Hello, I'm fairly new to Linux Mint 16. I used older versions of Linux before and never had such difficulties. For instance, why is it so difficult to get a screensaver other than a blank screen? Other versions of Linux seem to do this so seamlessly. I've downloaded 3 screensavers at one time or another, and none worked. I removed them all,after such problems. I've seen the web help section where you have to use terminal and type in a few cryptic commands to get a screensaver to work. Still didn't work. After installing them, I couldn't even find them anywhere I looked. Oh how I wish XP was still supported. I can give more details and/or follow instructions if anyone cares to help. Thanks in advance.

I seriously doubt that you would need to type in 'cryptic' commands to change the screen saver on Mint. You might be using outdated information. You also might post some info on where you got downloaded the screensavers from as well as some detail on exactly what you tried and how it failed.

i have currently mint maya cinnamon lts running in a virtual box.
it seems that gnome-screensaver is installed as a simple locker/user switcher only. no eye-candy, just screen blanking.
i found "xscreensaver-data" from synaptics. this package says it's used by gnome-screensaver and xscreensaver both, but simply installing it is not enough, even after logging out/in there's no extra settings in the menus anywhere.

maybe those cryptic commands would help with that? what were they exactly and where did you get them?

this is supposing that you are also running mint with the cinnamon desktop.

that said, there's still plenty of other good distros out there that will supply you with a nice eyecandy screensaver.

I can't remember the cryptic commands at his momemnt, but I'll look them up after going to a picnic here in East Dallas with church members. However, the commands did someting along the idea of putting the screensavers in the "run at startup", which seems correct. More later

Wallpapers for Mint-16-xfce are in /usr/share/xfce4/backdrops/. Save your JPGs and PNGs there.
Settings => Screensaver => Advanced and choose "Choose Random Images" and point to the above path.
This is what I would do if I used screensavers.

Otherwise, go to /usr/share/xscreensaver and you're on your own, as I have not bothered.

Hope it helps.

I just downloaded xsvreensaver through software manager un Linux mint. I went to the directory one of you mentioned, and hooray, it was there. However, it doesn't tell me what to do to get it to work. In windows, things were a lot better, at least more logical. Why have a screensaver that doesn't seem to work, has no instructions, or help of any kind. I am quickly thinking of giving up on Linux, because of this, and VLC won't play a dvd, while my Windows 7 system plays it fine. And you wouldn't believe the hell getting a web cam to work. (In windows, plug it in, and it just worked. I can't believe all the hoopla over Linux. Maybe, if I get the screensaver going, I'll feel better. I am so lost.

Back when I used Ubuntu, every time it went through an upgrade, it would remove xscreensaver and replace it with gnome-screensaver. One of my first actions would be to uninstall gnome-screensaver, because it's lame (so is KDE's screensaver), and install xscreensaver.

To start the xscreensaver configuration dialog, run "xscreensaver-demo" from the command line. If the xscreensaver daemon ("service") is not running, it will give you a dialog for starting it.

To start the xscreensaver daemon on login, set /usr/bin/xscreensaver as a "Startup Application" in the configuration for your desktop environment. With the Mint desktops, it's commonly under something like "System-->Preferences," but the location of that item can vary from DE to DE.

Here's the xscreensaver FAQ.

As for wallpaper, when you want to change it, you can point the wallpaper chooser to a location in your home directory; you don't have to put the pictures in a special place. I like my pretty pictures and, over the years, have accumulated over a thousand pictures from various sites that offer wallpaper pictures (I lean towards pictures of scenery and nature). I keep them in ~/wallpapers.

Don't give up on linux. You are comparing it to windows and that is the first mistake most people, myself included make / made when first started. It is different. It is not free windows. Once you open up to that you will find that yes some things are easy on windows, and linux is not complicated or hard either. Windows has it's advantages but I assure you Linux does as well. If I may suggest try Mint 16 KDE instead of Cinnamon. Beautiful screensavers out of the box and tons more eyecandy and customization. Personally I don't see the draw of cinnamon but to each their own.

