[SOLVED] Xscreensaver patch to turn off update nag screen.

Arcosanti · 06-19-2015, 11:54 PM

The search function on the forums is not working at the moment. I googled around and seen hints that there might be a patch to turn off xscreensaver's update nag screen. If there is a patch, where can I find it?

ButterflyMelissa · 06-20-2015, 04:30 AM

xscreensaver has a nag screen? this is new to me, it never nagged me...
Is your update mechanism set up right? Normally the update should involve xscreensaver as well...
But...I'm in a "diffuse mode" now, it's saturday mornin' 'ere...

Arcosanti · 06-20-2015, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thor_2.0

xscreensaver has a nag screen? this is new to me, it never nagged me...
Is your update mechanism set up right? Normally the update should involve xscreensaver as well...
But...I'm in a "diffuse mode" now, it's saturday mornin' 'ere...

The older xscreensaver versions don't. I'm not sure when Jamie Zawinski put it in. It seems like I started seeing posts about it a year ago though. Anyway my understanding is that this nag screen will start to pop up when xscreensaver is 12 months old. It will pop up at login. Since I am on Slackware, there is no updater. The user has to do that. I just hate the idea of being nagged to update. I'll update it when I decide to get around it. Nagging me only serves to tick me off. The version I have that is nagging me is 5.22.

Well the search function is working again. I found this post that suggested I should look on Slackware's web site for the patch:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ml#post5281601

Sure enough there is one along with the most recent release of xscreensaver.

http://mirrors.slackware.com/slackwa.../xscreensaver/

ButterflyMelissa · 06-20-2015, 11:56 AM

hmm, Manjaro lies more or less in the same direction in that it does "suggest" updates yet...you're the one actually permitting the update...
But, far be it from me to nudge you to a different distro

Hey...Slack has no updater? Interesting...neither does FreeBSD...
Eh...all's well that ends well, as the ol' bard said...

Arcosanti · 06-20-2015, 12:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thor_2.0

hmm, Manjaro lies more or less in the same direction in that it does "suggest" updates yet...you're the one actually permitting the update...
But, far be it from me to nudge you to a different distro

Hey...Slack has no updater? Interesting...neither does FreeBSD...
Eh...all's well that ends well, as the ol' bard said...

My only experience with a distro that had an updater was Linux Mint. I do remember it causing problems from time to time. The user usually wouldn't have any idea of what was updated and so wouldn't know what the culprit was. With manual updates, if something does go sideways on you, you'll know what the culprit was and what needs to be done to fix it.

ButterflyMelissa · 06-20-2015, 12:20 PM

Quote:

My only experience with a distro that had an updater was Linux Mint. I do remember it causing problems from time to time. The user usually wouldn't have any idea of what was updated and so wouldn't know what the culprit was. With manual updates, if something does go sideways on you, you'll know what the culprit was and what needs to be done to fix it.

Interesting, that is why I always update via the console...
But...I think we're on more or less the same wavelength here

...
Happy to find you got it solved...
Thor

jmccue · 06-21-2015, 07:31 AM

It easy enough to disable if when you start xscreensaver using argument

Code:

-no-splash

.
Because I always uses that argument, I never noticed the 'nag' screen.

If I remember correctly, the nag in question is a line of text added to the splash screen on startup. In anycase, this LQ thread has a patch which you found

Also xscreensaver was updated in Slackware last Aug 1:

Code:

patches/packages/xscreensaver-5.29-x86_64-1_slack14.1.txz:  Upgraded.
  Disabled nag screen that says "This version of XScreenSaver is very old!
  Please upgrade!" when the age of the software exceeds 12 months.

John