hi, i just installed 12.1 gnome-shell, so far i only have a few problems, one being the screensaver activating while i watch flash videos. i’ll be happy with any solution that stops it from working.
so far i have tried alien with caffeine (seg faults), uninstalling gnome-screensaver (which wants to uninstall all of gnome-shell), running sudo killall gnome-screensaver, xset s off, xset -dpms, adding presentation mode extension (which i can’t find in the panel when enabled!) and following some howtos to disable gnome-screensaver. i have come close to putting my fist through my monitor, but decided to hit my head against the wall instead.
I set the gnome screensaver to not kick in until after 1 hour. That is probably sufficient. However, since I mainly use KDE, I’m not sure how that affects actual gnome experience.
so is there a gui to do that with? right now i have no idea what is controlling my screensaver because it just activated again and i tried killing gnome-screensaver and it’s not running now. i was going to chmod it to stop it working. i can’t find anything in running processes that mentions screensaver. i just want it to stop working!
What little configuration there is for the GNOME screensaver is in System Settings > Screen.
The GNOME screensaver now doesn’t do anything except blank/lock the screen. This is deliberate by the GNOME developers. Apparently they consider screensavers as we’ve all become accustomed to worthwhile any more. You also can’t disable it completely, the closest you can get is to blank after an hour. Again, deliberate by developers who apparently don’t comprehend why anyone might want to disable the screensaver completely.
Go to the user menu (top-right – the one you use to power off/log off etc.) and click on “System Settings” and then select “Screen” and then make your changes. (the “Turn off after:” drop-down is what controls what you are calling the “screensaver.”)
Please understand that many of the things that used to be built into Gnome have been moved to gnome-shell extensions. Yes you CAN disable it completely. You’ll need this extension: https://github.com/RaphaelKimmig/Gnome-Presentation-Mode
Needing to install an extension from github to get an option to disable the screensaver is ridiculous. There should be an option to disable it in System Settings. It’s basic, simple piece functionality.
i hadn’t needed to play around with my desktop for a few years and enjoyed setting up gnome-shell at first, but it’s starting to drive me a bit insane!
You are absolutely entitled to your opinion on this matter. I suspect that the 1 hour delay setting is sufficient for most use cases. And adding an extension isn’t really rocket science (and will be getting easier soon!).
In the case of this particular extension, I think I’ll be emailing the developer regarding placement of the switch. Putting it in the power indicator is great for laptop users… but poor potatomash is working on a desktop… BUT, I have a little hack that’ll fix that up for him…
Go to the presentation mode extension folder (probably in ./local/share/extensions/presentationmode@ampad.de) and open extension.js in your text editor or bluefish (if you have it installed). Find the line “let batteryMenu = Main.panel._statusArea.battery” and change “statusArea.battery” to “statusArea.volume” – save and then restart gnome shell. The presentation mode switch will now be in your volume control. LOL. (I LOVE shell extensions… they are SO EASY to modify to your liking.)
EDIT: Even BETTER… rather than “statusArea.volume” change it to “statusArea.userMenu” to put it in your User Menu.
unbelievable! i didn’t even think to look through the js, THANKS, HotShotDJ. i’ll probably end up breaking all my other extensions now trying to customise them lol. i really hope i get on with suse, i used 10.2 as my main OS and really liked it back then.
LOL! I’ve been doing the same thing. “If it ain’t broke, you’re not trying hard enough!” Please check out this thread: Gnome-Shell Extensions, Themes & Tweaks where we are all learning how to trick out our Gnome Shells together.
I’ve found it useful to create a test user (which I’ve creatively named “Test User”) where I break things with impunity without screwing up my regular user account.
Hi
Moving forward gnome screensaver is deprecated. Anyway I do have packaged up the gnome-shell-extension-presentation-mode as it one I use. Check in my 3.2 repo.
I just felt it was worth mentioning, before anyone else becomes as annoyed as I previously have, that the extension does NOT disable it permanently. As in, when you reboot, you need to re-enable the extension, which leads to learning to remember to re-enable it each time you reboot. If I have to learn to do 500 things each time I boot what is the computer for.
Attention: It is unanimous that you should not just play around in gconf/dconf, so tread lightly and at your own risk.
Just for informative purposes, I was toying around in dconf-editor and after figuring it out I googled the command at hand:
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.screensaver idle-activation-enabled false
Which indeed will permanently disable the screensaver, even across reboots, so I can stop whining, but I will have to remember this in case I ever see a need to enable it. It also renders presentation mode useless.
Well, it really isn’t a bug. Presentation mode is for the purpose of temporarily disabling turning off the screen while the computer is being used to give presentations/watch a movie/whatever. It’s not designed to be persistent across boots.
l300lvl provides a method of permanently disabling it. And I DO think that a “Never” option should be included in the “Turn off after:” menu. But how many people sit in front of their computers providing no keyboard or mouse input for over an hour on a regular basis? Is this really common behavior?
You provide some very good points, but I have to respond with, to rephrase; How many people use their computers as media centers, htpc’s, etc on a regular basis? Is that unheard of?
While it would be more common to change a song every so often or mix up the playlist, when it comes to my movies I aint prone to move 'til it’s over.
But as you put so eloquently, a Never option should indeed be included. More integration is also required, and hopefully the GS UI will indeed mature to exponential lengths instead of stagnating.
Hi
No need, the screensaver is deprecated and will disappear soon, the replacement will be clutter based, which I’m sure will have the required features back.
I suspect that the 1 hour delay setting is sufficient for most use cases. And adding an extension isn’t really rocket science (and will be getting easier soon!).