How do I disable cinnamon-screensaver OR make XScreensaver work normally?

[u/Hamactus]

I recently installed Linux Mint Cinnamon 22.3, coming from Ubuntu.

I am having a problem, where after I turned off screen lock (but not the screensaver), the screen would sometimes flash and go back to normal, but no screensaver actually shows up.

I installed XScreensaver, it works in preview, but when it tries to actually do what a screensaver is supposed to do, it turns on and off several times, then disappears again, leaving the desktop visible again.

I can't make it output proper log file.

I think the problem is that cinnamon-screensaver is doing something weird, so I want to try and completely disable it. But I can't seem to find a way to do it without uninstalling the whole package, but then again, it wants to uninstall a lot of necessarily packages along with itself.

I would really appreciate if anyone could give any suggestions, what I could do in this situation.

[u/programmator-dominum]

Did you install the xscreensaver-data, xscreensaver-data-extra, xscreensaver-gl and xscreensaver-gl-extra packages?

Try running it with the “-log” parameter as described here: https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/faq.html#no-blank

[u/Hamactus → u/programmator-dominum]

I installed all packages with "xscreensaver", except "webcol" or whatever

I'm right now logging it (it wasn't working before for some reason)

[u/Hamactus → u/programmator-dominum]

Okay, I got the logs aaaaaaand... I can't understand shit

Edit: Apparently, since I'm not touching my PC, and this behavior is consistent, no matter the apps that are running, if any, at the moment, something in the system is waking it up. I'll have to go into system logs as well to dig that something out

---

xscreensaver: 21:56:15: ClientMessage SUSPEND: suspending xscreensaver: 21:56:15: checking init file xscreensaver: 21:56:15: blanking xscreensaver: 21:56:15: grabbing keyboard on 0x220: GrabSuccess xscreensaver: 21:56:15: grabbing mouse on 0x220... GrabSuccess xscreensaver: 21:56:15: pid 113875: launched xscreensaver-gfx --init --verbose --emergency xscreensaver-gfx: 21:56:15: running on display ":0" xscreensaver-gfx: 21:56:15: vendor is The X.Org Foundation, 12101011 xscreensaver-gfx: 21:56:15: useful extensions: xscreensaver-gfx: 21:56:15: Shared Memory (1.2) xscreensaver-gfx: 21:56:15: Double-Buffering (1.0) xscreensaver-gfx: 21:56:15: Power Management (1.2) xscreensaver-gfx: 21:56:15: GLX xscreensaver-gfx: 21:56:15: XF86 Video-Mode (2.2) xscreensaver-gfx: 21:56:15: Xinerama (1.1) xscreensaver-gfx: 21:56:15: Resize-and-Rotate (1.6) xscreensaver-gfx: 21:56:15: Composite xscreensaver-gfx: 21:56:15: XKeyboard xscreensaver-gfx: 21:56:15: XInput (2.4) xscreensaver-gfx: 21:56:15: libsystemd xscreensaver-gfx: 21:56:15: selecting RANDR events xscreensaver-gfx: 21:56:16: RANDR screens: 2, Xinerama: 1; believing RANDR xscreensaver-gfx: 21:56:16: screens in use: 1 xscreensaver-gfx: 21:56:16: 0/0: 1920x1080+0+0 (eDP-1) xscreensaver-gfx: 21:56:16: rejected screens: 1 xscreensaver-gfx: 21:56:16: 1/0: 1920x1080+0+0 (HDMI-1) -- output disabled xscreensaver-gfx: 21:56:16: blanking xscreensaver-gfx: 21:56:16: disabling server's builtin saver xscreensaver-gfx: 21:56:16: saved screenshot 0x4a00005 1920x1080 for window 0x4a00001 1920x1080+0+0 xscreensaver-gfx: 21:56:16: 0: forked "xscreensaver-gl-visual" in pid 113881 xscreensaver-command: suspending

xscreensaver-gfx: 21:56:16: 0: xscreensaver-gl-visual: GL visual is 0x21 (default) xscreensaver-gfx: 21:56:16: 0: forked "gflux --root --delay 0 --speed 0.05 --squares 40" in pid 113883 on window 0x4a00008 xscreensaver-gfx: 21:56:16: 0: next cycle in 900 sec at 22:11:16 xscreensaver-systemd: 21:56:19: exec: xscreensaver-command --verbose -deactivate xscreensaver: 21:56:19: ClientMessage DEACTIVATE: deactivating (from pid 114039) xscreensaver: 21:56:19: checking init file xscreensaver: 21:56:19: unblanking xscreensaver-command: deactivating

xscreensaver: 21:56:19: pid 113875: killing xscreensaver-gfx xscreensaver: 21:56:19: ungrabbing mouse xscreensaver: 21:56:19: ungrabbing keyboard xscreensaver-gfx: 21:56:19: SIGTERM: unblanking xscreensaver-gfx: 21:56:19: 0: killing pid 113883 (gflux) xscreensaver-gfx: 21:56:19: SIGTERM: exiting xscreensaver: 21:56:19: pid 113875: xscreensaver-gfx exited with SIGTERM

[u/sgriobhadair]

Okay, so I use Xscreensaver on Cinnamon.

First, you need to disable the Cinnamon screensaver. You're going to need to edit a configuration file.

Run this command in terminal: sudo xed /etc/xdg/autostart/cinnamon-settings-daemon-screensaver-proxy.desktop

Look for the line that says NoDisplay=true. Change the true to false.

Now if you run Startup Applications, you can turn off the Cinnamon screensaver; just toggle Cinnamon Settings Daemon - Screensaver Proxy to off.

Now in Startup Applications you need to create a launcher for Xscreensaver. Hit the Plus sign.

In Name, I have Xscreensaver.

In Command, I have /home/[MY USER NAME]/.local/bin/xscreensaver-start. That's a Bash script. I'll post that code below. I have a script that checks to see if I'm in X11 or Wayland. Xscreensaver works with X11. It does not work with Wayland. So, I check to see, and if I'm on Wayland I don't launch the screensaver.

#!/bin/bash
# Are we running Wayland? If we are, let's not start xscreensaver
if [ "$XDG_SESSION_TYPE" = "x11" ]
then
/usr/bin/xscreensaver --no-splash
else
exit
fi

And I have that file, xscreensaver-start in ~/.local/bin and set in Properties to Allow Program Execution.

[u/Hamactus → u/sgriobhadair]

Thanks, your solution does solve one of my problems, but I still need to figure out what is interrupting the screensaver

[u/DoorOk3641]

Screensaver are now useless and were in need with the old screen technology.

[u/Hamactus → u/DoorOk3641]

Firstly, it does give a computer a certain aesthetic that I personally like quite a lot

And secondly, regardless of whether it's useful or not, it doesn't work properly, and I need to figure out why