Noob question: where is the screensaver (in KDE)

So embarrassing, but I’ve searched enough so I had to ask.

I’ve just updated (zypper Dup) my KDE Tumbleweed. Bam → the whole look changed, including the disappearing screensaver, because I hadn’t updated it for a month. [nice look though Frameworks 5.10]

I can no longer find the screensaver in “Configure Desktop”. Where has it gone?

On 2015-06-01 01:06, swerdna wrote:
>
> So embarrassing, but I’ve searched enough so I had to ask.
>
> I’ve just updated (zypper Dup) my KDE Tumbleweed. Bam → the whole look
> changed, including the disappearing screensaver, because I hadn’t
> updated it for a month. [nice look though Frameworks 5.10]
>
> I can no longer find the screensaver in “Configure Desktop”. Where has
> it gone?

I read something about it being insecure. Kill screensaver from another session or terminal, and you get access. I didn’t pay much attention, though.

Found it:

+++—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-
Date: Wed, 20 May 2015 07:27:39 +0200
From: Luca Beltrame <...@kde.org>
To: opensuse-factory@opensuse.org
Subject: [opensuse-factory] Re: screen-saver setup is found where?

C. Brouerius van Nidek wrote:

Hello,

> change. Was able to get rid of the screen-locker but could not find a
> place to setup a screen-saver.

AFAIK you need to configure xscreensaver manually. Direct support for
XScreensaver has been removed due to security concerns (kill screensaver ->
get access to the machine) and other technical reasons. Also this has been
discussed on the KDE Community Forums, including a poll which showed that
the majority of the participants were fine with the removal.

There’s a blog post (long) detailing the reasoning, however I can’t link it
at the moment as it is down.
—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-+±


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.

(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))

I’ve been working with TW & as I understand it TW is exclusively KF 5 now.
One thing about KF 5 is there is no screensaver at this time. From what I’ve read it’s under consideration but don’t hold your breath!
There are a couple of alternatives available
1 You maybe aware of this is wolfi 323’s repo that’ll allow use of KDE4 in Tumbleweed.
2 If you are using KF exclusively this one is a little involved
a) go to ~/.config/kscreenlockerrc
b) change it so that it’ll look something like this:

$Version]
update_info=kscreenlocker.upd:0.1-autolock

[Daemon]
Autolock=false
LockGrace=0
LockOnResume=false
Timeout=0

[Greeter]
Theme=org.kde.breeze.desktop

click Save close go to Your Desktop

c) Right click on your desktop select Desktop Settings
d) Look for Wallpaper hit the dropdown menu & select Slide Show
e) set up the pic folder of choice enjoy!
Hope that helps & one more thing we’re here to help every Opensuse user even Admins! Besides I’ve asked dumber questions!

It is now “System Settings” rather than “Configure Desktop”. If you are still seeing “Configure Desktop” then you are still configuring KDE4 rather than Plasma 5.

Under “System Settings” (which looks a bit like the old “Configure Desktop”, open the “Desktop Settings”. Screen locking is there.

If you are using Tumbleweed’s KDE Plasma, see KInfoCentre, it should now be at 5.3.1, are you?

I couldn’t find it either, so it must be n.t. :wink: Power management and screen locker do the trick here.

By 5.3.1, the menu entries for settings changed. I now see “Configure KDE4 Applications” in Favorites, and for Plasma 5 its “Configure Desktop” in Applications > Settings.

I’ve got from kinfo openSUSE 20150529 ==> KDE Plasma ver 5.3.1
In Settings I can see both Configure Desktop and Configure KDE4 Applications

In Configure Desktop ==> Power Management I see nothing about screensaver, just various screen powers.
In Config KDE$ Apps there’s a screensaver option in Display and Monitor that has no screensavers to activate

This will do for now: I can activate xscreensaver through using command: xscreensaver-demo. That way I configure a screensaver. To get the saver to run I have to make a script “saver.sh” and it goes like this:

sleep 3; xscreensaver-command -activate

I’ve got that in sh file in bin. I have a KDE link to saver.sh on the desktop that activates the screensaver. That runs the saver and locks the screen. Best I can do. At least I can now click to exit the room and what I’m working on stays safe.

Thanks guys.

In addition I have to activate the daemon in KDE Startup facility for run at boot time

Same here, although at …0530 now.

In Configure Desktop ==> Power Management I see nothing about screensaver, just various screen powers.
In Config KDE$ Apps there’s a screensaver option in Display and Monitor that has no screensavers to activate

Indeed nothing in PM, but I see a “Dim screen” setting there and enabled (notebook/laptop?), and with screen locker set only for “Lock screen on resume” (Desktop Behaviour), it’s enough for me.

On KDE4 I had screensaver disabled, and see no “screensaver option in Display and Monitor” in Config KDE4 Apps now.

As has been mentioned already, screensaver support has been dropped/removed completely in Plasma5 (about a year ago already).
There’s only the screen locker.

And enabling screensavers in KDE4 has no effect at all if you use Plasma5.

The only option is to use xscreensaver directly, I think that should work.

Yep, I’ve seen that comment elsewhere, and I don’t miss or need the feature. :slight_smile:

The point was that Swerdna sees the option he mentioned but I don’t.

Indeed it works fine as I laid out a quick method above for others

For Those interested in having a screensaver in their TW with with KDE Plasma 5 Swerdna did a how to.
It’s here:
https://forums.opensuse.org/content.php/190-Alternate-Screensaver-in-KDE-Plasma-5