security;GNOME;GTK;KDE;Motif;Qt
Terminal=false

[neogeo]

ALEA IACTA EST !!!
My XscreenSaver autostart daemon finally worked!
The problem was that I wasn’t seeing any error messages after starting the daemon from the console. The main and only error was something like ‘The C language library is missing’ or something similar. After that I loaded C from regional settings and had to remove the ‘&’ parameter so now xscreensaver starts automatically and works like a charm.
Here is output:

cat ~/.config/autostart/xscreensaver.desktop                                                                        15s
[Desktop Entry]
Categories=Screensaver;Security;GNOME;GTK;KDE;Motif;Qt
Comment=XScreenSaver daemon: screen saver and locker
Exec=xscreensaver --no-splash
GenericName=
Icon=xscreensaver
MimeType=
Name=XScreenSaver
Path=
StartupNotify=true
Terminal=false
TerminalOptions=
Type=Application
X-KDE-SubstituteUID=false
X-KDE-Username=

THX A LOT !!!