As far as your webcam that is the exception rather than the rule in my experience. Hardware gives me more trouble on windows than it ever did on linux.

...and again my rational advice drowns in the static...

hanyo007, i think you should make up your mind if you want to rant or if you want to solve a (one at a time) problem.

First off, to Ondoho, why is it against your personal rules that a person can't be frustrated by something that appears to make little sense? I believe it says as much about you as me. Granted I am not a "hacker" who understands all the nuances of Linux, or Windows , for that matter. To Tadaen, thanks, I'm considering it, although I don't usually give up on problems so quickly.(I really like the comment "Linux is not free Windows") I'm just wondering things that seem odd about Linux. As I was looking around for the screensavers, I found one folder (or whatever they call them in Linux) that had about a thousand files(or whatever they call them in Linux) in it. You know how long it takes to just scroll through a thousand folders or files? To those who are helping, thanks, sorry that my personal feelings enter in to the picture. It's just so funny that for years I've been hearing how great Linux is, only to see that there is another giant "learning curve" ahead of me. By the way, I'm not giving up on Linux on the computer in question, just too stubborn to give up, and I was sort of under the impression this wouldn't be so bad. If my personal opinions are against decorum, I'll leave this place as it is not my job to anger others. It is apparent that I have bit off more that expected.

I think hanyo007 will be happier using windows so I would personally suggest him or her to stick with windows.
Windows is not superior to Linux and never will, but the OEM made that computer to run windows and PAID REAL MONEY to Microsoft to make sure all software is include for its full function.

The Linux Kernel people are not paying to anyone to include their code in the Kernel so if your computer has a piece of hardware that requires a proprietary driver like a broadcom wireless card, or a bumblebee nvidia video card you have to dig down to find it.

It is not hard to find additional software for your computer specially in Linux Mint or in Ubuntu. But if that makes you cranky then you should try to use something else.

typing this two lines of code in the terminal will allow you to play your DVDs using VLC

If Windows were all that great then I wouldn’t have any problem installing W8 in a ten years old computer pentium 4. But you know what Puppy Linux is running great in it, and yeah it plays DVDs.

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Thanks for your help. I typed the commmands your indicated, the process took a while to complete, yet VLC gets an error which is listed here:Playback failure:
DVDRead could not open the disc "/dev/dvd".
Your input can't be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL 'dvd:///dev/dvd'. Check the log for details.
Playback failure:
DVDRead could not open the disc "/dev/dvd".
Your input can't be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL 'dvd:///dev/dvd'. Check the log for details.
Wher is the log, and would it help me if I found it?

Agains, thanks. I am obviously frustrated, but stubborn. One of the things I dislike is typing cryptic commands in terminal to fix a problem. I thought that kind of thing went away 13-15 years ago. However, if this kind of stuff works, I'll keep trying. If I install a package that doesn't work, shouldn't I remove it then, as well as reversing any other changes that might be lurking?

I did a little google search on your problem with VLC because I also watch lots of movies on my computer and I see other people having problems playing VLC 2.1.2.

You can also try the same DVD under a different player and see if VLC is broken or is actually a missing driver in Linux Mint.

See there if you also have GNOME MPlayer or some other video player in your computer beside VLC and play the DVD with it.

nobody suggested anything like that and just for the record, i wasn't at all angry or upset when i wrote that last bit.
but i like to help people with computer related problems and i just wanted to make clear wether that is even wanted.

Hey, I'm sorry that I got upset a few weeks ago. The reason I've been gone so long is we've had a problem in that the Linux computer locks up on my wife. I tried to fix it with older version of Linux Mandrake, Puppy Linux(bad looking), XFLD or something like that, and then back to Mint. I've let up on the screensaver problem for now. The more serious one is my CD player works fine, but the DVD player is apparently not recognized. There is a note with the new installation of Mint that says DVD has problem, and gives a very minor thing to do, but it didn't work. Again I'm sorry that I got unhappy with Donoho. Anyone with a fairly easy thing to do to get the DVD working would be appreciated.