Ncurses screensaver for BSD?

llista · 03-05-2007, 04:38 AM

Anyone knows of a ncurses based screensaver for FreeBSD?

It is probably not a needed feature but I think it would look cool, I have seen it in Knoppix live CD, like a flame moving inside the bash terminal.

frob23 · 03-05-2007, 06:30 AM

If you're in text mode (console or virtual consoles) you can get this feature through several included kernel modules. In a terminal under X, I don't see much utility in it but I am sure someone has done it. If you can figure out what knoppix uses it is likely very easy (assuming it is really ncurses based) to bring it over to FreeBSD.

llista · 03-05-2007, 06:49 AM

I am only interested because I do not usually go into X mode, and sometimes I leave the monitor on in text mode for quite a while.

I am not a programmer and have not much experience with open source, can you specify what are the names of the Kernel modules I need? I can't find anything like that in my distro, FreeBSD6.1 stable.

Quote:

Originally Posted by frob23

If you're in text mode (console or virtual consoles) you can get this feature through several included kernel modules.

reddazz · 03-05-2007, 07:46 AM

If you don't get into X often, you can use one of the built in text mode screensavers. You can add the code below to your /etc/rc.conf and a screensaver of beastie will be started after some time of inactivity in the CLI

Code:

saver="daemon"

There are other screensavers you can use in textmode e.g. blank, snake etc, so do a search in the FreeBSD docs.

llista · 03-08-2007, 03:20 AM

I have now managed to make it work, thanks reddazz

llista · 03-22-2007, 08:48 AM

On second thoughts I have now searched the handbook for clues about this screensaver and I have not been able to find anything. I used the search function in a pdf document "screensaver", "snake", nothing.

I would like to know what other screensavers are available in text mode besides the already mentioned "blank", "snake" and "daemon", if anyone can tell me, or indicate where I can find out about this, much appreciated.